So last weekend was Nationals, yes I'm sure lots of you already know this probably because you either raced it or were bombarded with photos on Instagram from it. On the run up to Nationals, I had been very busy and had an intense week at school, as I had got back from Boston on the Tuesday and had been given piles of homework following this, oh and not to mention the fact I was still injured, wasn't helping the stress levels! I was eventually given the all clear to run on the Thursday before Nationals so I was quick to get down to my club for an easy run in preparation for nationals. It got to Friday and I was feeling pretty stiff following only an easy run the day before, but I knew I was better off running on the Thursday and perhaps being stiff on the Saturday, than going into Saturday not have run for 2.5 weeks. Straight after school on Friday, I quickly made my way down to the coach meeting point, to be picked up by the coach up to Nottingham. The coach journey was about 4 hours, so my usual dinner was altered slightly... well it was just cold and in a tubberware pot, and it was followed by some little snacks. We arrived at about 8:30pm at the hotel and I went pretty much straight to my room to sort all my kit out for the next day and soon enough I found myself in bed, trying to get to sleep. I can't say I had the best night sleep, the bed was hard and I just felt quite uneasy so when I woke up, I felt like I had pulled an all nighter partying. Anyway off I went to breakfast with my little microwaveable pot of porridge and I politely asked the waiter to microwave it. However I had clearly not seen the big pot of porridge on offer, from the buffet breakfast and was bluntly told by the man working there, that the hotels porridge was better and there is no point him going off to microwave mine. I quickly demolished my bowl of porridge with the toppings of nuts, seeds, banana, granola and some honey - it was very tasty to be fair to the waiter. Soon enough we were on the coach on the way to the park, for everyone's race but mine was the first one, which was 11:00am. I jumped off the bus and the group of us quickly went to walk the course, which was a small lap then a medium lap. When we walked the course we soon realised that there were some obstacles we had to get through... aka a river/swamp which was knee high in places and it did not smell very nice at all! However I was thankful for the fact that the course as a whole was not very hilly. After my warm up, with stretches and drills, we were all hurried along through a tent and out into our pens on the start line. I knew Nationals was a big race but looking down the start line, it seemed that there were endless amounts of people, which turned out to be just short of 300. The start was very quick as everyone started charging down the first straight. It was very busy and I was running about 6 people a breast. But trying to get around the corners was tricky and I found myself either get caught in in the middle and getting cut up, or going around the wide way of a corner... not ideal. The first small lap went relatively quickly but my legs felt pretty unresponsive and I just couldn't seem to get my teeth into the race. I was struggling to pick out people I knew, who were my sort of pace to hang onto, but I ended up just sort of running with the people around me and not pushing on forwards. This theme didn't really change and as I got to halfway around my second lap and this is when I have started to push the pace normally nothing really happened. At this point I was absolutely covered in mud, pretty much from head to toe. My feet weighed double as they did to the start and as I was charging through the last swamp, I made the mistake of slowing down slightly and that was just the worst thing to do as I found myself just sinking into the mud even more and was reduced to almost a walk. I eventually crossed the finish line in 140th, covering the 5km course in about 22:55... and I have one word to describe that and that is a 'disaster.' It might sound weird for me now to turn around and say that I had great fun, for the day as the whole, but I certainly wasn't happy with my run. This was my first Nationals and also the end to my first cross country season, and it is fair to say I have had great fun. This weekend, I will be looking back and reflecting over the end of the season. After the race I was very very muddy, but I still had the whole day of supporting everyone else at the club, so I hurried up to like a farmyard area, where I found a hose. Yes a hose, and yes it was absolutely freezing but I did manage to wash most of the mud off my legs and then I quickly ran into the toilets and put my legs under a hand dryer to warm them up. For the rest of the day my friends and I cheered on all the other age groups and at the end of the day we got to watch the senior men, which was pretty incredible. There were just under 2000 men running and when they all started charging past us, it was really cool, and also unbelievable how quickly they were going, especially because their course was 12km. We got to cheer on our coach too, which was great fun chasing him around the course to make sure he heard us on each lap. Amazingly the TAC senior men won the team race, which was the first time this had happened, which is so good and the whole club was so so happy when we found out! On the Saturday evening we had the end of season dinner, which I had been excited for, for ages as it was a chance to swap the wet, muddy spikes for heels, which is always nice every now and again. We had a sit down meal and there were awards and speeches, which were really great to hear, especially as I am a newbie to the club and I got to know some of the other people at the club better too. Overall I had a great weekend, and won't be forgetting it for a long time. Sorry this post is a bit late, but because I was so busy all weekend, I didn't have the chance to write this post as I had to spend most of my Sunday either travelling back from Nottingham or catching up with missed work from Saturday school and homework.
I hope you all have a good week! G x
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HelloI'm Grace, a 18 year old runner, and fitness fanatic. Join me on my crazy journey through life, squeezing in an adventure in every second of spare time I have. Archives
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