I took part today in a muddy Gwent League cross country race, the first in this years series. I didn't know really what to expect as I've only ever done low key XC races and this one was expected to have a large high class field. And that's the way it turned out, a huge field (well over 300 people) and some very skinny, fast looking runners!
It was a 3 lap course for the men (advertised as 10k, but it was a little longer), mainly flat across playing fields with some short, sharp hills in some woods. As I didn't know the course (or how fast it was going to be) I decided to shadow one of the guys I knew for the first lap as he knew the course and I knew I could hold pace with him (I knew from previous runs I was just a little faster than him). This proved to work well, I took it "steady" on the first lap, overtook a load on the second lap and a few more on the final lap.
It was a tough race, very slippery on the hills and quite fast on the flat sections, There were some very fast guys there and I guess I need to learn a few tactics for the upcoming XC races (I was a little too "polite" with my other racers, letting them through at times) but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was 96th (out of 321) in a time of 41.18, happy with that on my first outing. Train and race smart all!
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