Inter Counties

Inter Counties cross country championships were held in Cofton Park, a large open country park on outskirts of Birmingham. I had done my preparations: a week of climbing on rocks and crawling through brambles in Portugal followed by a week with various small injuries when trying to get back into running. Anyway on Saturday afternoon I stood on the start line quite nervous with 248 other excited runners in their county vests. 

To be honest I did ran my prep run for this race just two weeks ago at the English Nationals at Parliament Hill in London. It was right after coming home from Portugal and I was still pretty exhausted. The race was painful but quite amazing experience. It was massive and I got to learn that the fastest runners in England are miles faster than me and I should definitively not stick with them. Nationals were however open to everyone, which meant that there were also over 500 runners slower than me, whereas the Inter Counties were only for the selected runners from each county. That meant that I would for sure be minutes behind the winner but also that I could consider myself lucky if I'd beat anyone. I don't think I've ever been last at any race but now it seemed more than a likely option. When realizing that I was a bit horrified for a moment and wanted to cancel the whole thing. Why an earth did I want to put myself into this? 

But after playing with a thought for a while I started to see it more and more as an opportunity. This is what I always seek in orienteering. Bigger goals and bigger challenges. Well, here's one, why don't you take it? It is definitively not going to be nice but it is going to be good for you and make you tougher. So when I stood there at the start line I knew it was going to be one of my toughest trainings but in some weird way I also looked forward to it. Yet the feeling was far from what I am used to have prior orienteering races. I knew everything there was to know about the course but still I felt insecure, whereas in orienteering races I usually manage to build some kind of confidence before the start despite the fact that course is always a surprise. 

The race itself was not that awful that I had imagined (something good about pre-race nightmares) and I was not the last. I started quite offensively to avoid worst jams and the first kilometres went very well. But fighting to get my place in the group probably cost a bit because after that I lost half a minute on an uphill part and I dropped several places. I tried to find the rhythm back and ran better the fourth kilometre but had huge problems again when reaching the main climbs. As I wasn't able to keep my running efficient on ascents I tried to run as relaxed as possible. By doing so I was able to finish my race but it cost me another half a minute. The last kilometres I was able to run more progressively, gaining some time and places. Direct feedback in the finish was however that I should have pushed harder on the second lap because I obviously had energy left on the last kilometre and in the run-in. Might be true but I still think I got more out of me than on the nationals and the margin to Gemma was less than then. 

It was certainly more painful than any of my orienteering races but on the other hand it was a lot easier to steer and control. I could easily push 100% without worrying whether my brain will work fast enough and whether I will find controls straight if I exceed my threshold. On the other hand that's part of the game in orienteering, to have it under control despite the lactate. I hope I've pushed my limits forward by running cross country races this winter and that I will be able to run somewhat faster after getting more used to pain.