Northern Cross Country Champs

A while ago I turned my ankle whilst out doing an off road run.  Luckily it seemed ok for the rest of the run and when I got home I iced it and took some ibuprofen for a few days, carried on training as normal and all seemed ok.  

Unfortunately, with every cross country race I have done my ankle/achilles has been feeling niggly either during or after and getting worse after every race.  I've managed to keep things going in training by icing and stretching several times a day and convincing myself its just a niggle and nothing more.  

So I "attempted" the Northern Cross Country Champs in Pontefract yesterday.  I knew things weren't great on my warm up as it was worse than it has been in training all week. At this point I was still trying to convince myself all will be ok and it just needs warming up and will be fine.  I started the race and it was sore.  Things just went from bad to worse - from being sore but manageable to practically limping by 3k.  At this point I was just jogging until I saw my husband and had to pull out.  

I'm gutted.  I never expected anything amazing at the champs but just to do my best.  Doing cross country this year was to serve a purpose in doing something different (I haven't done cross country properly for over 10 years with just 2 races 8 years ago) and to gain some strength going into my road running from March onwards.  

I knew that there was a possibility of injury especially to my achilles.  I have been prone to problems from just doing steady runs on bobbly ground in the past but I had to give it a try.  

A few days rest and some physio and hopefully I can get back to training and a rethink of what I want to do.

Cheshire XC Champs

It was the Cheshire Cross Country Champs on Saturday and held at Bolesworth Estate.  A beautiful place for a race and held in a part of it that I hadn't been in before.  It was so muddy and water logged that I should have brought my wellies to walk the course!  We had 2 large laps to do and the back part of each lap had a few short sharp hills.  I did actually expect the course to be a lot hillier that it was though.

Our race went off with the Under 20 men which when I first saw this on the timetable I was a bit disappointed as I felt it might change the way the race was run (possibility of there being men in front blocking the view of any girls that may be ahead).  In the end I was completely wrong as there weren't that many men and most of them went off quite quick!  

So the race started and after 400m I was hating it!  I really wanted to stop.  I just don't run well in calf deep water logged muddy ground!  I just had to keep telling myself that it doesn't matter what happens here, just finish it as its all part of making me stronger for my road races.  After about 1km I was in 4th place but could see a girl ahead who I definitely thought had started off too quick.  I caught her up by around 2km and by now we were on some firmer ground which was more enjoyable!  

I moved into 3rd place and once into the 2nd lap and coming up to the the short hills I felt I was making up ground on 2nd place.  With about 1km to go I had got closer but then she turned a corner and must have accelerated as by the time I got to the corner suddenly the gap had grown again.  It then just wasn't enough to make up to the finish.  I was happy to finish in 3rd and so glad it was over!