I will never be 'good' at cross country. It favours light, leggy, slim people who have run from childhood, not overweight 30 somethings who run casually. It is also very humbling; everyone there is a good runner who runs for a club and therefore takes their running relatively seriously. It is muddy. It is usually cold. It isn't always friendly. Essentially this 'ain't no fun run'.
I do often question why I do it. I have come to the conclusion it is a mixture of FOMO and also the need to apply some pressure to my running. I don't often make myself work like I work at cross country. And as I said, we watch the boys go next on the increasingly muddy course, drink tea and cheer loudly. I like to be one of the girls on the team occassionally.
Photo by Billy Franks
But as the first match of the season drew close, I felt mega anxious. I actually felt a bit sick as I parked up at the Sheepfoot lane car park of Heaton Park for the first match of the 24/25 season. It is my first season as a Vet35 as I turned 35 a week after my first match last season. To be honest it makes no difference. I had been stressed about parking but found a space without too much bother. Then it was just the walk up through the beautiful autumn cloaked Heaton Park, past the junior races, to the loos and then the gazebo pitching area. Fortunately I was found by a team mate as no gazebo had arrived yet (I was early). I relaxed a bit as I started chatting with the few gathered ladies, most of whom were there from their children being in the junior races.
I expressed multiple times my reservations about Heaton Park as a season opener. For those that don't know it, it is in the slightly hillier north of Manchester, and used to be the largest municipal park in Europe. It has everything from a golf course, to a petting farm, to a garden centre in, with tree covered areas, grasslands and obviously parkland.It is probably one of the more challenging courses in the calendar (since Boggatt Hole was removed, though Woodbank with its savage hill has returned). It used to come mid season but it then did have some of the thickest mud I have ever seen. I have also been sleeted on, blown away and frozen. So be to removing layers before the start as I was too warm was somewhat a surprise.
After various catch ups, stripping layers and number pinning, I joined the girls heading to the start line. I was running in shorts and vest, which felt unusual for cross country (I usually need a base layer). I felt a better having chatted to people but still nervous. I had chatted to a few people doing their first event and wished them well. Initially I was stood right at the back but I decided to weave just a little further forward.
And then the gun went and we were off. 270 ish women surged down the first slope in to the dip. My plan was to keep it steady. This course has broken me before. There was a slight change this year due to some kind of tree work by the garden centre (don't quote me, I didn't read the memo) and instead there was now more tarmac. The loss of this tree section worried me a bit as I often do well in the tree roots. However, my usual option of fell shoes not spike would pay off on the tarmac section. It is a three lapper with roughly three uphills in each, including the savage uphill at the end of each lap where crowd line the route and you feel you can't walk even though you are dying.
There is a lot of shuffling in the first lap. Lots of people stormed past me, particularly as we entered the Papal Field, on the gradual climb here. 'Let the pack do the work' was my mental motto: there is still a long way to race and I could use people around me to set a steady pace, stay out the wind (I'm a big girl, it makes a difference), and later move up. And as we ducked and dived down in to the trees and up the steep mini slope, I just kept pottering on. I could see about three Chorlton ladies in the distance but didn't think I would catch them. I enjoyed the view over Manchester from next to the pitches before dipping down the tarmac path towards the trees, roots and tumbled out on to the path at the bottom. Then its along a path (or the grass next to it if you are in spikes) before the slog up the long hill lined with spectators to start the second lap.
We'd spaced out by the second lap and I just kept the Chorlton girls in view across the Papal field. ' keep plodding steadily, run your own race' I told myself. I went past the amazing Levenshulme runners marshalling the entrance to the trees and got told not to walk by one of the guys in my club as I headed for the pitches. I was actually starting to gain on people. By the end of the lap, there were a few people walking and several blowing really rather hard with over a mile still to go. To be fair, every other race, this has been me. Could I have run this race sensibly!?!?
As we started the final hill of the lap for the second time, I caught up with the first of the Chorlton ladies ahead of me. I felt bad to over take but just had more as we dropped down the first dip of the final lap. I also knew I had to start to push at some point, but when? Its all well keeping under wraps but you don't want reserves in the tank at the end, nor do you want to go to early. I really couldn't tell which was my body was going to go! In the end I started to push at the football pitches, as there was a much younger lady from Warrington Runners coming up on me, and I wouldn't out run her in a sprint (which it eventually came down to, and I lost). So I pushed it down the concrete went for it. As I popped out on the path I realised I wasn't far off some of the other Chorlton ladies (though too far to catch them) who I would never normally finish near. I put in a push down the concrete and then tried to keep going up that blooming hill. I thought I had a kick at the end but in reality I just trundled along the flatter finishing tunnel (just behind the young lady from Warrington).
I was pleased with my time but less pleased with my photos. I look like a hippo. But its nice to know I am a pacier hippo than previously I suppose....I also might now have to retire from cross country as that was the performance of a lifetime from me!
So what have I learnt and can I pass on for cross country matches?
1) Prepare to be humbled- as I said, this ain't no fun run
2) Don't get dragged along; if you don't think you can hold the pace for 5 miles, you probably can't
3) Know the course. Walk it if you can. Listen to tips if you can't.
4) When the chips are down, and you know you went off too fast, manage what you have left: good at uphills? relax a bit on the flat and push those hills, good at flatter sections? walk the uphills if you must but try make up for it on the flat
5) Fuel timing is everything. The matches are usually lunch time or afternoon and this just makes it complicated. Try find a strategy that works for you.
6) Don't look at the match photos. Very few people look good in them. (Unless you are skinny, pretty or gifted)
7) Back of the pack is fine: you are here and most amateur runners are too scared too be
8) Seat covered, plastic bags, wellies for getting too and from, waterproofs and many layers. This sport is not glam.
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