It's been a little while coming but here now is my account of the UK Inter Counties Cross Country Championships. I had earned my first ever selection for this race thanks to my performances at the West District, National 4km and National Cross Country Championships. I had been 4th West of Scotland runner in each race so, with a team of 8 travelling, I was safely in.
I was keyed up about the race. It doubled as the UK World Cross Country trials. The best athletes from the counties and regions in the UK would be competing. The race was live on Sky Sports 3. I felt the best approach was to travel independently from the rest of the team. I needed my own time and space to prepare and focus for what would be my highest profile race in 15 years as an athlete. So while the team stayed in Solihull on the Friday night, I got the 1400 Virgin train service to Birmingham New Street, arrived in Birmingham at 1800 hours and stayed at a Premier Inn in the city centre. I know it seems anti social but, on this occasion, I needed to do trust my instincts and do things my own way. I was asleep by 10.30pm. It would have been 10pm but I sat up for half an hour reading some of Haile Gebrselassie's biography, "The Greatest," kindly leant to me by clubmate Kirsty Grant.
The next day, I caught a train from New Street to the station closest to the race venue, Cofton Park. I located the Scottish Athletics tent, collected my number and walked a lap of the course with fellow Cambuslang Harrier Iain Reid. We had around 12km and 4 laps ahead of us. At first glance, apart from the odd mudheap, everything looked fine.
I had arrived 90 minutes before the race. With so much going on, other races etc, the time flew in and I was soon in racing gear and going through the tent with 291 others to the start area. In these races, you line up in a pen with your team mates one behind the other. Our starting order was where we finished in the National compared to each other. I therefore took up 3rd spot in pen 24 behind Derek Hawkins and Tsegai Tewelde.
I had heard numerous stories about how furious the start was so had a game plan to be more conservative than normal. I resisted the urge to tear up the first hill and focussed on my rhythm- arm movement, knee lift and stride length. I tried to ignore the other Scottish runners as well. Sometimes in Scotland you race the same people all the time and can get hung up on who is in front of or around you. Old foe Paul Sorrie was up ahead but I blanked him out. By the middle of lap one, I was picking people off and moving confidently. Each lap had two significant hills. The second one was a long drag near the end of the lap. I negotiated it quite well and tore on into lap two.
By now athletes were getting harder to pick off. I did catch up with Scotland West team mates Craig Ruddy and Paul Sorrie. Cometh the hour, cometh the time for a couple of Spedding surges (see my training posts). Some pace was injected a couple of times to pull away from them. With 6 to count in the team competition, I knew I had a chance. Derek Hawkins was in the top 10 with Tsegai Tewelde and Tewoldeberhean Mengisteab around the 30s. The race started to kick in and I nearly went flat on my face through a muddy section. The number of shouts I heard for myself personally and Scotland West was incredible. The second hill took the stuffing out me a bit and I entered the third lap treading water. It was feeling a race too far and I seriously contemplated stopping. Only sheer bloody mindedness kept me going. This was a UK Championship, an honour, a privelige, you cannot stop. I focused again on arm movement, knee lift and stride length. All those High Point hill sessions were helping since I was keeping in touch, closing down or even overtaking runners on the hills.
Cambuslang clubmate Chris Wilson passed me at the beginning of the final lap looking like he was running a well paced race. I kept him in my sights for the remainder. He got himself into a small pack of runners who were pulling each other along. I simply didn't have the zip in my legs to get any closer than I was. I counted down every hill, every corner etc until I went up the second hill for the last time. I managed to negotiate it well and dug deep to run hard over the top to pull away from one or two runners. Sadly, I had left my sprint finish behind at the National two weeks before and I dropped three places in the home straight but hung on for 63rd in a time of 38:22.
I was physically and mentally exhausted as I took congratulations from Cambuslang coaches Jim Orr and Owen Reid. My mood improved no end as I heard Scotland West had earned team silver behind the North East of England and, as 5th finisher, I received a medal. Talk about beginner's luck! Our first finisher, Derek Hawkins, was an excellent 6th place in 36:21 which earned him a place in the UK team for the World Cross Country. Our other runners were Tsegai Tewelde (23rd), Tewoldeberhean Mengisteab (36th), Chris Wilson (55th), Paul Sorrie (67th, final counter), Craig Ruddy (77th) and Iain Reid (79th). To have every team member in the top 80 was amazing. We also made a little history becoming the first Scottish Senior Men team ever to win a medal at the championships. For the record, UK International Andy Vernon won the race in a time of 35:45.
After a short warm down, I considered it a job well done as I relaxed on the team bus back north. It says something about the quality of the race that, if I had been a minute faster, I would have finished in the 30s and, if a minute slower, would not have made the top 100. We got back to Glasgow in time for me to get a train to East Kilbride and I arrived home at 11.30pm. I contemplated an easy jog the next day then temporary retirement for a couple of weeks before tackling the summer season. If you have read my last post, you will know the latter notion was blown out of the water very quickly.
There are an abundance of photographs from all the races but the photographer has asserted copyright and I cannot download any. Click here to view them. The senior men race is featured from page 11 onwards. For a guaranteed sighting of me, click the very first photo on page 13. Look for the only guy in the photo wearing a long sleeved top under his vest.I had arrived 90 minutes before the race. With so much going on, other races etc, the time flew in and I was soon in racing gear and going through the tent with 291 others to the start area. In these races, you line up in a pen with your team mates one behind the other. Our starting order was where we finished in the National compared to each other. I therefore took up 3rd spot in pen 24 behind Derek Hawkins and Tsegai Tewelde.
I had heard numerous stories about how furious the start was so had a game plan to be more conservative than normal. I resisted the urge to tear up the first hill and focussed on my rhythm- arm movement, knee lift and stride length. I tried to ignore the other Scottish runners as well. Sometimes in Scotland you race the same people all the time and can get hung up on who is in front of or around you. Old foe Paul Sorrie was up ahead but I blanked him out. By the middle of lap one, I was picking people off and moving confidently. Each lap had two significant hills. The second one was a long drag near the end of the lap. I negotiated it quite well and tore on into lap two.
By now athletes were getting harder to pick off. I did catch up with Scotland West team mates Craig Ruddy and Paul Sorrie. Cometh the hour, cometh the time for a couple of Spedding surges (see my training posts). Some pace was injected a couple of times to pull away from them. With 6 to count in the team competition, I knew I had a chance. Derek Hawkins was in the top 10 with Tsegai Tewelde and Tewoldeberhean Mengisteab around the 30s. The race started to kick in and I nearly went flat on my face through a muddy section. The number of shouts I heard for myself personally and Scotland West was incredible. The second hill took the stuffing out me a bit and I entered the third lap treading water. It was feeling a race too far and I seriously contemplated stopping. Only sheer bloody mindedness kept me going. This was a UK Championship, an honour, a privelige, you cannot stop. I focused again on arm movement, knee lift and stride length. All those High Point hill sessions were helping since I was keeping in touch, closing down or even overtaking runners on the hills.
Cambuslang clubmate Chris Wilson passed me at the beginning of the final lap looking like he was running a well paced race. I kept him in my sights for the remainder. He got himself into a small pack of runners who were pulling each other along. I simply didn't have the zip in my legs to get any closer than I was. I counted down every hill, every corner etc until I went up the second hill for the last time. I managed to negotiate it well and dug deep to run hard over the top to pull away from one or two runners. Sadly, I had left my sprint finish behind at the National two weeks before and I dropped three places in the home straight but hung on for 63rd in a time of 38:22.
Above: Chris Wilson (left, partly hidden) and myself in the 2010 National Cross Country. Chris finished 18th while I was 30th.
I was physically and mentally exhausted as I took congratulations from Cambuslang coaches Jim Orr and Owen Reid. My mood improved no end as I heard Scotland West had earned team silver behind the North East of England and, as 5th finisher, I received a medal. Talk about beginner's luck! Our first finisher, Derek Hawkins, was an excellent 6th place in 36:21 which earned him a place in the UK team for the World Cross Country. Our other runners were Tsegai Tewelde (23rd), Tewoldeberhean Mengisteab (36th), Chris Wilson (55th), Paul Sorrie (67th, final counter), Craig Ruddy (77th) and Iain Reid (79th). To have every team member in the top 80 was amazing. We also made a little history becoming the first Scottish Senior Men team ever to win a medal at the championships. For the record, UK International Andy Vernon won the race in a time of 35:45.
Above: my team silver medal.
After a short warm down, I considered it a job well done as I relaxed on the team bus back north. It says something about the quality of the race that, if I had been a minute faster, I would have finished in the 30s and, if a minute slower, would not have made the top 100. We got back to Glasgow in time for me to get a train to East Kilbride and I arrived home at 11.30pm. I contemplated an easy jog the next day then temporary retirement for a couple of weeks before tackling the summer season. If you have read my last post, you will know the latter notion was blown out of the water very quickly.
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