PECO race 4: John Smeaton

I had to miss races 2 and 3 of the PECO series due to exams and injury respectively, so I was well up for race 4.

I varied the pre race routine a little, supplementing porridge with honey for soda bread with butter and jam.  The bucket of builders' tea remained!

It was a very cold but sunny day.  The ground was frozen solid and it was bitterly cold in the shade.  The race website gave a very confusing description of an out and back, loop and another out and back.  In fact the route was a very pleasant out, figure of eight and back over fields and footpaths.  Unlike the other runs in the series, which have been soul-destrying laps of horror, the course felt varied and when you saw a section of path you recognised, you knew you were within a mile of home!

So how was the race?  It was a cross country - it was bloody hard!  Mercifully there were no really steep hills (although this also meant no steep downhills, which is where I do most of my overtaking), but there were some long slogs up gentler inclines.  The ground was very hard, making it tough on the legs and difficult to find footing at times.

I had the usual crisis of motivation at about mile two and contemplated stopping.  Shortly after that, the big hill appeared and my attention was diverted to concentrating on carrying on.

I found it difficult to pace myself.  I ran some sections at well under 7:30, which is very fast for me, and didn't know whether I would have enough juice in the tank to make it round.  My quads were feeling pretty tired after the previous day's circuit training.

Once I hit the 'back' leg, with a mile and a half to go, I realised I would be able to hold my speed back to the finish line.  Nature tried to intervene, sending me flying flat on my side as I undertook a male runner on a corner.  It seemed to slow him down more than it did me.  He stopped to see if I was okay, I staggered to my feet, wiped my snotty nose with my muddy hand and left him for dust. 

The fall shook me up a bit though and I tucked in behind another female runner for half a mile or so while I tried to figure out whether I had done any serious damage.  On the home strait I stepped up a gear, putting on a burst of speed and overtaking by a few places.  Fantastic support from VARR gave me legs for a serious sprint finish.

I was totally exhausted when I crossed the finish line.  My legs had turned to jelly and it was all I could do to stagger to one side of the chute and try to hold down my breakfast (maybe I'll stick to porridge next time!).  It was worth it to be 36th woman and 3rd club woman home - I'm dead chuffed to have come third to Helen and Ali.

It was great cheering the other VARR runners home.  Jan and Kay put on gutsy sprint finishes, both gaining places in the last 50m to the chute, whilst Hamsa waltzed in looking as fresh as a daisy and claimed she spent the whole race daydreaming about food...

St Theresa's arranged a brilliant spread and I refuelled on pizza, banana, Yorkshire curd tart and two fairy cakes.  The sugar rush was not pleasant!

The fall has left me bruised and achy, though oddly not so much on the side I landed on.  I think the ground might have been so hard I bounced onto my front.  Sounds like a good excuse for some easy days and pampering.  Especially as I'm now tapering for next weekend's Radcliffe 10 mile.  Bring it on!