National Cross-Country Championships - XCellent!

 

After an absence of two years, the National was back on the calendar on Saturday 26th February and it was business as usual except for the fact that the weather was fine and the course was remarkably firm, with a few, obvious exceptions!

Callendar Park in Falkirk was once again the venue. The host club, Falkirk Victoria Harriers, had set a course similar to that used the previous time the event was held and once again had provided a challenging course with hills, muddy sections (mainly the sticky, heavy type of mud rather than splashy, slippery mud) and firm, fast sections on a lap which the seniors covered 3 times to give a total distance of 10.2km.

However before the seniors raced, all the younger junior age group races took place and this year we were represented by two Harriers and one family; Anna Lindsay, who took part in the U15 race over a distance of 4.3km (1 small lap + 1 large lap) and Eve Lindsay who took part in the U17 race over a distance of 6.2km (2 medium laps). Anna maintained a great pace to finish in 21:21 and Eve did equally well over the longer course in 33:57. Well done to both girls and also a big thanks for hanging on to support the seniors much later in the afternoon (not that they had much choice as dad, Graeme was running in the last race of the day!).

Our senior ladies were represented by Karen Allen and Frances Ferguson, a smaller Harriers turn out than usual but no less committed as both Karen and Frances were fully fired up for this event. Karen has been targeting the latter part of the XC season and has supplemented her consistent running training with many months of regular strength conditioning. This paid off with a strong performance, reversing a "target" scalp from the Lanarkshire XC a few weeks ago and maintaining very good form to the end of the 3 laps. Karen finished in an official time of 47:11 in 93rd position. A top 100 position in the National is a result to be proud of. Frances has also been working hard on strength as she builds the foundations of fitness back up again after a very successful recuperation from a knee operation a few years ago and has had an excellent racing season so far. Although the provisional official results for the senior ladies are incomplete, we can see from Frances' Garmin that her time was 52:23 (now confirmed from updated official results) and 8th F55. Well done Karen and Frances.

The Harriers' senior men were also slightly down on numbers due partly to a few recent injuries and illness. However, we did have a welcome return to racing after a few years of injury for Andy Buchanan. In total we had ten men competing.  Pre-race warm-ups, kit changes, number pinning and chip attaching complete (does anyone else wonder if the chip attachment instructions were written in response to someone actually trying to attach the chip to the laces of both shoes, or is it just my closet, stand-up comedian mind?):

the Harriers moved nervously to the gathering throng on the start line. Thankfully social distancing is no longer a thing in competitive sport and the massive field of runners provided a welcome shelter from the cold wind. Frances intercepted the customary (X-1) Harriers for team photos on their way to the start line (where X = the total number of Harriers running) and captured the pre-race nerves on "film".

I usually recce the first km to work out which side of the start line to position myself on to avoid being crushed to a standstill on the inside of the first series of bends. This time, I didn't recce that part of the course and chose the wrong side (in fact, I should probably have gone to the middle rather than the right side). Let's try to take you verbally around a lap of the course. When the gun (actually a car horn) sounded, I accelerated away and used my elbows and hands to maintain my space within a very congested rumble of feet on firm grass and within inches of flashing spikes flicking up towards my legs. With the background noise of a cheering crowd, cow bells and a very obvious sense of trepidation and excitement within the field, this is what makes the National a special experience within the Scottish racing calendar.

The first part of the course is firm and uphill but doubles back on itself twice on the top of the hill before taking us back downhill from whence we came towards Callendar House, the golf course and the "challenges" beyond. It was on top of this first hill that I found myself boxed in and almost at a standstill at the first turn. By the second turn, I had made few bold moves to slide through some gaps and by the time I reached the first descent (just before which I saw Kevin and Graeme), I was putting in a very fast burst to get into clear space before the course flattened out. This year the course went round behind Callendar House on the gravel drive (rather than the muddy ditch I remember from a few years ago) and the sound of spikes on gravel brought back memories of racing 800m's on cinder tracks at school and university (unfortunately without the pace I had back then!). From very firm ground we transitioned immediately onto heavy mud, squeezing through a narrow gate and onto the golf course. This part of the course was also the familiar mud-plugging exercise but as we were heading uphill on this part of the golf course rather than downhill as we used to do, we were heading for firmer ground.

We were now heading on a very good running section of the golf course to the most distant part of the lap and the pace was picking up. For some reason, there was a huge crowd ahead and I could already hear very loud cheers as the leaders were passing through the infamous ditch some several hundred metres ahead. With the benefit of having watched the ladies' race, we were well advised to stick to the left side of a tree in the middle of the water/mud filled ditch as there was a very deep hole on the right side resulting in many belly flops into the mud, much to the amusement of the spectators. A cautious descent into the ditch to conserve some energy, one foot in the deep water and one foot out the other side and power up the steep bank, digging the spikes in was the tactic I adopted. In general, I was making up ground on this part of the course. Then we had the familiar, flat fast stretch back towards the tented village. The tented village was the usual quagmire but from there we hit a steep section climbing up onto the Antonine Wall and then another fast but slightly soft section past the high flats before making a U-turn and progressing parallel to the main road on another typically muddy section on top of the mound again.

The descent down to the main drive was nowhere near as muddy as it has been in the past enabling a rapid drop to the drive before crossing to the other side and up the bank to the hill we had started on and the next lap began. I was having a bit of ding-dong battle with a number of runners throughout the race, sometimes pulling ahead (usually on the hills) and then being passed again on the faster sections. By the last lap, I had it in my mind that I would make the passes count. The big push started coming out of the ditch the last time where I caught an M55 who had beaten me in all the cross-country races so far this year and had been 10 or 15 metres in front up until this point. I went past coming out of the ditch and kept the pressure on, expecting to be passed again. Through the tented village and I still had not been passed. At the steep hill up onto the Antoine Wall, I caught another group who were spread across the racing line. I squeezed through a gap and powered up, determined not to take the foot off the gas and be caught. From this point on, I was on the limit but maintaining form. There is a slippy climb on the section that runs parallel to the road and I lost a bit of momentum here as I slipped. However, I managed to accelerate away from this and from that point on it was really an extended effort for the final 400m.

Careful not to fall on the final turn onto the drive, I started to sprint. This was the only part of the course where the headwind was noticeable. However, I had been working a lot on very fast 200m efforts at the end of rep sessions before the relay season started to try to get some genuine speed (at least for an M55) back into the legs and the muscle memory was still there. There was a big gap in front of me, so I wasn't going to catch anyone but was fearful of being caught which usually happens to me in this final straight. Unfortunately, another part of the course I hadn't recced was the finishing straight and I didn't really know if the finish line was at the end of the gravel drive or another 50m beyond on the grass. 50m makes a difference when sprinting! Having started the full-on sprint as soon as I hit the drive, I was really pleased to see the timing mats on the edge of the grass and had even managed to accelerate a bit more for the final 20m. Nobody passed me, which was a bonus. A Corstorphine AC runner came up and asked what club we were and said he had been trying to close a 10m gap all the way down the straight. From the results, I see he was an M40, so happy to have stayed in front. My finishing time was 42:17 and was 10th M50.

Graeme Lindsay continued his excellent progression and was the second Harrier home in 44:50, confirming the cross-country form demonstrated in Strathaven 2 weeks before. Andrew Buchanan has not raced for a few years due to injury and the pandemic. This is a race and a course that Andy really loves and he was desperate to do this one and get the buzz of racing again. Andy made an excellent comeback in a time of 45:21 and now has a base to build from to get back to his previous form (where we could have expected him to be the first Harrier home). Callum Wright has not managed to squeeze as much training or racing in recently but again would benefit hugely from the training effect of this race, finishing in 46:51. Thereafter, it was a case of a switcheroo as far as the "normal" finishing orders for Harriers this season is concerned. Kevin Farmer didn't fall this time and used this race as a strength session for his marathon preparation, finishing in 47:23. The incredible David Wardrope, "fresh" from a warm weather marathon a week ago and no runs since then, ran a well paced 50:59, which he thorougly enjoyed. It was Gordon McInally's turn to see the back of Davie Wardrope this week but Gordon still ran his fastest time on this course to finish in an excellent 52:06. Jim Holmes admitted to lacking sustained miles in the legs and faded dramatically in the latter stages of the race to finish in 53:15. Hopefully this was just a case of pace judgement and not a sign of a serious loss of fitness. Geo Ferguson is well used to difficult conditions and long days in the hills and so the minor hills of Callendar Park proved no real problem to the steady paced Geo who finished in 56:17. Finally, Russell Couper also hadn't managed any running in the past week and so was a little worried about how we would handle this. However, he succeeded in running a reasonably even paced 63:13 and would again benefit from the training effect of this race. In this case, our first 6 runners made up a complete team and we finished 33rd team.

Well done to all the Harriers who competed in this major event. A huge thanks to all the support we had on the course and with setting up the club tent. Kenny Leinster, Stephen and Frances Phimister, Lorraine Buchanan (family and dug) and Kirsty Wilson (and Winston) were the ones I saw but if there was anyone else, thanks to you too.

Some photos I took during the ladies' race and Frances took during the men's race are in this album. Feel free to add to it.

Alan