My second cross country race of the season, and in fact my second ever. I'd heard about the hill at prudhoe but hadn't really thought about it too much before today - soon I would find out how bad it was.
Got chatting to another runner on the walk up to the start line who also informed me there was also a stream to cross followed by another sharp hill and a tricky tree to negotiate. I was beginning to realize why prudhoe is considered to be the toughest of the cross country races.
With temperatures hitting 18 degrees it wasn't typical cross country weather but I certainly wasn't complaining as it also made for a lovely drive up and relaxing walk up to the start line.
Since joining the saltwell harriers I haven't been able to make any of the training sessions yet so didn't really know any of the other members yet, but I was made very welcome beforehand and had a good chat with a few of them.
As I'm training for the marathon of the north I've came off a pretty full on training week, running 9.5 miles at dinnertime and cycling to work and back (14 miles) yesterday but I felt pretty good at the start and confident that I could put in a good effort.
As the gun went off there were about 10 runners immediately off before me but I knew from wrekenton that this wouldn't last and I wouldn't be able to hold this position for the whole race, but even so for the first 10 minutes or so of the race I felt pretty strong .
Because of the hot weather the ground was pretty firm and my newly bought fell shoes were easily capable of coping with it, although I will probable invest in a pair of spikes for the new season.
After the initial small rise from the start line it's pretty much all downhill which is good for getting up a bit of speed (as long as you can keep on your feet) but as its a 2 lap course I knew that the further downhill I went the more I would have to climb again. Twice.
When the stream came it wasn't as bad as I thought and my feet got barely wet (unlike the Stanhope fell race where you go in almost up to your waist), and I still felt pretty good at this point.
Then shortly after came the hill.
I've ran up steeper and longer hills before but never in a race ( well maybe apart from stanhope but that's a different kettle of fish). On the positive side there was a lot of support with many people cheering and clapping which definitely helped the slog to the top which at times seemed like it was never ending.
Once I got to the top though it didn't take long to recover which I think is probably due to some of the intervals and speed work I've been doing over the past few weeks. I knew though that I had it to face again on the second lap.
By now I had been passed by a fair few runners and I had no idea what position I was in but still felt a lot better than I did at around the point at wrekenton.
The second lap went pretty much the same as the first with the additional dread of having to face the hill a second time. The only consolation I had was seeing other runners around me also struggling (apart from the odd runner from the fast/medium pack racing past like a mountain goat).
Almost at the Finish I was passed by Jim from saltwell who I had been talking too before the start who ran from the medium pack, and I finnished one place behind him. After the race he told me I had finnished in 31st place - one off getting into the medium pack aaargh!
Cross country is a difficult type of race to measure your progress. Because all of the courses are different you can't rely on times along so although I was about a minute faster than wrekenton this doesn't take into consideration the distance, terrain and on the day conditions. Even so I felt I had a much better race than wrekenton and felt a lot stronger throughout.
I still need to work on my pacing strategy - I'm pretty sure I couldn't have went up the hill any faster, but having run the course now I would like to think I could push myself a bit harder next time.
Roll on next season!!!!!
