Cross Country Update

As I've been absent on most Saturday mornings, I thought I would give an update on the cross country exploits of the regulars, which appears to have been reduced to EYJ and myself due to YJ's continued recovery from injury. I don't think I've seen TF at any of the events.
For me, the season started with quite a decent performance at Burnley, 50:08 for 6 miles, just getting the better of Paul Murray by 10 seconds which I think was the first time I'd not been passed by Paul who is one of the best pace-judgers around. I was happy that there were 40 runners behind me.
Then disaster : I used to enjoy the challenge of Witton Park, but this year it was so muddy that I was hopeless. Red Rose had shipped the V65 and V70 runners out into the Ladies Race with very little publicity about it:  nothing on their frequently updated website. I'd not run the first race in the series so only knew of it as a rumour but confirmed it with Pete Ramsdale in the morning which ensured EYJ arrived in time for his much earlier start. Paul, however, was oblivious to the change, having checked the information on their website, so although he had arrived at the venue in good time, was relaxing with a newspaper in the car as part of his preparation for his expected start-time of 2.30 rather than 1.35. EYJ took a bit of time to get up to speed in his shortened race but still dominated the V70 age group. I had a slow slog through the mud and was a couple of minutes behind one Chorley Harrier who I'd beaten by no less than 14 minutes at Burnley; another, one-time Horwich member, Barry Chapman who'd given me a battle at Burnley, beating me by six seconds, took six minutes out of me. Only five runners followed me in.
And so onto Hyndburn. Yet another mud bath but with less hills than Blackburn. EYJ says he took it easy. He still won the V70 category and beat the first in V65 category, with only one guest in front of him in the M65/M70 race. I felt I ran much better than at Blackburn but there were still only 8 behind me. I'm sure EYJ would have easily beaten me if he were in the same race. The next Horwich runner in front of me was Pete Ramsdale, over seven minutes ahead.
A disaster of a different kind at Clayton Vale. Thanks to Man City having a 3 o'clock kick-off combined with road closures, we only made the start line with moments to spare. Obviously this meant a sensible first lap to warm up. Muddy again but I chose to run in studs and I think it was preferable for much of the course. EYJ had yet another fine run. Okay, he's the only V70 listed so by default he won his category, but he also beat all eight V65's in the race. He beat me by nearly three and a half minutes. and was only two minutes behind Pete Ramsdale. I was, however, improving, and nearly got the better of Barry Chester : I just needed a bit further as I closed the gap to 3 seconds at the finish.
Yesterday we ventured over to Liverpool and Sefton Park for the big event as the Mid Lancs League, along with the Merseyside League was incorporated into the same race as the UK Trials for the European Cross Country Championships.  Therefore I'd gone from the Red Rose League at Blackburn where I ran the last lap with nobody close to me to a race which had competition all the way round and some very fast runners flying past on the latter part of my lap 2.
Back to spikes for me with no gravel tracks to contend with. EYJ chose studs but afterwards felt he lacked grip.
With a field of 480, I set off near the back but kept my eye on Pete Bland and EYJ not too far ahead. Halfway round the first lap Pete passed EYJ and I closed up towards him. My intention was just to stay behind him so that I didn't blowit. But you know how it is, you end up going past even though it's not part of the plan. I could see Blandy about 40 metres ahead and Pete Ramsdale a similar distance in front of him. Against sense, I gradually closed towards Blandy so that by the end of the first lap, no runners separated us. Five metres was about as close as I got as I then started to feel the effort and although didn't go back drastically did find the next two laps hard work, expecting EYJ and the other usual suspects to hunt me down. My final time was 49:57 for the 5.9 miles with EYJ a minute behind, Pete Bland had stretched his lead over me to 1:35 with Pete Ramsdale a further 24 seconds ahead. I'd finally beaten Barry for the first time this Winter and a few more of YJ's clubmates. I now need to build on it and get back to the standard of 2010. The results are not fully completed yet so I can't tell how EYJ did in his category.
Two weeks before the next XC up at Kendal so there's a good chance that I'll UTUP next Saturday.