My first cross country race was in December 2008, when I was a new and keen member of the running club. My previous experiences of off road running had ended badly - I kid you not I'd twisted something tripping over a turnip in a field during the Badger Bite race a couple of years before, and vowed to stick to pavements and roads from then on.
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| They're out to get you! |
To be fair, a good amount of my training was then and still is off road, but it is "friendly" off road such as canals, nature walks and public footpaths, not legging it across fields of killer vegetables. Anyway one night after training, I was approached in a pincer movement; our ladies had been doing relatively well in the N Staffs XC League, but for the last fixture did not have enough runners, which would put the club as a league DNF - undoing the previous 3 races hard work. All they needed was a body that was capable of actually finishing. Well, count me in!! What's that? It's probably the hardest XC course you will ever do with a Mt. Everest Hill at the end of the lap? Well I'll give it a go! At least I was under no illusions of what I was letting myself in for.
The first thing I noted about XC was the social nature of the thing. We don't do it so much these days, but I got on to a little mini bus containing most of the mens and ladies runners, it was nearly Christmas, we listened to Christmas songs, chatted about the running club's party and talked about the looming race. The second thing to note was the cake. We talked about who had brought what cake.
I got to the venue (Westwood High in Leek) and walked down to the course. The junior races in this league are all scheduled before the seniors, and it was such a bitterly cold day; children were running up the monster hill, their faces red and screwed up in to funny shapes. Some children were literally crawling, some crying. Being the last event and being so young not only did they get borderline hypothermia but I suppose fear of letting their club (or pushy parent) down is quite a big thing. There was a collection of officials with foil blankets waiting to wrap them up at the finish. At this point I just wanted to get it over with if I'm honest.
Our time came and we were off. The start was up a hill in those days, and the moorland ground was and still is tough lumpy grass with assorted boggy mud patches. I kind of enjoyed it for the first 30 seconds, until my lungs started to feel if someone was reaching down and scrubbing them with wire wool and sumo wrestlers were sitting on my legs. I was grateful for some downhill, and I think this is probably where the addiction started. It felt good to be stomping down the hill, watching the hedges and trees go whizzing (relative term) past, and it was also nice to get some occasional "wahoo!" shouts from the men warming up for their race. I was so knackered actually had to have some walk breaks before I hit the "main event" hill, which I also walked; but this is the kind of hill where you can power walk and overtake people running.
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| Example of the giddy heights of Leek |
Then I had to repeat the lap. Soon, but not soon enough, I was approaching the finish; the rest of my team were already long finished, but I wasn't last. The rush and sense of achievement was pretty good. We sat through the presentations as some of the guys had got age group prizes, and mostly fell asleep on the way home. I was coughing like a 60 a day smoker for the rest of the evening, something I still get and can only describe as "cross country lung". But the overall feeling was great. I do think that consistent short distance racing on a Saturday (including parkruns if there is no XC) improves fitness; the XC somehow always feels harder, I suppose generally they are more hilly and more uneven. Brilliant for strength. Roads feel easy! Raargh!
From then on it was cross country a-go-go. Our running club runs in 2 leagues of 4 races each, and usually enters in to 4 championship races and one relays a season, so there is a lot to choose from. Between the start of October and mid-December it is possible if you want to, to run an XC pretty much every Saturday. After Jan things lighten off gradually. The N Staffs league races stay the same, we have the boring Winsford, the Wacky Races Park Hall, the ever same bleakest place on earth Stafford common and the infamous Leek. In the Birmingham league the venues for the ladies vary - we have one fixture with all mens divisions (usually Leamington) and then the next 3 fixtures we share with the D1,D2 and D3 men. Courses vary, some are pretty much just football pitches, some have a water feature (Leamington) some are undulating and muddy (Cofton Park), some have pine forests (Mansfield). We've run in snow (Droitwich), 19 degree heat (Winsford) and lightning (Midlands Champs at Leamington in 2014), knee high slop (Alton Towers National). I began to find my XC feet. Another of the beauties of XC racing is that you are more or less around the same people in every race, so you get to know them and have some good battles with them. When I first started my nemesis was a more seasoned XC runner, let's just call her "Pauline". Sometimes you win the battle, sometimes you lose, but it is fun trying. I suppose I have improved a little bit since those days, but even now hearing the shouts of "come on Pauline" to someone behind me strikes the fear of god in to me :)
The XC championship events are nothing to be worried about really. It is likely the clubs locally will have entered, so you will still be with your local rivals. The National XC is a big event with a great atmosphere, and whilst it sounds grand anyone who is a member of an affiliated club can enter so there is a huge range of speeds. The time to panic is if you inadvertently come in the top few at the county championships and get invited to run at the inter counties! Whilst marshalling there once I was aware of two very slow ladies from "Shropshire" at the back of the field. I found myself wondering what the quality of their county races must be, or how many people had bothered to turn up, how did they get a place?! When I checked the results I did some sums and found these two "slowcoaches" were running at a far quicker XC pace than I've ever run in my life. I was also alongside Liz Yelling at one point in the Alton Towers National (as she passed me to go in to the finish straight as I was starting my final lap) Ha ha!
Even if you don't finish in your clubs scoring few in XC, you still have an important role; in our leagues it's all about place rather than time (to be honest time can vary on the same course according to weather from year to year so pace watching means little its about effort really), and the scorers scores are added together. The team with the lowest score is top of the league, and there is scope to move up and down divisions and win the title a bit like football. If a club has a massive number of runners, there is a good chance that they will push the scorers of a club with smaller numbers down despite not scoring themselves. So it's not a question of who is fast, it's also a question of how many and I personally think that when I'm part of a club team, I try that little bit harder than if I was doing it for myself so it pushes me a little more - you don't know what you can do until you try, sometimes it's a pleasant surprise.. We do seem to get a good turnout these days, I think it's the camaraderie, competitive banter, possibly the cakes, and more than likely the prospect of a pub trip afterwards.
Doing XC has also given me confidence to do other off road events. At some point, think it was 2009, I did the Grizzly 20 miler. Not the best experience of my life having fallen over on tarmac in the first 2 miles and bashed my elbow, but hey we finished despite me almost murdering the t-shirt lady at the end who told us (seriously) that if we wanted the desired t shirt size we should have run faster! I've also done Man V Horse (3 relay legs over 3 years, counts as the whole race right?), runs in the Wyre Forest, and things like the Milford 21 over Cannock Chase - sadly no more but joking about the Grizzly aside, I've seen some truly amazing and lovely bits of countryside in the UK and I've got my confidence from the XC running to thank for getting me in to it - it really has opened new doors.
So if you are a member of a club that runs in such leagues (unfortunately individuals can't just rock up and enter) I'd encourage you do give it a go, our club subsidises them so they are free to members. It's a great way of meeting people - I would not have dreamed of talking to a lot of the people I know at the club had it not been for part of the XC group. Cantering up and down big hills just feels very pure and it's so exhilarating to have achieved that beating a rival or even just finishing alive sometimes. It is no longer Saturday night if I'm not trying to scrub mud out of my toenails.
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