Tuesday 12 February 2013

Race report - North District X-Country League - Forres

Due to Westhill duathlon being postponed this was my first race of 2013. It is also my first run-only race since July 2011.

For a cross-country race it is very hilly! I'm pretty sure I have run in actual hill races with less ascent than this. (~771ft according to garmin).

The course runs three loops up and down a hill at the back of Grant Park. Here is the route, complete with hill and speed information. http://app.strava.com/activities/40299449

Underfoot was a bit muddy and soft in patches but it was a dry, claggy sort of mud rather than anything wet and boggy so it didn't really bother me. I made a better shoe choice than a lot of those around me with my adidas swoop trail shoes giving me grip where the road trainers of my competitors wouldn't.

My only target for this race was to finish, so I started fairly calmly at the back and gradually picked people off on each lap as I felt comfortable. Probably a bit too slowly in hindsight but with another race on the Sunday (the aforementioned Westhill Duathlon) it wasn't worth pushing too hard just to pick up a couple of extra places. By the last half mile I was actually up to a sensible running speed though, and feeling comfortable.

I got round the 5.4 miles in 44mins 37. Times aren't up yet so I can't compare against the other racers. The results will be here sometime later this week. Given the surface and the gradient I reckon the shorter distance versus the route and conditions this isn't going to be far off the time I could run for 10k at the minute. This is a lot faster than I expected, despite the slow start so I am quite happy with the average being around 8:10 min/mile.

This is also the first of my major targets for the year crossed off the list already.

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