A nice cup of tea makes it stop hurting by onthefloor04

Yes, my once mahogany hard thighs are now at least 85% Quality Street and my once fearsome reputation (sort of) is in tatters after the first race of the season the Oxfordshire County Cross Country Championships.

The week previous had been a pretty high mileage week for me, at least high-mileage compred to the last couple of months totalling just over 50 miles so I kind of expected to be a little tired and admittedly being kept up all night by a crying baby isn’t ideal preparation for any race but even so it wasn’t what I’d envisioned as I packed up the club tent (and remaining miniature heroes) into the car before heading out Sunday morning.

This race was not only the county champs and league race but also my first race as club captain. The Skip had decided that he needed a break after 4-5 years of leading us and the chairman had asked if I’d be willing to take on the role.  Woodstock Harriers is a great club, with a great legacy and some brilliant runners amongst our ranks so I felt quite honoured to be asked and couldn’t really say no.

Injuries, family commitments and holidays had seriously depleted the ladies team whilst the men had been hit by Stevie Free pulling out to spend time with his family before being posted off (RAF) to Kenya and Afghanistan for the next million months so couldn’t really blame him for that whilst the Tea Boy had jumped ship for the big bucks after being headhunted by Bedford and County (Paula Radcliffe’s club don’t you know?) He will continue to run for us as a second claim but a technicality meant he wouldn’t be able to score for us for the rest of the season.

So it would be left to the Skip and me (the new Skip I suppose) to lead from the front and see what we could do over the varied two lap course. Sadly within two hundred metres and the first turn I knew that it wasn’t my day.
My legs were dead and heavy, my feet weren’t feeling the ground and I just felt like I was sinking with every step, rather than the floating gliding sensation you get when you’re on form.

Within two miles I’d dropped right off the pace only sitting in fifth Harrier position (sixth if you counted the Tea Boy running as an individual). By the time the second lap started I’d dropped even further back behind people that I should have been clear and away from.
There isn’t much more to say about the race really, I put my head down and pushed with about a mile and a half remaining and clawed back a few places but they were places I shouldn’t have been down anyway.

Eventually I crossed the line in a frankly disappointing 62^nd place in 39:15 for the 10km course.
The team faired little better only taking bronze in the senior and vets races.
And on top of that I’ve been feeling ropey ever since. Hopefully I’ll be feeling a little better by Sunday as we’ll be taking an invitational team to the Highworth (Half…ish) Marathon to tackle those seven beastly hills in an attempt to win the trophy we last managed a good three years ago.

Addendum
Turns out I’ve been ill ever since the race, so maybe I was already coming down with something. Would make sense I suppose