Cross country racing is bloody hard work, but great fun, so I decided to come back for this years Derby Runner league I buddied up and car shared to the event which always helps with parking and is a nice relaxed way to prepare for the day's racing. I love the simplicity XC racing as long as your UK Athletics running club is registered in that league, you can just rock up at an event and race. No timing chips, no race numbers. Racing in it's simplest form.
After a catch up with other runners, a quick warmup and stretch we all gathered at the start area. After some cursing about peoples parking and entrance blocking from the race director also asked if there where any ladies in the crowd, as the ladies race was to start 10 minutes later. After lots of high pitched 'No, I'm a man', and 'I heard him say Jehovah', and people questioning if my my beard was real the race was under way. I was still laughing at the impromptu Monty Python sketch as we ran round the school fields jostling for position and finding the right pace.
It was a very popular race with around 600 runners it was pretty busy for the first couple of kilometres, i was getting a little frustrated at being hemmed in so much, so at the bottom of one of the hills I pushed hard past 5 or 6 runners and into a clearer path. It never thinned out completly and I was always either fighting off another runner or pressing hard to catch the next runner in my sights. I felt pretty strong and was certainly making progress through the field, I would still drop the odd place too but that was okay.
A few frustrations with queues for styles, narrow slippery bridges were a bit of a pain, but also gave me a few moments to get my breath back and rest a little. The course was beautiful running through fields, mud and compacted trails. The greatest moment was a 800m downhill run through dense woodland on a single track path. This was fast with plenty of turns, fallen trees to leap, and branches to dodge. Being so close to the surrounding trees, made you feel like you where running even faster. At one point I even overtook a Stormtrooper (scout) on his scouter bike i was going so fast.
http://www.derbyrunnerleague.com/
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After a catch up with other runners, a quick warmup and stretch we all gathered at the start area. After some cursing about peoples parking and entrance blocking from the race director also asked if there where any ladies in the crowd, as the ladies race was to start 10 minutes later. After lots of high pitched 'No, I'm a man', and 'I heard him say Jehovah', and people questioning if my my beard was real the race was under way. I was still laughing at the impromptu Monty Python sketch as we ran round the school fields jostling for position and finding the right pace.
It was a very popular race with around 600 runners it was pretty busy for the first couple of kilometres, i was getting a little frustrated at being hemmed in so much, so at the bottom of one of the hills I pushed hard past 5 or 6 runners and into a clearer path. It never thinned out completly and I was always either fighting off another runner or pressing hard to catch the next runner in my sights. I felt pretty strong and was certainly making progress through the field, I would still drop the odd place too but that was okay.
A few frustrations with queues for styles, narrow slippery bridges were a bit of a pain, but also gave me a few moments to get my breath back and rest a little. The course was beautiful running through fields, mud and compacted trails. The greatest moment was a 800m downhill run through dense woodland on a single track path. This was fast with plenty of turns, fallen trees to leap, and branches to dodge. Being so close to the surrounding trees, made you feel like you where running even faster. At one point I even overtook a Stormtrooper (scout) on his scouter bike i was going so fast.
http://www.derbyrunnerleague.com/
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