After the hamstring injury, I started my tentative comeback after a couple of weeks with a couple of miles around Two Lads, then slowly upped it until I took the risk of Withins Skyline on Oct 13th - see earlier report.
That was a tester to see if I would be able to cope with a leg of the FRA Relay should the need arise. And with no after effects I declared myself available, at least for the shortest and easiest leg, should the need arise. It did : but not content with using me for the less demanding leg 1, Ali decided that I should do leg 4 and Mark Birbeck run leg 1 as Mark was unsure of his ability to cope with leg 4 and I supposedly had more experience haha!
As Andy has reported, they had a bit of "weather" in Llanberis last Sunday : it was a bit wild on the exposed parts. I took over from Andy and Tim, or rather I set off with around 60 other runners on a "mini mass start"for leg 4 at 3pm with a mad dash up a 1 in 2 slope of slate before settling down, letting the majority pass me and then the hard work of climbing Moel Elio which made up the bulk of the 2000ft of ascent. Of course I was overtaken by a few on the descent and the final part was through a gully which had become a mudbath - perusing the various photos (Holmfirth Harriers on flickr has the most) shows quite a few ending face down in it. Every leg went through this stretch : Leg 1 went up it and the other three legs came down it. With 183 teams of 8 starting, over 1400 runs had preceded me through it. I did beat a few leg 4 runners and I also finished in front of some pairs still out on Andy's leg 3!
Here's a photo Mark took of me just after the start : can you find me?
More photos on Mark's blog - http://fellephant.com/
A great day out - next year it's in my favourite running area of the Howgills so hopefully I'll be fitter and make a team on merit rather than because so many are unavailable.
Yesterday I made my season debut in cross-country. It was a nice surprise to find YJ also toe-ing the line. It was the first time I had run in Walsh PBs for a long while. I was going to run in spikes but much of the course lent itself to running on gravel so PBs were chosen and I thought PBs would be less of a strain on my hamstring. A short warm-up run then stretching and 5 minutes before the start, I re-tied my laces. Only problem was that the lace on the right shoe decided to break. The quality is not what it used to be. I managed to make a knot and re-tie. However, it did feel a bit loose all the way round so I was concerned that I could lose the shoe in the muddier parts. Got round though in 51:11 with 40 behind me so quite happy as the course was only 200m short of 10k.
I think YJ will be happy with 55:34 : I'm sure that a few months ago he could not envisage such a time for 10k XC. Christa performed well in the Ladies' race and was close to finishing in the top half of the 148 finishers.
Some shots from the race, taken by either Christa or me.
No XC next week so hope to be UTUPing : Christa is also keen to join us.
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