Tempo Tuesday was back with a nice 1 mile warm up, then 7.5 miles at just under 8 min mile pace.
Wednesday I started to feel a niggle in my right hamstring so just did an easy 4.5 mile.
Went to the club on Thursday thinking just see how it goes. It was Milverton loops of 0.4 miles times 7. After the warm up my hamstring felt fine so I decided to go with the B group and try and hang on. This loop is uphill for the first half then down hill for a quarter followed by the last quarter which is flat. I was so happy with how this session went. I averaged between 5.50 pace and 6.08 pace for all reps. Plus I was round about the middle of the group for most of the reps and at the back for a few of them. So without doubt this is a big step up for me and hopefully I can gradually get better at the longer reps and stay with these guys for them too.
Friday, Alex was ill but I still went out for a short jog round gogarburn which was nice and springy as it had been raining all morning.
Then for Saturday's showcase: the National Cross Country relay championships in Cumbernauld. I arrived in plenty of time and reported to Camp Giffnock. Where Alan dished out the numbers. I was running the second leg for the D team. We only had 3 runners in the D team as there was a drop out. No big deal in these things though as when your in the lower ranked teams in the club, I was told its really a race against yourself. Of course your still wanting to beat other people though! I met quite a few new people who I have not met before including Neil who I went on a warm up round the course with. We did this to do a recky and quickly realised just how hilly the course was. Of course being the final race of the day it was quite chewed up in places too. Its good though to know the course before running as you know whats coming up.
When returning to Camp Giffnock, Alan gave us the news that one of the guys from the C team hadn't turned up so one of Neil and I would be running in the C team. So Alan said to me to take off my number and I was now Alaistair McCallum for the day running leg 3 and Neil would be me!
So after joking with some of my clubmates to call me Alistair. The gun went off. Our first leg runner was Gary who came in 67th in a time of 15.38. Michael took over and ran a stormer too running 14.57 and made up 18 places. I knew I was going to be overtaken a lot because these guys times for 5ks are 17-18 minutes, so people setting off after me were always going to be a lot faster than me. But I was focused on just running my own race and giving it my all.
I started off down the gradual slope then it was hill after hill, mud after mud. I was really enjoying it and pushing it where I could and just letting rip down the downhills. As expected I was getting overtaken regularly. Just to show you how good Michael and Gary did. Our Vets men team who are also well good, George overtook me about half way round. Up the last hill I noticed I was finally closing in on a runner from Westerlands. I then realised he was really, really struggling. If I wasn't racing I would have checked to see if he was ok but I think he must have just gone out too fast. Meanwhile down the last down hill is where the Giffnock folk were shouting encouragement and I heard Alan say "Keep pushing it right to the end". So I did, round the last corner I felt a runner breathing down my neck. I thought, he ain't getting past and just put the foot down into full sprint mode for the last 100meters and I manged to hold him off finishing in 17.50 which is 6.53 mile pace. This to me sounds like the right kind of time to be doing the cross country compared to my 5k road time as CC is meant to be slower. So I handed over to Gerry in 71st place, so I got overtaken by 23 people and overtook 1.
Photo by Chris Upson - The final corner!
Gerry led the C's home in a time of 17.26 and only lost 2 places so we came 73rd.
Our A team came 18th, B team 59th, C team 73rd and doubling up the D teams time would have come in 105th. The women and the juniors did really well too. So overall a great day, nice weather and awesome course.
On paper you would think I should be disappointed (getting overtaken) but I am not at all. I gave it everything and I am happy with my time. Not only that but I've really got the cross country bug now so will be doing the 'solo' cross countries over the next few months.
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