OMG ! i was so not exepecting this to be sooooooo hard!

it was a relay with each team member running 1 lap of a 2mile (3.3km XC route).

i was put to run the first leg (i think the theory was to put the slowies out first).

i set off with the rest.... and after about a min of 2 i was starting jeese.. i feel like im about to pass out..a glance at my garmin... ah yeah that will be why... 3min35/km (i usually run at 5min30/km)

so i slow down and plod my way through the mud trying not to throw up...

i come round what i though was the last corner to find Mr Simkiss saying no...no.. keep going down that track.. if i could breath i would have prob told him where to shove it, thinking he was joking... but alas he was right...

anyway i crossed the line and tagged the next bod off... 16min 16 sec on my garmin.. although i didnt stop it straight away as i felt i was about to hurl.

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Doing hill sessions makes you a better person!

I didn't say anything before as it didn't seem right boasting about it - but I should boast - I have a medal WITH A 2 ON IT!!!!!!!

That means I am not the best - but almost!!!!

I was the final leg of our 3 woman team - we were probably about 15 years older (on average) than the students at the Uni!!!

The fast girls team was fast!!! I have never properly competed in a Cross-Country before - and it was ace working as a team

Our times - 2 miles each -

Lucy Aphramor 13.16
Sally Hick 16.42
Ros Matthews 17.16

Total 47.14 - 2nd Ladies Team!!! (1st team was 39.04 - really fast - 3rd team came in at 48.76.)

It was quite hard running through the mud and keeping up the pace - but I tried really hard and it paid off!! I felt afterwards I could have pushed a little bit harder - but everyone coming over the line before me was shattered - so I saved a bit behind the whole way as I didn't want to burn out too soon.

It makes you feel brilliant to actually come in a position - I think I will only ever manage this as a team, but I felt really proud!

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Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride Nobody gonna slow me down, oh no I got to keep on movin' ...

considering the person in the team that was 3rd overtook you when you set off you did really well to pull it back and then pull out a 1min lead!!!!



well done

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Doing hill sessions makes you a better person!

Definately a huge well done Ros for pulling back 2nd place and opening up such a big gap. I think you definately did the most sensible thing in holding back and leaving something in the tank for further down the course.

This is the shortest event I've done since being a schoolboy and my god it's so different to any other race I've done, both road and XC races! I ran the first leg of the other men's team, and then the fourth and final leg for Beasty's team... The first leg I went off way too fast and was soon struggling, it was a painful 2miles and incredibly muddy in places, it just seemed to sap all energy! Second time round I set off more steadily and found that it was my legs that were the limiting factor rather than my lungs (which felt like they were going to explode on the first leg!) - the end result was the my second effort was only 4 seconds slower than my first!!! (according to my garmin at least).

The strangest thing was that those who went off fast maintained their pace the whole way round, endurance wasn't really an issue here, and I think that's what I'm used to in races, so many people fade in the latter stages and if you've paced your race sensibly you can catch them and pick them off one by one. Here everyone was just fast from start to finish!

I felt so cruel telling beasty he had to carry on further round the course - though it was pretty awfully marked out, and he probably could've taken the shortcut without anyone realising

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www.richardsimkiss.co.uk