British & Irish Masters Cross Country International - Perry Park, Birmingham, 14 November 2009

I travelled down to Birmingham with the Scottish Masters Team for the Home International Cross Country Races.

If there are a few dozen call offs, there’s always a slim chance that I might get a call up for the Scottish Team in this annual event.

Fortunately that’s what happened this year as I got a last minute call up for the over 45 team.

The omens for the weekend didn’t look good when we arrived at our posh team hotel. My spikes had punctured holes in my post race cans of beer, smuggled into the hotel in the bottom of my bag (£4 a pint in the hotel bar, no way Jose). Unfortunately my posh dinner/dance prize giving clobber was soaked. I blame Athelite for selling spikes that are too sharp. Hopefully, unless it snows, I’ll not need my spikes at Brampton next week. So don’t panic Jamie, my carry out should survive.

Things didn’t get better when I turned on the TV to hear a weather forecast of gales and heavy rain for race day. I’d been promised an ideal for me flattish firm course. All the track runners would be just as well starting their carry outs the night before.

Our 11am arrival at Perry Park the following morning put my race preparation into disarray. It was 3 hours before my race started, 2 hours 50 mins earlier than my body clock is used to. The weather at the course was as predicted and hundreds of runners were crammed for shelter into a small tea room or a Calderglen Harriers, race for life, size tent.

First race started at midday, for all women plus 65 year old & over men. I tried to offer some support to the team but within 30 mins was soaked through and starting to shiver. Not ideal race preparation so, stuff the team, I needed shelter. I decided to sneak into the nearby 5 star Alexander Stadium’s indoor training arena. Trying to blend in with what looked like a GB 4 x 100m training squad wasn’t going to be easy. I started warming up on the 150m indoor straight running track expecting to be thrown out. However, as usual, the sprinters spent about 99% of the time chatting & stretching so I could easily fit in a warm up and strides.

I managed to simulate my last minute rush by leaving the indoor arena 10 mins before my race began. A quick dash to the start line and we were off. I was in the M35/M40/M45 race, meaning I’d be one of the slowest runners. It was a strange feeling being in last place of such a big numbered race for the first few hundred metres, Russell knows what I’m talking about. I tried to convince myself that I’d do the Kelly Holmes Athens 2004 Olympic tactic of picking off all the runners one by one. In some ways this was achieved. She used to pick off 14 runners in a field of 15, I picked off 14 runners in a field of approx 90.

Unfortunately it just wasn’t my kind of race. The previous races had churned up the course with the resultant mud bath developing before I started. After two laps of the four x 2k laps all the energy had been sapped from my legs. From then on it was a struggle not to loose any places. Disappointingly I lost two places late in the race. This is the part of the race I’m normally at my strongest, but thankfully it didn’t affect the team position. We finished 4^th out of the 5 home international teams. I finished 4^th out of 6 in the Scottish Team meaning I was the last counter. My time was 32.57 for a GPS measured 5.40 miles, which was reasonable on a mud filled course. Performance of the day went to Jeff Farquhar of Pitreavie who had a time of 30.55, wining silver medal in the M50 race.

All in all it was a fantastic experience taking part. Hearing people say “come on Scotland” as you run by is a great feeling. With the strength of Vets we have at Calderglen, injuries permitting, there’s nothing stopping us being one of the best represented clubs in future Scottish Masters Teams.

Martin Duthie

Well done to Martin and thanks for the excellent race report!

Alan