A nice cup of tea makes it stop hurting by onthefloor04

Anyway a hardcore of the mighty Woodstock Harriers gave the weather gods a sound thrashing yesterday defeating their evil machinations and sending a hardy team out to Cirencester for round four of the Oxford Mail league.

For me it was the anniversary of my joining the club 6 years ago (well, five full years and this is the start of my 6^th) I’d had a pretty relaxed week training wise after a good 18 miler the week before which I was pleased with but two rest days had included a day in London with my charity runners at the VLM meet the experts day.

Annoyingly the snow that had blanketed Oxfordshire wasn’t so bad once we got past Burford, but I quite understood anyone using discretion as the better part of valour. It did sadly mean that the team was somewhat depleted, BUT we did have a team which is more than could be said for some of the other teams.
We had slipped to the relegation zone going into this race after the Tea Boy’s two wins had been taken away from us as the powers that be had decided he couldn’t count as he had changed his first claim club after the deadline. (Ridiculously he can count next season, as do any of the other runners running as 2^nd claimers, even the other clubs think it is rather silly).

The snow seemed like it might do us a favour however as City’s team seemed even worse off than we were. They were currently 51 points ahead of us but that was gettable with a good result.

By the time the men’s race was set to start the top layer of snow had turned to melt water whilst staying hard and frozen underneath so it was an odd mix of very wet yet very hard underfoot with little mud to grip, thankfully just enough to take a spike.

A half-a*sed warm up and we were away into the slush and freezing water. By 50 yards into the race I was in the top 10, by 100 yards I’d regained my senses and had dropped back to the 40^th place mark.
Cirnecester consists of 3 laps of a pretty scenic, mostly wooded course with 3 climbs of increasing toughness on each lap.
in the past I’ve finished the first lap wondering how the hell I’d ever manage another 2 laps, so this time I was canny and took my time.

By the time we entered the woods for the first time I’d already dropped back to 5^th Harrier and there I was to stay, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to have to work for my place.

The slow downhill descent took us to the lowest point of the course where we were confronted by a tight right-hander, usually something I’d deal with easily (I like technical courses) this time however the hard icy ground made cornering treacherous and I overshot the corner by quite a way dropping a couple of places in the process.
The following quarter of a mile or so was just as tough underfoot, as the ground had been reduced to just a narrow footpath through the otherwise rutted, ankle-breaking, frozen ground. Practically impossible to overtake and just as hard to be stuck behind someone if you wanted to overtake as moving to either side would have meant negotiating the frozen ruts.

The hills were taken with far more care than usual. Downhills are usually where I make ground on opponents at Cirencester but I wanted to feel out the surface before jamming my feet down on any lumps or bumps that I thought would give only to find they were rock hard and vicious, this in turn meant that I was probably quite rested by the time I completed the first lap. Previous years I’ve questioned whether I could even complete another two laps of the same, so obviously I wasn’t running at full tilt. That fact was further proved as BigBob came up onto my shoulder as we approached the woods for the second time. He’d thrashed me soundly at the county race a month earlier but I’d beaten him in the previous two races and had no intention of letting him beat me today so settled in on his heels as we dropped down to the bone-snapping moguls again.

The narrow path with the frozen ruts to each side meant that I had a choice to make. Sit in on BigBob’s heels or take the lead and risk overtaking on the horridness. However with a lap worth of experience of the terrain I fancied my chances and frankly I hate running off peoples shoulders so gave a little kick and overtook. Not much just enough to get ahead and be able to see where I was putting my feet.
To my surprise BigBob motioned me through and encouraged me to take it on! I wasn’t going to be asked twice. If he felt tired enough to not challenge me at this point then I wasn’t going to give him the opportunity to chase me down and legged it into the hills.
The easy first lap had left me with plenty of energy left at the halfway point as I hit the hills for the second time. This time round the runners had softened the ground and I felt confident enough to trust my hooves to support me on the downhill’s and was able to attack them in my more normal style closing the gap on a few more places and getting back level with former team-mate ‘the sweet’ who had been one of the many that had streamed past me on the first lap.

As we climbed the last of the three hills on the second lap I noticed that my legs were still feeling pretty strong and quick…noice…for once, as we started the final lap.
The Sweet pulled me back as we headed for the woods again, keeping me honest as I’d otherwise have eased off, and as we reached the track for the final time it hit me…only three climbs and we’re done. It was time to hit the gas.

Admittedly the gas at the moment isn’t exactly nitro but it is getting a little quicker and all of a sudden I was away and closing on the runners ahead of me. Onto the first hill overtook one, and another as we reached the foot of the downhill, although that was because the chap (skinny lad from City) had overshot his turn at the bottom.
Second hill, keep the cadence short and fast, past another two on the up and extended that gap on the downhill, before finally bracing myself for the final big push, up the ‘big’ hill and into the finishing straight.
Sadly the top of the hill is really a bit of a false summit as you cross a road, followed by a large bank before the finish straight, and that catches me out every time.
As I hit the hill, I still felt good, although I was aware of someone being cheered on just behind me…close behind me.
I hit the top of the hill first but the climb had killed off all my momentum as I negotiated the bank, and as I crested it I was level with the skinny city lad again, if the finish straight was a mile I’d have backed myself all the way sadly it was little more than 200m. Skinny lad kicked, I didn’t have that acceleration (I think City tend to have more track running in their training than we do) and had to let him go.

In the end I finished in 36^th place in a time of 36:08. Not too bad but I’d still like to be a good five places if not more further up the scoresheet.
On the plus side, as a team it was probably our strongest performance of the season, even without the Tea Boy (who was protesting at being excluded from the team scores and was also saving himself for a 24-hour round-trip to Northern Ireland to represent the North of England) taking fourth team on the day and dragging us out of the relegation zone! Result.

The cold weather looks like it is set to hit us again over the weekend so whether I’ll make it to the Bramley 20 on Sunday I don’t know, failing that I seem to have gotten myself and inadvertent place at the Bourton 10k too…maybe I’ll see you at one of those.