National XC Relay Champs, 2010

This is my third write up of the National XC Relay Champs since starting my blog in 2008. This year, my team was the same as 2009 - myself, Megan and Susan. After 24 hours of non-stop rain before the race, I thought it was going to turn into a bit of a misery fest! However, the sun came out, and although cold and 'slushy' underfoot, it made for perfect XC conditions. I was on first leg, so got to start in the stampede. As usual we headed up the hill and started the ups and downs of this course. It never gets any easier! BC's tactical cheering along the course was very welcome! I felt I kept up fairly well up the pack for the first part of the race, and although the leaders stretched out more, I was pleased to bring the first leg in in 26th place, and I was especially pleased to have run 17:04, taking just under 2 mins off last year's time. Megan took over and ran really well, she managed to take another 2 girls and moved us up to 24th. The anchor leg was taken over by Susan. I'd got up enough energy to run around the course and cheer her on at this point and was pleased to see her taking over even more girls! We finished in 22nd place, in a time of 53:21. That smashed our time of 56:51 from last year!

We could then relax and watch the guys run their race! And what a race it was! Silver medal for the Vets, 5th place for the CAAC A team! And so many great performances by everyone, not to mention all the juniors at the start of the afternoon. This tough course is always so much fun with the CAAC team spirit throughout the day! Will next year manage to be a rain free day too...we shall have to wait and see!

East District XC Relay Champs, Prestonpans

The first XC of the season kicked off at the weekend with the East District XC Relay Champs in Prestonpans last Saturday. We had a record number of CAACers taking part this year with loads of juniors, 2 womens teams and 8 mens teams. I was in a team with Gillian and Megan.

Gillian headed off with the stampede (sporting her new "go-faster" socks) to bring us in well up the field. I was on second - I started off fast in the excitement, and then realised I probably wouldn't be able to maintain the 5:45 min/mile average my Garmin was displaying, so I slowed it down after the first couple hundered metres!?! This was my first run of this course, and although not the most inspiring of routes, I quite liked it for it's flat, ankle friendly nature. I treaded carefully in the ploughed field out towards the far end of the course as to keep both ankles intact, but felt I could push out along the other sections. I managed to overtake a couple of girls, though one Gala girl got past me too. I handed over to Megan for the final leg. She ran a strong race and we finished in 13th position out of 31 teams, so we were pleased with that! Not quite the bronze medal of the senior men or the Vets gold, but we'll work on it for next year ;-).

13th Corstorphine AAC "A"
Gillian Carr 13 15:57 15:57
Jo Kirby 11 31:58 16:01
Megan Smith 13 49:13 17:15

Really enjoy the CAAC team spirit for these types of events, and I'm looking forward to the Nationals in Cumbernauld in a fortnight's time!