Sunday 26 October 2008

National XC Relays Champs (and Tinto)

Well, the theme for this weekend was mud, rain, cold, mud and wind! Oh and did I mention mud?? Saturday was the Scottish Cross Country Champs in Cumbernauld. 3x4000m (4 legs for the men) around a country park. Conditions were 'difficult' to say the least. There had been heavy rain overnight and throughout the morning. Along with that were very strong winds! The nature of the race also meant that the later runners were going over well trodden, churned up paths. I was in a team with fellow club members Gillian and Megan. I was on the third and final leg. Having sprained my ankle the week previous, this was my first run in over a week. With a heavily strapped up ankle I ran carefully around the course with no problems. This was also my first XC race in almost 4 years, and despite the tough conditions I really enjoyed it!! Cross countries will feature highly in my weekend running over the next few months, so I think the washing machine will be working overtime! All good marathon preparation i'm sure?!?
No long run today. Instead, I went back out into the elements and climbed Tinto...a hill in the Scottish Borders. As we drove south, we thought it would be a repeat of yesterday with the rain pounding down, but fortunately the skies cleared for a few hours, and we had good views all around! Back to long runs next Sunday!

1 comment:

Julia said...

Glad you made it around the course with you ankle in one piece! I'll also be doing lots of XC races as part of my marathon training, I hope it will help! x