Bleeding Eyeballs & Strawberry Shoelaces: English National Cross Country Relays Race Report

I wasn’t sure I was doing this right. It would be a 2 hour drive to Mansfield, for a run that would last 15 minutes. Not sure that’s the right way round. However, I’d been told there was cake so I was in.

I’d run this race before and I had vague remembrances of mud, elbows and swearing that I would never do it again. I dismissed it. My memory is unreliable. I LIKE running. Besides it’s only 3km and that’ll take me a few minutes then I can go and find this cake that I’ve been promised.

I was a bit concerned that I was in the wrong team. I liked my team mates but I was definitely the weak link in this relay. Emily was the club’s cross country star and one of their top ladies and was more than capable of a brilliant sub 18 time on a hilly 5k course. And Angela Copson who held multiple running WORLD RECORDS!. And me. Me who falls into ditches, is unreliable on any distance less than about 5 miles (and even then I stop to take pictures of alpacas) and who has done precisely 3 cross country races in her life. Including the one where I was 13 and gave up after ½ a mile. Although in my defence I started running again once I’d scored a sweetie off the marshal.   

We arrived in a field full of young people in running shorts and craggy old men with white hair and thick coats. The clatter of spikes, the queues for the portaloos and the sound of a horn signalling the start of a race. There was mud, wind, rain and enthusiasm. We moved through the field, a colourful mess of team tents, club colours and flags and finally found the team tent in the usual chaos of bags, unattended trainers and under 17s. And 2 giant boxes of strawberry shoelace sweeties. Brilliant.

Strawberry shoelaces Source

The weather was undecided so I wasn’t sure which shoes to go for so had brought my Salomon Crossfire 3 and New Balance spikes although it was the first time I’d raced in these. I asked the more experienced runners what they’d recommend and the result was unanimous – spikes.  

My nervous energy was keeping me warm as I jittered from one foot to the other. Emily was on the first leg of the relay and was running the first 3km. We ran a warm-up together and decided to run the lower half of the circuit. We got just to the open part by the lake when the skies opened. It was the throw-a-bucket type rain which meant you were drenched within 30 seconds. Oh well. At least if I fell in one of the bogs I’d already be wet.

Walked up to the starting pens with Angela and we caught sight of Emily waiting to go. We waved and bellowed to wish her luck. They called them all through onto the field, the gun fired and they were off in a jostle of elbows, spikes and flying mud.

Ladies at English National Cross Country Relays Source

The marshal, weathered and ancient called the 2^nd leg through and told us we’d hear our team mate’s number being called over the tannoy as they came up the field. There was no baton or anything like that. Your teammate finished on one side of a barrier and you set off on the other. No cross over at all. And what the marshal meant when he said you’d hear it on the tannoy was “The tannoy doesn’t work but if you’re lucky you might hear it muttered.”

I had 2 seconds warning of Emily coming in. Checked it was her then dashed through the hordes of girls in front of the line and pegged it across the line.

Run as fast as I can while trying to keep pace maintainable. Overtaken by the first person. Crap. Don’t try to catch them now, pick them up near the end when they tire. Just keep running. Check Garmin – am running at 5:56 min/miles. Crap, can’t run at 5:56 min/miles. Passed by second girl. Crap crap. Splosh through a boggy muddy bit. Wet feet. Just keep running. Ooh into the woods. More mud. Round the duck pond. Where are the ducks? Mud! Argh! More people coming!! Just run Sarah! Don’t let Emily and Angela down! Argh! More mud. Stupid wrong spikes don’t have much grip and feet are doing spinning roadrunner impression. Up the hill. Puff, pant. Ooh downhill. Argh slippy leaves. Uphill. More woods. Eyesight is actually going blurry. Am running as hard as I can in these conditions and with roadrunner spinning feet. Just keep running (to tune of Just Keep Swimming in Finding Nemo) just keep running. Ok, mustn’t kill self by going too hard now and fading at end but have to keep pushing. Out of the woods. Hooray!! Someone with a tannoy shouts “Go on Rugby & Northampton”. Feels as though I am running in slow motion but going fast as I can. Stupid uphills. Stupid running. Push push. Just keep running. Stupid grass. More woods. Stupid woods. And downhill!! Stupid downhill. Legs hurt and it feels as though eyeballs are bleeding. Just keep running and final uphill. Girl just in front. Must overtake her. Stupid slippy hill. Push push and there’s the finish!! Phew! Can sit down.

Sit down. Check eyeballs. Relieved to find not in actual fact bleeding. Legs appear intact despite what senses are telling me. Stupid short distances. Stupid cross country. And it was raining.        

Cheered in Angela and got back to Rugby & Northampton tent. Which wasn’t there. It had been taken down in my absence and some git had eaten all the strawberry shoelaces.

Walked back to the car and stopped at the stall to buy a ‘English National Cross Country Relays’ hooded sweatshirt ... which was now only available in 14 – 15 years. Sigh.

Got to the car and finally started getting feeling back in my hands. My face returned to a normal colour and my vision started coming back. 

Emily turned to me in the car: “How did you find that?”

“Brilliant.” I said. “When can I do that again?”

RESULTS: 51^st club

0:37:53.80 Rugby & Northampton AC

0:11:03.10 Emily

0:13:27.45  Sarah

0:13:23.25  Angela

There's a Reason I Shouldn't Be Allowed Out Unsupervised ...

I decided to make an effort and go to my own running club yesterday. Well, I say my own. It’s the Rugby club part of the Northampton & Rugby AC ... the one which is a couple of miles from my house and which I’ve never actually made it along to. I keep meaning to go but never actually seem to get there. Becca and Amy, my team-mates from the Cross Countries on Saturday mentioned they go along on Tuesdays and Thursdays and invited me along so I decided to pop along to run with them.

Fantastic for speed work

I finished work at 5pm in Northampton, dashed home along the M1 – thankfully un-queued – picked up the 3 year old - who promptly wee-ed in her car seat. Got home – changed the 3 year old, changed myself from work clothes into running gear, shovelled some yoghurt and seeds into my mouth and set off for the club.

Somehow I was on time.

Got to the gates of the club and there was a crowd of people in hi-viz gear, obviously about to go out for a run. Great! Had a chat to a couple of people who were there for the first time and who were looking to move from sprinting into longer distance running and they confirmed that this was the running group. Had a quick look around and didn’t seem Amy or Becca but they were a nice friendly group and I love running with other people. I do 99% of my training on my own so it’s a real treat to run with others.

We ran about a mile and a half through the town and to a park I’d never seen before. This is one of the great things about running – all the new routes and places you get to find. I LOVE being nosy.

The group leader pointed out where we were running: start from the red bin, over the bridge – avoiding the post – along the bottom road, back over the other bridge – avoiding the other post – up to the light on the corner and back along the top straight along to the red bin again. Apparently it was about 600 metres a lap and the plan was to do one lap at marathon pace, one lap at half-marathon pace and the third lap at 5k pace and to repeat this three times.

Finally! FINALLY! I have a pace for all distances! It always used to confuse me at track when people used to ask me to do things at certain paces (without giving a speed) when I hadn’t yet run that distance in a race. I never quite knew whether to run it at the time I thought I’d actually do it in or the time I’d like to do it in. Or whether just to run around like I knew what I was doing. Finally ... I have a speed for all 3 paces.

I did the first lap at about 8:30 minutes per mile, the second lap at 7:30 m/mile and the final lap at about 7:00 m/mile. My Garmin got a bit confused by the trees and the numbers kept jumping around – or maybe it was my poor pacing but I managed to keep at round about the right speeds for the laps. Everyone seemed to be doing different things, but I concentrated on what I was doing and kept going on round. I don’t know what it is about interval work, but even though I was going slower than 5k pace for two-thirds of the laps, it felt harder than a normal 5k done at my usual speed. Or maybe it’s just so long since I’ve raced 5k I’ve forgotten how hard they feel.

Anyhow, intervals always feel great when you’ve finished. I always end up with a proper Runners High and a big grin. Maybe it’s relief that I’ve finished but I always feel amazing afterwards.

We ran back to the club and did some stretches at the gates and decided what we were going to do next week. The consensus was to do something similar but include some hills on the laps. I said my goodbyes and looked towards the track ... and saw Becca – my team mate from Saturday!

Went down to have a chat and apparently Tuesdays are track work. I’d just joined a friendly – but completely random – group of people for a run. Whoops. Not sure I should be allowed out unsupervised ...!