Holyrood Park, Edinburgh was the setting for the Scottish Inter District Cross Country Championship. The race comprises teams representing the West, East and North of Scotland and Scottish Universities. The West, East and North District and Scottish Universities Cross Countries serve as the selection races. This was actually the third occasion I had been selected but the first time I felt confident enough to give it a go. So it was up at 7.30am for my Dad and I to drive to Motherwell for the train to Edinburgh Waverley.
Anyone who reads this often enough will be fed up hearing about Inverkip. The Inter District race is held in conjunction with an international cross country meeting televised live by the BBC. Given world class athletes slipping and sliding through an Inverkip style mud heap would not make good television, I anticipated/hoped/prayed the course would be kind. In all honesty, I was extremely nervous so, once I had collected my number and timing chip, slipped away to focus my mind. I got an idea of the course from watching the senior women's race on the big screen. We were 4 laps of 2km each. A lap comprised a flat stretch out towards Meadowbank Stadium, sharp right onto a slight incline, flat onto probably the best bit of running in the course, spoiled by the presence of a log to hurdle, across a road towards the "Haggis Knowe" hill, up the incline, down the other side, up another slight incline, down to the finish line. The women's winner, Elspeth Curran (West of Scotland/Kilbarchan) completed 2 laps of her 3 lap race in just over 14 minutes. I took from this the course was runnable which was all I needed to know pre-race.
36 runners lined up. I settled into the coat tails of a sizeable leading group, negotiating the log without (too much) difficulty. Around the road area, there was a stream to cross which wasn't visible on screen. Still tightly bunched at Haggis Knowe, someone caught my right heel and it came out my shoe. I ran up Haggis Knowe with my shoe half on half off. Had it been the closing stages, I'd have continued but I couldn't go another 6km like that so I had no choice but to pause briefly and pull my shoe back on completely. It probably took me 5-10 seconds but I told myself not to panic and by the initial flat stretch on lap 2, I had more or less resumed position. I was hovering around the top 10. Unfortunately, a lead group of 7 or 8 had got a little gap but it wasn't over yet. I was moving well and focussed.
Above: I thought I had run my last steeplechase. Photo courtesy of Alan Ramage.
For the next two laps, I got into a battle with East runner John Newsom. The announcer seemed to consider the outcome of this as crucial to who won team gold. He certainly said it often enough. Ahead, I could see Alex Hendry had dropped off the lead group. I felt I was gaining on him. Unfortunately, in the final lap, the wind picked up. This affected my asthma which I still hadn't brought back under control. John Newsom won our mini battle by 3 seconds, finishing 8th while I took 10th place in 27:07. Chris Devanney, who sold me my new spikes at Sweatshop the previous weekend, sneaked into 9th by a single second (there was a much bigger gap between us at Inverkip.) Scottish hill running international Robbie Simpson won the race in 26:02 ahead of Sean Fontana (26:03) and Wegene Tafese (26:05). I was 5th West finisher and pretty chuffed to earn a team gold medal.
Another coughing fit post race saw me visit the GP on the Monday. Given an otherwise clean bill of health, my problems were diagnosed as asthmatic. I was prescribed an additional inhaler to take during the day in addition to the one I take routinely twice a day and the one taken before running. As I write, things seem to have settled down. Hopefully my looming visit to the asthma nurse confirms this.
Overall, I was very pleased with this run but consider I can still produce a bit more. Next up before the National Cross Country on 23rd February is a Valentines night outing at the Armagh International 5k. Fly out that morning, back the next night. No Valentines day plans keeping me here. You can tell I'm single!
Inter District Results
Inter District Results
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