Under starters orders

Photo: Where's Wally? I'm in there somewhere. White vest & green sash. (Pic owned by RacePics)

I woke up to a glorious sunny day with a couple of inches of snow on the ground. Perfect conditions for what was to be my first race since the Loch Ness Marathon back in October. A combination of injury, work and just trying not to get too consumed by a sport have kept me away from the race experience. Yesterday was the National Cross Country Championships over at Falkirk, where more or less every running club in Scotland meet up for a load of races. In the mens senior race I was up against 450+ others running around Callendar Park. I'd forgotten that nervous pre race feeling, the waiting around and the thrill of the chase once the gun is fired. It was a 12km course, with 3x 4km laps. It was an impressive sight to see so many runners heading up the first of several little hills. As you can imagine, the first lap was a little bit clogged up with runners, but I really was looking to get around this race without picking up an injury, so I held back a little until it thinned out. Lap 2 was a bit quicker and by lap 3 I was tired but able to maintain a similar pace, and enjoyed picking off 3 or 4 runners from a club whose fans were all around the course, annoyingly shouting out support for them. An almost sprint finish gave me 51.05 as my official time. I was happy with that, but slightly disappointed with my position of 259 out of 457, which was well out of the top 50%. Never mind, it gave me race experience and a bit of a boost for my training. I went out today and did 12 miles over some big hills at a nice steady pace. Another glorious day up in the hills, enjoying the snow and peace before heading off to church with its favourable 11.30am start. There's a couple of races coming up to enter, namely the Lasswade 10 and the Alloa Half, which should be good preparation for London.