Yesterday's cross-country seemed like the short, sharp shock prescribed by Thatcher for deterring offenders from - well in this case - probably dodging Bert's endless intervals on the Prom of a dark winter Wednesday night.
I set off unfeasibly hard and then had all kinds of abdominal aches and pains as I stumbled blinded with pain through the everlasting, undulating course. It was actually a really nice course but I wished every inch of it to hell so I could finish and be done. Next time I'm going to take the word "sustainable" out with me in my head - because I did start to recover towards the end and in a charge for the line managed to just get ahead of Pamela Cruikshanks who had been ahead of me the whole way. I think there must have been some residual skyline in my legs as I see even from my finishing sprint my feet were barely clearing the grass - but all in all it didn't feel like a lack of strength - it was the intensity I struggled with. Enough said. That's the joy of cross- country.
Strangely, it hurt so badly that I was kind of blissed out afterwards as I jogged around the course taking photos of the men. There was quite a lot of interesting changes of positions from the Porty men. Richard and Michael F. both seemed to run very canny races making up a lot of headway towards the end. It was great to see Willie back out there and although not back to full form still scaring Peter. James Harrison made a showing and was nearer the front than the other Porties.
Murray Strain once again spoiled it for everyone else - or at least I assume he did as I watched him in the 2nd half of his 3rd lap just zoom off and leave everyone else standing. Tony still had to set out for his 3rd time round the beautiful/accursed course as the Man in Brown sped by.
There was a good turn out of Porty men but only 3 (high quality) females. Jenni had already done the Park Run that morning so she came in 3rd - if she was fresh that would have been by no means a foregone conclusion. I tracked Emily as long as I could but I had to "let her go" as I was entertaining dropping out before the 1st lap was properly over. 2 things happened which stopped me. A Dundee runner stopped and started walking and an HBT lady went over on her ankle and had to hobble over to the nearby red-cross people. That gave me the courage to keep going. I'm not sure how this works but it does.
Some dates are up on the Dunbar RC website for the upcoming Borders XC series which I somehow hope I can pull my socks up for...
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