These photos are sadly all out of order. Here we go,
Up first we have the Higher Power show at Brudenell Social Club. I wrote about this in my zine.
This next show was the Cannonball record release show. I went to three shows in three weekends!
Kathryn has been poorly.
I also squeezed in a quick trip to London to see Simon and go to the Cold World show with High Vis.
It was my fourth attempt at this race now, so I knew what was coming. The official map has a very generous interpretation of ‘level running’. It looks about equal thirds between flat/up/down, but I’d say it’s almost a 50/50 split between uphill and downhills and very small amount of running on the flat. Conditions were pretty good, a little bit of a cold breeze but sheltered in Ilkley, with a bit more of a strong westerly on the moor. It was a bit overcast and dry, only really the second half of the course was boggy and wet underfoot.
I was pretty careful at the start to just run fast enough to avoid the bottleneck on the path up to the start of the ascent up the Cow & Calf. A group of about 20 seemed to fly off up the path, and then I tucked in with a couple of other runners 10 metres or so behind that pack. The first ascent is as you expect, tough. I felt like I wasn’t properly warmed up, but just kept putting one foot in front of the other. Thanks to Andrew for the words of support as we got over the hardest part and continued our climb up towards Burley moor.
The bit I dread the most about this race is the first decent. It’s terrifying, especially when trying to do quickly and with faster runners trying to get past. There seemed to be more stairs than usual towards the bottom. I was relieved to make it down in one piece.
The second ascent is pretty steep so it’s mainly walking pace for that. At the top I was feeling pretty fatigued in the legs with all the recent races I’ve done. Once I got the legs going, it was a short descent through the Rocky Valley. I had a little trip going down the valley in front of a photographer, but managed to steady myself and avoid falling. The third ascent is crazy and I’m sure I black this out due to hypoxia, as every year it catches me by surprise, ‘oh this bit…’ I suddenly remember.
When we got to the third summit, we picked up the pace along the top. I was feeling a bit better now so overtook the runner so I could run at my own pace. However, when we got going up the fourth ascent I found myself joined by a small group of runners who had caught me up. This was a kick up the backside I needed because I knew this meant I was dropping the pace a bit. When we got over the top (again) I tried to get back in front but did take a while to find a sensible place to overtake a runner.
We hurtled down the last big descent and I was able to pass another of the runners who had got a bit ahead of me. I was grateful with knowledge of the course to save a bit for the final fifth ascent which is a gentle couple hundred metres which is killer if you’re hoping the finish is around the corner.
We were then onto the final descent to the finish. I actually felt a bit bad but I kept the runner behind me as the path was too narrow for them to get past, but I’m generally not a fast descender. He did manage to pass me before we entered the finish area, and we had a competitive sprint towards the line which I hope was entertaining for the spectators. He beat me by a hare’s breath.
Overall I finished in 24th which is my best over finishing position at this race. A shoutout to Andrew Webster too who I saw at the finish who was providing medical support for the event. I hope he made it home without having to come to anyone’s rescue.
Welcome to the next chapter of ‘Stephen does cross country…’. Now we’re onto the next chapter, the road – or rather muddy path – to English National Championships. Much like the Lord of the Rings saga, at the end of my journey through West Yorkshire races, it turns out there was another epic journey waiting to begin.
Being a bit of a novice on the serious XC circuit, I recently learnt that the English National Championship race this year will be held in Sedgefield, and that’s within my distance I can be bothered to drive to an event. I also learnt about this Yorkshire Championship race just before Christmas. I had to grovel to the stewards to accept my entry as I had missed the cut-off. But once the New Year party period was over, the officials must have got back to their desks and I was informed I was allowed to enter.
The event this year was held at Light Water Valley. The most significant thing I have to say is just how weird it was being at a theme park out of season. I guess the park is in some state of disrepair anyway, and out of season it just looked like a wreck. Was there a log fume at one point? It seemed the actual race was taking place in a field within the remnants of a circular feature that looked like a moat. A quick google is telling me the park fell on hard times during the pandemic, is this true? Maybe that’s why they are offering the venue to host across country event in mid January, must be hard up. Either that or maybe a copyright infringement as using a purple dinosaur as your mascot feels eerily similar to a transatlantic children’s icon.
The other slightly bonkers thing to me was the use of a PA system to make announcements for each race. It seemed a little OTT. Anyhow, 2pm soon came around and we were summoned to the start area. I was appreciative to be running alongside vets, because the youths on the start line looked seriously fast, and sure enough after the starting pistol went bang, we were off hurtling towards the first corner.
This course was 5 laps, it was quite undulating and very lumpy underfoot. I think because we were running in ex-woodland, rather than the beautiful parks of West Yorkshire. The most notable feature was a roughly 10 metre ascent up a steep embankment. To be honest, it was a bit of a relief to breakup the otherwise full throttle nature of the rest of the circuit. And naturally, going up steep ascents seems to be a bit of a prerequisite for being a member of Otley AC at the moment. The other notable feature was the finish area, which we had the psychological torture of having to run past 4 times.
The course was 9.5k and actually didn’t take too long to get around. I was relieved to not get lapped again, and happy to finish in a respectable 47th. Onto the National Champs on the 21st Feb, best get some training done.
Here we go, the end of my XC adventures this year. The English Cross Country Association puts on an annual national championship, and this year it was in Sedgefield. This is a short 10-minute drive from where my in-laws live, so it felt this was opportunity to give it a go without the expense and hassle of travelling somewhere far afield. I love running, but not enough to travel far for an event.
The racecourse provided the parking, and a short walk took you to a large field adjacent to Sedgefield. I have done the parkrun here, which is a lovely trail run around the Hardwick Hall estate. Although this event was on the other side of the main road and must have been in the wider fields of what would have been the estate.
I got there in plenty of time and spectated for the Senior Women’s race where the running was seriously impressive. Part of me felt like I had time travelled back to the 1950s, the vista of grass fields, big oak trees, church spire on the horizon, and not a carbon plated neon road shoe in sight. In fact, to add to the ambience I overheard a coach shouting at a younger runner ‘you can run faster than all these old women’, so I might well have been.
Soon enough it was time for the senior men. I do love the (non-sexist) traditions, 3pm Saturday is the men’s start time. Reminding us of an era before Sky-TV ruining football. All +1000 of us senior men started in a long line and hurtled towards the first corner. I was a little towards the back and thankful the bottleneck kept me from going off too fast.
And as for the race itself, my immediate reflection is that it was ‘50 minutes of pain’, I am sure many of you have your own comparisons. The course was surprisingly dry and pretty flat. Certainly easier than the courses I had run in Yorkshire. However, with this being 12.5km it was considerably longer than anything I had raced recently.
The zigzag nature of the courses is another psychological test of your metal. The first half of the lap was easier, it was quite fast with a small hill. The second half was much tougher and involved ‘a bit of’ mud and various twists and turns to get us back to the start. Fate had it that this was also into a bit of a headwind.
In the second half the pace continued to be relentless, it seemed like there was two types of runner, those running the same pace as me, and those running slightly faster. I must of been in the top 400 at one point, but every few minutes a little group would come past me. I was hoping to pick off a few as I went but I guess in a race of this calibre most people will pace it sensibly. There was the odd abandonment I went past that gave me a boost to keep going.
I finished in just over 50 minutes which I thought was a solid time. I am certainly pleased to have averaged 4min/km over grass fields in track spikes. And one final gift from my XC experience? Well, at the finish line there was all these beautifully neat little piles of sawdust in a polka dot fashion. I’m guessing those are covering all the vomit (bless those juniors and running so hard they vomit), I was careful to avoid them on my way out.
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