Cross country season

Following on from the last blog post "Next week cross country season starts and I suspect it will hurt"....

When I was at school we never did cross country. Being at a (state) school in central Cambridge we didn't have much space to do so and had to rely on public parks for a lot of PE activities. I remember wheezing my way round Parkers Piece and bits of Midsummer common but thankfully that was it.

For the first part of my running "career" I didn't bother at all with XC apart from stepping round the odd puddle with a frown. I had a bad experience one year (in my really fat days) where I did a local Midlands race called the Badger Bite, did no research, found it was all pretty much off road - whilst running over a seemingly innocent field I tripped on a turnip (I kid you not!!!) and buggered my leg up for the best part of a fortnight.

Turnips can be dangerous

It was only really when I joined Stourbridge that I got in to this new way of running. I was getting changed after club one night and got cornered in a pincer movement - there had been a drop out in the XC for that Saturday and we needed 4 for a team. I was new and a little unaware of what I was getting myself into, so there it was my first XC was just before Christmas 2008 in Leek. Yes Leek, the place that is so hilly it has its own micro-climate and is often mentioned on the radio travel report because it is under 3 feet of snow when the rest of the country is in shorts.

At the top of one of the hills at Leek - note the people down the course looking like ants

Did I like it? Yes and no. I liked the feeling of running on the grass and mud, but it did strange things to my lungs - I could run 5K, so why did this feel so hard! It is a different type or running, and I genuinely believe it contributes a lot to strength, speed and overall running fitness in a way that cannot be replicated by road/track running. Even if I didn't secretly like them I would still do them for that value alone.

Since then I've done loads of XC races, mostly in the North Staffs League which has the venues of Winsford, Park Hall, Stafford Common and Leek every year, and Birmingham League where we get to go to a variety of midlands venues. I've done quite a lot of off road races in general in the past few years:

Worcestershire Midweek Series
The Sodbury Slog
Man V Horse
Hellrunner - Down South
Hell in the Middle
Milford 21
National XC Championships
The Grizzly

One of the less muddy National XCs at Roundhay Park, Leeds

...to name but a few. The Grizzly (20 miles, some hardcore off-road)  has to go down as one of the single worst running experiences of my life. Well it was good, but I fell over and basically got trampled on the road bit at about 2 miles, smashed up my elbow, had to wait 10 mins for some first aid, got pissed off and carried on anyway having lost 10 mins (even more pissed off). Running a further 18 miles after that was soul destroying and I have Zoe to thank for keeping me going. Actually as much as I loved/hated the Grizzly it wasn't really running, there were too many waist deep bogs etc to actually get in to a decent running rhythm  To add insult to injury at the end they didn't have the right T shirt size, and Zoe got told by a woman "next time run faster and we will have some left". I was practically hysterical. I hadn't been in so much pain I would have gone back to find her and give her a piece of my mind.

Me and Zoe finishing the Grizzly - thank f***

Anyway, it is strange because I lay in bed on Saturday morning thinking here I am, having done 4 marathons in 4 days and I'm feeling nervous about a piddly 5K effectively around a field. We run in the North Staffs League, and Winsford is pushing the definition of N Staffs, being South Cheshire. Unfortunately there had been some major traffic incident on the M6, and we ended up getting there fairly late, bursting for a wee to be faced with the longest toilet queue in the world. Warm up was minimal and a bit frantic and bang we were off

Winsford is not a particularly hard XC course, fairly flat and even, but after a mile or so I sensed it was going to be tough going. I felt myself slowing down towards the end of mile #2, and mile #3 I was just hanging on really. The course was long as they have changed it, and as usual I was in no mans land - no one right behind me to push me, and no one really close in front. In the last half a mile I decided to chase down the lady in front of me, and I did actually manage to come in just a few seconds behind her. She looked bolloxed, where as I was relatively OK, but the whole thing just felt way too hard. I don't know why, perhaps the Quad has actually taken more out of me than I thought, perhaps it was just not my day. The first XC of the season is usually a bit of a shock. Everyone seemed to have a bit of a shocker, I think the ground conditions, being so soft were actually harder going that I thought - the sun was out but it had been raining solidly for 2 days before that and things were pretty waterlogged.

I guess the moral here is not to get down about it,  that it is a starting point for the season, and the more XCs I get out and do, the better they will feel (eventually). I can't let one slightly underwhelming experience put me off. Just as well I've got the XC relays at Walsall Arboretum next weekend!

JW Ultra Week

Why did I choose this blog title? Well it was something that someone said about me when I first started running as an 18st runner (in a nice way) but it has stuck in my head so I thought it a fitting caption. 

Well, I've been running a bit more this week. Nothing exciting, just some 5 and 3 mile runs.

In summary, sorry to be all doom and gloom here, but I feel like a knackered old carthorse. There was me saying "I see no ill effects from giving blood" blah blah blah and boom! Zonked. At work we have a lot of stuff to get through, and I ended up being up doing changes until 3am on Thursday and 3am on Friday morning. It didn't go badly, but it just all takes a long time and isn't really something you can leave to complete on its own - it kind of has to be watched. If I'm completely honest I think I'm probably having a reaction to the extreme boredom I feel now I'm not running for hours a day, so I'm over compensating somewhat by filling those extra hours I would be training with work. At least I will be RICH and knackered.

I am not looking forward to work this week for a number of reasons. My mate is leaving me. So nervous breakdown here I come. Yes, the overly sentimental paragraph in previous blog was because I had got wind of something being up. And there was definitely something up. :(

Thankfully I've had some things to take my mind off of it, namely the organization of stuff for the JW Ultra. For the uninitiated, I shall explain a little bit about the JW. A few years ago a runner from Bournville Harriers, John Ward, used to run training runs along the stretch of canal that runs between Stratford Upon Avon and Bournville in Birmingham. It was when he was training for the Comrades Ultra (having already completed it once) that he sadly died of a heart attack, completely unexpected for someone with such a high level of fitness and his young age. John was one of the founders of Bournville Harriers, and also a great friend of Stourbridge Running Club. Unfortunately I never knew him personally.

At one point before he died, John had a conversation with one of his friends and fellow runners Mark about how the route would make a good race, and after his death his friends and clubmates Mark, Sharon and Ed organised a race in his memory - the JW Ultra along this same stretch of canal. This was to be a 30 mile race or a relay of 3 x 10 mile legs. This race was supposed to be a one off, but is now on its 6th running and keeps growing in popularity, and very year when it opens there is a massive rush to enter the full Ultra, and larger and larger entries for the relay.

Every year Stourbridge put in 6 x relay teams and usually at least a couple of runners who want to do the full Ultra. I did the full 30 miles in 2009. It was brilliant and I loved it, although with hindsight I didn't perform as well as I wanted because I ran a Marathon PB 3 weeks before (was supposed to be a training run and turned in to a PB - I now know the error of my ways).

I would say a marathon is a hard thing to complete, and 30 miles well obviously requires a bit of extra effort. Around where I do my training runs, the canals have lovely even paving, and apart from the odd brick sticking up on a cobbled bit there is nothing really bad to contend with. I think the JW terrain is actually a lot tougher than that, there are some sections where you are running on grass that has been trodden in to a path by walkers/runners, some quite rutted and muddy sections, and there is all sorts of foliage in your face. As for the issue of canals being flat, well if anyone has actually run the JW they will know that every lock that you go along is UP, and at about halfway there is a huge flight. Some races just have a nice atmosphere, and this is one of those races. Not sure what the magic formula is, most people there know each other from other races, but the difference here I think is that they are very welcoming to everyone rather than the clique that you sometimes see.

Whilst I loved the run, I kind of feel that I've had my turn, so I organise the coach to take the Stourbridge runners to Stratford Upon Avon and back, and to drop off 2nd and 3rd relay leg runners at the changeover points. We then pick up first leg and second leg runners from the same changeover points and go back for beer and burgers in Bournville. There are usually other clubs that take advantage of this shuttling as well as our own runners. For a worrier like me, I have a spreadsheet updated to the last possible minute and printed out to make sure I know exactly who I am dropping off and picking up at each point, and feel the need to do some ridiculous school teachery roll call at each stage. Thankfully the last 3 years have gone without incident or anyone lost / left behind, and everyone appears to have a good time which is lovely to see. Whilst I am still in cut back mode after the 4x4, I get satisfaction from helping out although in reality I would rather be running I would still make time for this event and some others because I believe it is important to give something back. All some people do is take.

The view of the Marina at Checkpoint 1 of the JW Ultra

We had some absolutely storming performances this weekend.  We had joint 1st place - our man caught up the leading man at the end and they decided to cross the line together which I think is lovely and represents the spirit of the race. We also had the first team overall, which was a mixed one with L running the 2nd leg. She is pretty quick, well they all are - in your face to the all male teams! :). All of the teams did well, and I do believe that everyone had a good run at their own standard. We also had the last runner in the full 30 miles, a 60-something lady, R, who took about 7h.45 to finish. She was in fact was one of the most consistently paced runners. She may have been slow, but she was running at her pace, and just did not slow down. If I can still manage that in my 60s I would be over the moon. Respect!

The view from Checkpoint 1 of the JW Ultra

One of the things I love about our club is that we have the whole range of speeds and abilities out at events like this, we all whoop and cheer and support each other, and can sit down at the pub afterwards and have a chat, have a laugh and get on well. A lot of clubs aren't like this.

It was also lovely to see some people that I only seem to see once a year, usually at this event, although having got up at 6.30 after my burning the candle at both ends week I felt like a bit of a zombie and unable to string a sentence together. Must make an effort to get out more(!) so it is not just an annual chat.

Next week the cross country season begins. I suspect it is going to hurt, but in some respects pain is good.