Scottish Masters Cross-Country Championships - Dundee

Two Harriers, Russell and me, competed in the Scottish Masters Cross-Country Championships at Camperdown Park in Dundee on Saturday afternoon, joining almost 500 other veteran athletes in this full Scottish Athletics Championship event. On the road to Dundee, the conditions were not looking favourable. When I left Callander it was cold and sunny but about halfway up the A9, the skies closed in and the sleet started! As I was already nervous about running this race with an injured hip, the prospect of being frozen to the marrow did not appeal. However, by the time I reached the first of the roundabouts on the edge of Dundee, the blue skies were back and the temperature picked up a couple of degrees.

I had left it a little bit late to arrive and parking was tight. Russell was already there and had collected our numbers when I arrived on the course. With about a half hour to go before the start, I had time for a short warm up to see how the hip felt (sore) but mainly I wanted to recce a section of the course on a woodland trail to see if this would be OK with spikes. I decided it was too gravelly, with a few rocks and tree roots, for spikes and it would be less jarring on my hip with fell shoes with rubber studs.

We lined up on a crowded start line with warm sunshine on our backs. A typical Scottish four seasons in one day. Then we were off on a few hundred metre uphill straight on firm grass which already strung the field out. At the top of the hill we turned left on the only flat part of the course along the top of the park before gradually swinging left on a more gradual downhill back towards the start. This downhill was well trodden grass with a few muddy patches and was the only bit I struggled on a little with the fell shoes as the grip was not great. Passing the start, we had completed the first short lap. There were now two longer laps to do to complete the 8km course being contested by the M40 to M60 age groups. After the initial climb again, we turned right and doubled back down to the lowest part of the course through the woods on the gravel trail. Then it was the big climb, all the way back up through the woods and all the way up to the very top of the same hill we had started on, along the top and swung back downhill to end the lap. Finally, one more of those big laps.

I started off cautious but was passing people until about half way when I suddenly felt quite drained. This is just due to the drop off in training over the past 10 days due to the hip pain. Then a few that I had passed started to come past me again. On the climbing sections of the last lap I was struggling but just about holding position. I tried to save some energy for the flat top section and long downhill finish. At the top I consciously relaxed which had the effect of lengthening my stride and increasing my pace. I was passing people again. On the final, long straight to the finish I went past a few more and did the usual lung buster hinging on for the final 200m. I finished in exactly 100th position overall in 33:20 and 11th M55. Being only 2 and a half weeks short of the M60 age group, I was more interested in the fact that there were only 4 M60's in front of me and two of them were within 10 seconds of me, so the podium is the target for next year! Russell ran a very sensible race and did not go with the cavalry charge off the line and hung back. This paid off as Russell ended up catching, passing and putting many minutes between him and one guy in particular who had gone off too fast at the start. Russell finished in 50:17.

This was another well organised championship event put on by Scottish Athletics and hosted by Dundee Hawkhill Harriers. At 8km in length, it also provided a perfect stepping stone on the way to the full National XC in two weeks over the 10km distance. Needless to say, my hip is not great today, so I won't be running for at least a few days. We never learn!

Alan