Berwick XC - (Everyday is like Sunday).

Lynn Morrice bakes exceedingly good cakes....

It was a dull, grey January day and Berwick upon Tweed was looking a bit like the "sea-side town that they forgot to bomb" as 4 of us arrived in the Berlingo for leg 2 of the Borders XC series.

Peter, Michael, Andrew and I arrived together, and shortly after saw that Lynn Morrice and Kevin Clark had also turned up.

Peter and Michael had done the Devil's Burden yesterday so the journey down was filled with the re-living and re-telling of that particular adventure. So much so that I offered to write Peter's report for him - I reckon I could give a blow by blow account - but my suggestion was ignored with the dignity and distain you would expect from someone who had run 1 hour and 1 minute for the 3rd leg of the Devil's Burden...

Andrew and I were bleeding slightly at the ears by the time we arrived but did what we could to warm up and get into shape...

What I was thinking about mainly was my heel, heel, heel which is dictating quite a lot of what I can and cannot do at the moment. It was strangely soothed by my trip up into the hills the other day though and seems to have benefited from some more rigorous stretching that would have been out of the question about a week ago - so I'm very, very tentatively starting to think its improving. I could feel it warming up today. It feels not unlike someone has thoughtless stapled the very end of my heel so that my stride's a bit shorter on my right leg than it should be - but by the end of the race I couldn't feel it at all - for the first time this year certainly...

It was blowy out and it was with great reluctance that I took off the duvet jacket and big fleece I'd been warming up in and went for a quick run around before the start.

The race - I started further forward in the field than I meant to and felt I was almost carried through the first bit through the dunes and down onto the beach. Then there were choices to make about where to run - whether to go further in search of firmer sands or stick to sinky sands in the short-term knowing they'd resolve into better running before long. Whenever I was presented with a choice I favoured the straightest line possible, not feeling very boisterous or like running further than I had to.

It was exactly a mile on the Garmin to the steps at the far end of the beach where we headed up onto the cliff-tops. Andrew Stavert had sneaked ahead of me in the latter stages of the beach - a bold move - but I figured I might be able to catch him on the hill. Kevin Clark had likewise got ahead on the beach but was more convincingly ahead and although I wasn't that far behind him for a long time he was definitely pulling away.

I passed Andrew towards the top of the hill and could tell from his breathing he wasn't finding this an easy process so decided to press ahead as much as I could and see if I could open up a bit of a gap.
All the time I was really dreading the last nasty mile on the beach into the wind so I could never get too happy about the way things were going. A Carnethy lady and a younger woman passed me on the cliffs on the return journey and that focused my mind and gave me something to work off so I stayed as in touch as I could. They were clearly feeling stronger at that point but I'd just put in a stupid burst of speed when I'd seen Lynn coming back towards me, just out of excitement or something... So I hung in there.

The beach on the way back wasn't quite as awful as I'd pictured it. The wind was more of a side wind than a full headwind. Carnethy lady headed quite far down the beach in search of a better running surface so I decided to gamble and stay where I was. I think this decision paid off. I slowly seemed to be reeling her back in and finally passed her just as we got back up onto the really sinky sand before the sand dunes and the finish. The running on this deep sand was reminiscent of the frozen mud at Paxton where it seemed you could make better progress trying to jump from one good surface to the next rather than try and keep a running rhythm and run where the sand was all churned up. It was a profound relief to get back onto a surface that held in the last 20 yards or so and I was able to pick off one more runner.

So after leg 2 of the series I guess I'm 1st Lady Vet over 40 but in an ugly twist of fate there isn't a good turn out of ladies in that category and I'm in imminent danger of my category being collapsed into the LV35-39 category. Not good I can tell you! The LV35-39s are turning out very good performances and if I was to fall into that category they would chew me up and spit me out...

If you're an LV40-44 and you ran at Paxton or today's race, do me and yourselves a favour and get along to the next two. You know you want to...

Berwick xc

4th in the Borders XC series. This morning we drove down to Berwick for some beach and cliff-top running. It was sunny but cold as hell and down on the coast there was a good stiff breeze.

I was delighted to be racing again. I'd forgotten what an adrenaline rush the whole process is. As we made good time down the A1 in the sunshine I could feel the hair standing up on my scalp with excitement. It must be about 6 weeks or so since we raced so it was all new again.

A little loud discussion in the car on the way into Berwick and we found the race despite the maps we'd brought along.

Conditions haven't been good for doing any kind of speed training so I knew I'd be rusty and had already accepted the fact, so my plan was to not kill myself on the way out and then if I had anything left kill myself on the way back! Rachel was already ahead of me coming out of the dunes and I never made up the distance. I could see her most of the way. I thought I might make up a bit of ground on the hillier bits - but I didn't. So well done Rachel.

The running on the beach was novel in that it incorporated some interesting sandstone running. The surface of the sandstone was actually perfect and had very good traction but it was difficult to trust it. The beach was relatively firm so not the worst sand-running ever but not easy...some steps and then up a short hill and onto the cliff-tops. The ground was frozen but not particularly slippy - so again reaonable running. Probably the worst thing was that it was very pitted in places and the pits were frozen solid so it could be a real ankle twister if you were unlucky.

The way back was into the stiff wind. I tried to find someone to hide behind but I rarely have much luck at this and instead picked up a little trail of people in my wake! In a way its a compliment. I like to think its because of my leadership qualities.

The last bit through the sinky sand and the sand-dunes was the hardest.

So we managed to get a race in in January, but only just. Peter and I have done 4 of the Borders xc series so will get a final position now. We have to miss next week's xc at Galashiels as we're off to the Forfar multi-terrain race.

Tomorrow is long run day and we have a plan to do the Pentlands low level route twice. The weather forecast says sleet starting at noon so we'll have to get up and at it relatively early.

Good to see a good turn-out of Porties. James Harrison was 8th and knows he can do better. He was less out of breath on the way back than I was. I shouted him on not expecting him to speak and he gave me a very relaxed "Well done Mary". Johnny is in good form and went past Peter.
Good also to see Stuart Hay is on the road back from his injury and racing again.
Nice to see everyone but we had to get moving PDQ after the race so we didn't freeze solid.

Time for some stretching.