Stopsley XCL - Sun 24/10/10

Back into the fray – my first race in over 3 months

I think a 3-month break from racing was about right. I’m still not back to my early 2010 form, but I am feeling much stronger and lighter on my feet. So I came into this race with all my normal XC-phobias (and feeling a bit race-rusty), but confident I could put down a reasonable base-line performance for the remainder of 2010. Conditions were pretty good; sunny and cold, breezy in places and fairly firm underfoot, albeit nowhere near as dry as last year.


Just after the start




I set off very conservatively over the first 2 miles and didn’t really start to lift the effort until just before 4 miles. With this and lower fitness than the same time last year, it was not surprising that my overall time was about 60s slower than 2009. However, my final 2k was 22s faster this year! This late spurt enabled me to pass at least 6-7 runners in the final 2k and it's always nice to finish feeling strong.

I’m not sure where I came in the V40-49 rankings, but hopefully in the top-3. I will update this post when results are available. My overall race position out of over 400 runners was 23rd (5th male NHRR scorer) – pretty respectable given I’m still re-gaining fitness after my late Summer burn-out. The key thing that has changed is that I am really starting to enjoy my running again and looking forward to training and races. I’ve learned a big lesson with regard to overdoing it this year. With careful management and more DIY TLC, I hope to avoid any further major slumps.

On the team-front, NHRR men continued their excellent 2009/2010 XCL form by coming 1st on the day. The women were 6th, but we still managed an overall 2nd placing. A good start, especially given we had several faster runners absent.