Sunday....supposed to be a day of rest (and running) , but the work gods decided otherwise and being that I've just finished, I haven't been able to get out for a run today. That said I almost certainly made up for it with yesterdays outing at Prudhoe XC. It was a tad windy.. 38mph, which didn't help the cause much, kind of like being thrown around in a tumble dryer, then there was THE hill...but I'll get to that in a sec.
I'd been woken up at 4am by the puppy wanting to go to the loo, dutifully got up and let her out, but then she was awake and wanting to play :S Rather than have her bark the house down I stayed up and indulged her for 10 mins before she went back to sleep, and I was left wide awake :( After work had a bit of a mad dash getting myself over to Prudhoe, but eventually found the school, got myself parked about a mile from the start and headed on over there. I just caught the end of the men's race as I arrived, and couldn't believe how windy it was...being that we started pretty much at the top of the hill where it was exposed, I had a hard time believing the guys saying I didn't need a long sleeved top on.
Anyways, I'm rambling ;)
We set off, across farmers fields, heading generally down the fell. I couldn't see a damn thing cause my hair was swirling round my head like some mad Old English sheepdog. Hanging onto Lynn from Tynedale and Lisa from Wallsend, I was following their feet and hoping I didn't step in a rut, or trip over. We seemed to go down for ages, and knowing that the finish was up near the start you started to get the sinking feeling that the hill back up was going to be horrible.
We passed through a stream twice, lots of boggy muddy bits and then we hit the big climb. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but with the strength-sapping mud at the bottom, and the high winds it felt like climbing a mountain. I have to admit to walking part of the way up - as evidenced in this piccie by Ally McDonald
I think I just felt really unfit rather than in pain, I'm putting it down to the three months off with injury, but after all that I did manage to come in 37th, in a time of 28:42 which isn't too unreasonable. I didn't manage to stick with Lisa or Lynn up the hill, but I did feel pretty pleased that I managed to get out there at all. After a warm down I headed inside for coffee and cake and then a nice chilled out ride back home with Galaxy FM on ...sounds for the weekend :D
One final shout out to Lesley Anne from Stocksfield Striders...she picked the hardest xc of the season to choose as her first race, and got round admirably, despite the course markers being taken down as she finished...a big Well Done Gal ! and I hope this doesn't put you off too much - Temple Park is a lot easier :D
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