For God and Country

Part of being a member of a running club is turning out once in a while to represent the Club at a race - so when the call to arms came to come out and support today's Cork County Novice, Masters and U23 Cross Country Championships in Conna I felt duty bound to sign up. After all I was one of the few club members who didn't take part in the National HM Championships, preferring instead to pace a marathon in Dingle on the same day.

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There was a good turnout on what turned out to be a warm, dry and breezy day. The course was relatively flat with a few mild undulations, token mud section and a few small rough sections at field boundaries to make it interesting - quite enjoyable to race on actually. This, my second ever cross country, is a different type of racing than I'm normally used to. I left the Garmin on the kitchen table, by accident more than anything else, but was glad I did. Cross country is not about pace or mile splits but more position in the field (of runners that is).

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The men's course was 4 laps of 1,500m (6km in all), with my primary aim being not to get lapped. My legs didn't feel too bad during the warmup, given the 20 hard miles I put them through yesterday - my recovery appears to be quite good lately, although I wouldn't want to tempt fate. Perhaps because I didn't come into today with any expectations or specific training I was more relaxed - no pressure.

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Because I didn't know how hard it was going to be my philosophy was to head out at a steady pace for the first lap and see how I feel from there. Because of this I was towards the back of the field over the opening 400m but for the rest of the race kept a reasonably steady even pace, passing runners right up to the finish line. Seeing the herd of runners streaming through the field gaps in front of me during the first lap reminded me more of a cattle drive than a race.........hee-haw.

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There's something about cross country, that I can't quite put my finger on, that makes it different, enjoyable despite the energy sapping effort. You certainly notice your strengths and weaknesses - how you gain on others going up the slightest incline and struggle to keep up on the downhill, digging in with the spikes to take a sharp corner or gain purchase on a slippery bank, trying not to turn over on your ankle when you hit a stone under the surface - great fun ;) Maybe it's the way the inner child likes to run.

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The results put me in 50th place out of 107 runners covering the 4 laps in 24:02 (6:27 pace if the distance is correct) - just getting into the top 50%. Just goes to show how competitive it becomes when the field is limited to club runners - and that is without senior and intermediate club runners who were not eligible to run.

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Looks like the Eagle Novice Team (in which I was the third member) came 6th overall and the M40 Team (in which I was the first member) was 4th overall - just out of the medals. Although, at the track session last Tuesday I did receive my bronze medal for my 100m sprint in the County T&F Championships back in July. The applause from clubmates at the trackside was embarassing - if only they knew I came 3rd out of 3. Still a medal is a medal and it takes pride of place over all the other "finishers" medals I have. The M50 team fared better getting 2nd overall, with Pat Murphy claiming 2nd M55 and Pat Twomey 2nd M60. Well done Pat.

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