My report on this race (and indeed any blog update) has been delayed for various reasons but here we go. Little did I know at the time that the West District Cross Country would be my last race of 2013. I decided to do my usual weekly hill session on Boxing Day instead of racing at Ayr and no other races caught my eye.
This year, the event was hosted by Kilmarnock Harriers on a course next to the new Ayrshire Athletics Arena. Not a long journey either on road to the venue nor on foot to the course, the start being about 100m from the sports centre and, at first glance, a decent course. All in stark contrast to the unaussprechlich of Inverkip 12 months ago.
The biggest challenge looked to be a 20-30m patch of ground, which could be kindly described as a swamp, just after passing under a bridge. Negotiate that while retaining your footwear and you were on to a winner. Nevertheless, even the firmest of courses will adversely suffer when 8 races have been run on it before you and so it proved.
As the field of just over 200 were set off, I felt I had a point to prove to myself and started with a bit of aggression, moving into 3rd behind Shettleston duo Tewoldeberhan Mengisteab and Lachlan Oates. After a short lap of some playing fields, we faced 3 larger laps, described quite accurately elsewhere as a more agricultural setting. While there were no hills to speak of apart from a few muddy mounds to hurdle, the ground had been softened considerably by several hundred earlier runners. David Vernon (VP City of Glasgow) and Luke Traynor (Giffnock North) had slipped past me before the first of 3 visits to the swamp.
Inverkip, all is forgiven. Being tracked by Matthew Sullivan (Shettleston), who later overtook me, through the East Ayrshire Everglades.
Normally by this point in the winter, I would have had some relay races and 2 months of training in October and November. Since I was tapering off for most of October leading up to Dublin and found walking a challenge in November, let alone running, I had not built up the same fitness base. It told when during the second lap, I slipped to 11th place. 3 of my clubmates, Iain MacCorquodale, Robert Gilroy and Ben Hukins were among those overtaking. As I headed into the final lap, I got a shout from David Cooney that we had the team gold "in the bag" and I was well clear in my position. This helped and gave me a second wind to hold on to the position I had established. With only the first 6 finishers from a club taking the medals, there is a lot to lose from falling out that half dozen. Despite feeling dejected at the defeats I was suffering from other runners and the gaps they had opened on me, I dug in to see the race through, taking 11th place in a time of 37:45 for a course measured by a few at 10.5km. Our 5th and 6th counters, Kerry-Liam Wilson and Stewart Orr came in immediately after me in 12th and 13th to secure us the team gold ahead of Shettleston who, by that point, had only 3 runners over the line. The importance of packing in team races clearly illustrated. A round up of all Cambuslang's West successes is here. The results are here.
A few of our 20+ strong senior men team, left to right- Andrew Coulter, Stewart Orr, Gordon Robertson, Kerry-Liam Wilson, Iain MacCorquodale, Jamie Reid, Robert Gilroy, Ben Hukins and a grumpy me.
In the heat of the moment, I was thoroughly dejected despite numerous assertions I had no cause to be. I know now I simply needed to train though at that time I couldn't see the woods for the trees. Straight after crossing the finishing line, an offer to run the Inter District Cross Country on 11th January wasn't something I wanted to hear but I'm grateful for it now. After a 10 mile crawl in horrific wind and rain the next day, I had 2 complete days off. On the Monday, I watched a Queen's Park reserve team match with a friend and, the following night, had a meeting to attend with Whitemoss Athletics Club. It's encouraging that, as I watched the football match, I actually felt like training again. I've kicked on from the Wednesday onwards (11th December) and, in terms of recovery from sessions, the Christmas break has been wonderful. Due to the organiser's personal circumstances, my annual year curtain raiser at Beith is not taking place so 2014 is beginning with a 3000m at the Emirates indoor track. Hopefully I start as I mean to go on.
Touch wood, after a couple of false dawns, I'm now back!
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