Cross Country Race...

This morning I took part in a cross country race over 5 miles. I knew that it would be a relatively hard course as CO (the team captain) had told me about it. Just before the race started CO went over the course with us again. It didn't seem too bad and since we thought that it'd be two laps of the course that we would have to run we were quite prepared.

We took our places at the starting point and was greeted by Please Note that the course have changed somewhat since last year - it is now an out and back loop course and there is only ONE lap. Suddenly everything was different.

The starting gun went and we started our way up the first hill. The hill was quite steep, but I felt relatively okay. A bit slippery in bits, but it wasn't too bad. Once at the top of the hill, the fun really started. I was faced with a LOT of mud all over the place. Even my spikes weren't up to this mud as the mud was deeper than my spikes would take ground. One kilometer went by relatively quickly.

We made a turn at some point during the second kilometer and started going down a hill. Ahhhh, relaxing... NOT. The mud was also present there, and every stride I took, I hoped that my ankle would still be in tact once I had to take the next stride. Apparently someone broke an ankle at this particular race last year, and that would be the reason why they changed the course. Well, I didn't see the use of the change as they kept the part that was so dangerous last year, in this version of the course.

Then, just after 2km was complete, we suddenly came to a halt. There was a stile to be climbed over and the group of people hadn't spread out enough yet. For 2 minutes we waited patiently till it was our turns to climb over.

The third and fourth kilometers seemed okay apart from the slippery mud that seemed to cover just about everything. I kept a relatively nice pace going and enjoyed the fact that I hadn't gotten any scratches as so many other runners seemed to have picked up along the course.

The start of the 5th km was marked by another hill, that made me think they wanted to test our hill climbing abilities. Just about everyone started walking halfway up the hill and by the time I got to the top I thought that there was no way that they would put another hill like that on the course. I was wrong of course. Half a km later there was once again another one that no-one expected. I heard someone behind me mutter You must be kidding me! I silently agreed with him but carried on.

With the worst of the course behind me, I then settled into a relatively nice pace. There was, however, one more stile to climb over. I saw it and slowed down a little. Well, I came to an abrupt halt. By my feet slipping out from under me and me finding myself staring at the clouds in the sky. I must've laid there for about 10 seconds, wondering whether I should even attempt to get up.

Then I got up, and as the stile was a meter away from where I slid, climbed over the stile. I jumped off ... and immediately found myself facing upwards again. By now my backside was completely covered in mud. I wanted to cry. I wanted to laugh. I didn't want to get up again, but I did. I then ran the last couple of miles and finished up with the rest of the club cheering me on.

Of course everyone realised that I was okay, so they figured that a few laughs at my falling was in order.

It was a lovely race, and I'll definitely take part again next year.

Below are the elevation map that I got from my forerunner and another Google Earth picture of the race course.