National XC Championships - Alton Towers - 19 February 2011...

Distance: 10k (6.2 miles)

In a time of...
hh:mm:ss
00:40:47

Finishing Position: 142
Number of finishers: 1302
Putting me in the top: 10.9%

What an absolute bloomin' mudfest this was! We arrived at Alton Towers and parked up close to the entrance (thankfully we had a 'club tent' pass allowing us to park closer to the entrance), we loaded the club tent onto the golf trolley and set off towards the course. We got to the entrance and whilst we knew it'd be raining, we honestly didn't expect to see that amount of mud... it honestly looked more like a muddy Glastonbury site... just thick deep mud with not a blade of grass in sight. We started to look for a spot to pitch the tent on and I was struggling just to stay on my feet, let alone pull the golf cart + tent through the sludge... we'd have been better off with a sledge as the wheels weren't able to turn at all. After 5mins of struggling, we spotted a field a fair way away from the main start/communal area, but at least it was grassy and reasonable underfoot - having then spent the next 5mins struggling to get there, we were spotted and called over by some clubmates who'd found and saved a space for the club tent on a nice gravelled layby. PERFECT! Except we could've just walked along the road to reach it rather than struggling in the mudpit for 10mins. Nevermind eh.

Rumours began to spread about how bad the conditions were on course, people breaking ankles (although I'm not sure anyone actually did), courses having to be changed for safety reasons, delayed starts - all of which added to the nerves of the occaision. Eventually we knew when we'd be starting we gathered around the start area, lined up into our pens in speed order - So there I was stood at the front of our pen ready for the opening charge. Having had a brief look around some of the course beforehand I think the opening straight was about the only part of the course which was in any way green, yet as the race started it soon became apparent that the green was still very wet and muddy... facefuls of water/dirt being flung up from the spikes of the runners in front as we entered the first corner.

From then on it was just mud, mud, and more mud, the descents were exceptionally bad with thick deep sticky mud that was a nightmare to run through - picking the best line around the entire course was quite an art-form but it seemed as if the mud level varied from ankle deep to shin deep, except on the one steep climb where we were 'treated' to a bit of surface mud... which would've been great if it weren't for the energy sapping climb.

I don't recall a great deal from the race besides finding it really hard work... there were a couple of Coventry Godiva vests which I tried my utmost to stay with/ahead of, one guy in particular I didn't recognise but managed to get & stay ahead of was Chris Bannon, turns out I didn't recognise him because he's usually well ahead of me. There was another Godiva guy who I recognized but who's name escapes me... he pulled alongside and past me on the final lap of the race so I really gave it my all to regain that position and push on ahead. Along the final straight and splashing my way through the puddle/lake I managed to stay ahead I was pleased with how I'd ran, but in honesty I had no idea how my performance rated, and really it didn't matter since the conditions were so out of the ordinary. I wish all XC races were like that - it was a proper off-road challenge, and I suspect that if anything, the dire conditions probably suited me better than many others.

So my first XC nationals was quite an experience, and made me realise that whilst I've come a long way in my ability, there's still a hell of a long way to go before I'm at/near the front!