Two days in a weekend so two races

Had to miss my first Saturday UTUP in awhile as I'd decided to support the club in the Mid Lancs XC league, one of only five men and four women to do so, such was the excess of events this weekend. I arrived in abnormally good time, thanks to giving Christa a lift. Lots of chatting before eventually getting underway with my main competitors being Pete Ramsdale, who I expected to be a few minutes in front of me, but you never know, and Paul Murray, who usually comes flying past me in the second half. Throughout I also had a battle with YJ's clubmate and 80s Horwich member Barry Chester. You think the course is flat but it surprising how the inclines add up to give 600ft of climb. I used my Garmin more to control my heart rate pace throughout and this seemed to work as I was left with a bit of energy in the last half mile to get to sub 6:30 miling for awhile. In the end Barry just got past me in the final 200 metres whilst I managed a gap of ten seconds in front of Paul. Shame that EYJ is still in recovery mode - that would have made for an even more interesting battle. I'm happy with 50:08 for a six mile cross country - I'd be happy enough to get sub 50 on the road so that's okay.

Today brought the Gin Pit 5 over near Atherton. Were it not in the Central Lancs Grand Prix, I don't think I'd bother with this race but it manages to attract nearly 190 runners. This trail race was even muddier than the cross country : one runner I noticed was speckled in mud from head to toe. My right leg was expressing its concern about the madness of back to back races but nevertheless I toed the line and set off at an easy pace. Failing to recharge my Garmin, my pace was down to what was in my head but it seemed to work relatively well as I managed to gradually work though the field rather than being overtaken. A shoelace dysfunction about half way round meant I passed Barry Allman twice and just managed to hold off a Bolton girl on the final climb much to the disgust of her clubmate/coach who was pacing her up the final climb. From last year's log it had 700 ft of climb and I've slowed by two and a half minutes in the past year.