A nice cup of tea makes it stop hurting by onthefloor04

So now my racing calendar for the year is over. The final scramble around a muddy field somewhere is done and dusted and to be honest it wasn’t a bad way to finish a season.
The race in question was the second Oxford Mail cross-country race at Culham Park, usually a sodden bog with mud up to your knees and a good chance of the under 11’s drowning on the far side of the field which runs parallel with the Thames.

So it was strangely disappointing that the ground turned out to be bone dry and rock hard, barely enough looseness to take a spike. A lot of the guys opted for trail shoes or even road shoes in fact. I however had new shiny garish XC spikes to wear and was impatient to get them grubby (although in this weather, slightly scuffed was more likely).

I felt that I needed to run well and lead from (my version of) the front, obviously the front is the domain of the tea-boy and it gives me a nose-bleed but I wanted to hopefully inspire the rest of the lads, so at the gun I started fast. (Especially as the Skip had decided not to run – can’t blame him for fancying a break.  He’s been running and racing almost constantly for the last …well as long as I’ve known him really, and I think he might just be feeling a little burnt out)

Usually the ground is really rutted and soft with great possibilities for a turned ankle at this stretch of the race but my main problem this year was that being short, I couldn’t see ahead of us at all to see where the first turn was. Nothing I could do about it so it was elbows out and spikes up and fight for a bit of space.

Within the first 400m or so it had thinned out and I was able to get into a rhythm which was feeling quite good. The ground was very hard though and on a course that is quite cambered for a long way that was quite tough on my feet, it was only going to get worse.
There were plenty of people to tuck in on as we headed into the wind and one by one I made my way through the group.

Culham is a three lap race with two short steep climbs on each lap and by the time we reached the first pair of hills I was feeling good, the wind was now behind us and my legs were turning over quickly. The first of the hills was fine and the descent was even better, allowing my little stubby goat legs to overtake and make a gap of around 8m on a youngster with a Sideshow Bob afro.

Truly, phenomonally silly hair.

He closed the gap a little as we hit the second climb but again on the downhill I opened up.

The second lap started with plenty of give and take of positions but I found myself alongside BOC briefly before pressing on to try and take a few more positions and open up a bit of breathing space between me and the chasers. I think by the time I hit the hills I’d hit it a bit too hard though. I hadn’t planned on doing too much on the second lap – just consolidate a position, before pushing towards the end of the third lap. The third hill was ok despite a rather tentative descent, but the fourth just felt like I was wading through treacle, and in the space of just 20m I dropped 10 places!
Bizarrely by the time the course flattened out again I felt fine. I now had a new target (apart from closing down on the guys that had gone past me) BigBob had moved onto my shoulder and was threatening to overtake me (again) but after beating him at Ascott a month ago I had decided to not be beaten by him on the mud this season.
He’s beaten me at most road races last year so would make an excellent target to get my racing back on track for the 2012 season. I focussed on pulling away from him again, and staying there.

80% by now holding my position and trying to control the guys behind me. Annoyingly I was trying to control them into taking the lead into the wind but to no avail. With just half a lap remaining I was trying to fight off a blue vest (not BigBob though, he’d been blown out the back by my awesome acceleration…) a Newbury runner. All I wanted to do though was preserve a little energy for the finish, and of course the last of the hills. Which were still to come.

Apart from the blip on the second lap my legs felt pretty good. My feet hurt from running in spikes on hard ground but there was nothing I could do about that.

As we closed in on those darned hills the pace began to ramp up which suited my plan just fine.
We turned onto the first climb and Newbury and I overtook one runner as we crested the hill. Oddly my spring was back and this hill was much improved.
Down again and I began to stretch my lead over Newbury, before turning to climb the final hill. This was where I fell apart just a lap ago but this time was totally different. My spring was back, my technique was right and I passed a further two runners  by the time I crested the slope and turned to head down to the final sprint. I was flying by now and couldn’t understand just why I’d been so ropey second time round?

Just the long final sprint home (400m?) Sadly Newbury managed to outkick me with less than 100m to go but I was happy to cross the lie in 41^st place (The Teaboy had of course won by  a few hundred metres) I was a little disappointed to finish so low down BUT I couldn’t really complain about the race itself. I’d had to do most of the work into the wind, I’d climbed at least half of the hills pretty well and despite the blip halfway through I was happy.

The overall team score was down from a missing Skip and a missing SteveFear but we’re still holding onto 5^th place in the first division…and that is that for my race calendar for 2011.

I’m sure I could find another race if I really wanted to but why would I want to – it’s been a tough season with as many downs as ups so now is the time to gorge myself on port and plan for Olympic Year!