This was my 4th weekend of racing on the trot and it's fair to say I've been loving every minute of it (except the Saturday school catch up...)! This week luckily it was exeat, aka we don't have Saturday school... yay. Unfortunately my teachers think exeat is like a short holiday, so they will be sure to set me a mountain of work (they would call it holiday work) to do, and unsurprisingly this exeat this was no different. I would go on about my usual carbonara pasta, but you probably know my routine all to well by now. Anyway this Friday was no different. This weekend it was South of England XC champs at Parliament Hill, and this would be one of my biggest races so far! I had heard lots about Parliament Hill being hilly but, but wow was I not expecting what I faced on my 5km course. While walking the course it felt as if we were only going up hill, no exaggeration! As I was standing on the crowded start line, looking up at the long hill in front of me, I thought 'can it really be that bad...' and before I knew it, the one minute warning was over and the gun went. As expected people flew past me up the hill, but I knew I couldn't go off too quickly otherwise I would pay for it dearly at the end of the course. After accomplishing the first uphill we were quickly sent back downhill, which was a very muddy descent and as I tried running down it normally, but I still managed to skid and jar my knee a bit, but it was all okay it didn't hurt after 10 seconds. The course went on, with a similar style up and down, up and down however the uphills seemed significantly bigger than the down hills but perhaps that was just my tired legs. At least the benefit of walking the course was, you knew what point you were at the top of the hill and you could start to just give it your everything and push on until the end. When the last little mound came, I pushed off the top and tried to just stretch out my stride and run as quickly as I could into the finish, and I was quite happy to overtake 3 people in the last 200m, as a desperate last attempt to get as high up in the rankings as possible. I crossed the line in 59th and at first I couldn't work out whether to be happy or sad by this result, as most of the people around me I had never raced against. After finishing, I was quick to make my way back to the tent and get some layers back on, but fortunately it wasn't that cold anyway but I was already starting to chill off. I picked up a handful of sweets to put some sugar back into me and restore my energy levels before heading off on a cool down. I plodded along on my cool down, realising that my legs really didn't have much left in them and that the hills really had taken it out of me (even today as I am writing this, I am tired just walking to the kitchen). On our cool down, we passed the hoodie and top stall... my favourite! As our race was near the end of the day I was lucky to pick up a couple of bargains and I came out with a new purple hoodie (not my usual colour but I felt like something different, because normally I'm all about the blue and don't want anything to do with the colour pink or purple) and a navy blue long sleeved top, as seen in the photo below. Overall I really enjoyed the day, but looking back I am a bit disappointed with my run, but I guess it is all a learning experience and I just need to get back to training and work towards next weekends race... inter-counties. I hope everyone who raced this weekend, whether it was southerns, midlands or northerns that they all went well. I am sure I will have a busy week of work again this week and training too.
G x
4 Comments
Maggie
1/29/2017 03:58:17 pm
Don't be too disappointed with your result, especially when your legs still hurt the next day. I think that means that you pushed yourself to the limit :)
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
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
February 2019
Categories
All
Latest Instagram's: |