Race Report - BMAF National XC Champs

I started the day with a trip to Cannon Hill parkrun, where I was put in charge of operating the timer. We use a small USB device which makes weird noises when you prime it to clear the memory and when closing it down, and makes a small 'bleep' with each record, including the start. I stood next to the starter, and unfortunately I couldn't hear my timer bleep over her whistle, and as there's no display on the timer we couldn't be absolutely sure that it was actually running! I usually start my stopwatch as well to use as a cross check for the results, but one of the runners had asked me to look after his bag and jacket so I didn't have my watch hand free! Gill started counting elephants, but that wasn't going to work even if she managed to keep it going up to 2471 (41 mins, 11 secs) - that's a lot of elephants! We could only assume that it was working and carry on.

We'd been warned that the path beside the lake will be closed for four to six weeks, but there was no evidence of this happening yet.

It was good to see a large turnout again - 117 runners including six Sparkhill Harriers, Mark making his first appearance and managing 9th male, while Meg was 4th female.

I didn't hang around at the cafe afterwards as I had to get home and prepare for the cross country, so didn't witness the attempt to upload the timer data...

So, on to Perry Park, in the shadow of Alexander Stadium where work is progressing, including construction of a new stand, all in preparation for the Diamond League meeting and of course the visit of Team USA and Team Jamaica who will be using the facilities to train before and during the London Olympics.


The first face I recognised on arriving was Sparkhill veteran Gavin, who had intended to race but had to pull out due to injury. We chatted and had a walk around part of the course, cheering on anyone we knew in the first race - Women and over-65 Men. That included Sian, David and Margaret from Sparkhill.

Leaving Gavin to go and get myself ready I found the rest of the Sparkhill contingent gathered around a telegraph pole (they usually use a tree, but in this instance the pole was more convenient!)

I left them to it and went for a warm-up jog around that part of the course I hadn't already seen -nothing very interesting, unfortunately, and the ground was very firm thanks to the good weather. I even considered changing from my spikes into road shoes.

I lined up over to the right of the start line as I'd noticed that the first bend, though slight, was a right-hander. I noticed some of the red and black Sparkhill vests over on the other side, however I soon lost sight of them when the race started - concentrating on the heels and elbows of those in front and around me! As usual in Cross Countries it was a mad dash from the off, in this case downhill slightly to the bottom of the field and the lowest point of the course.

I seemed to be being overtaken rather more than overtaking, in many cases by older, M55 and M60, runners! I started to make a better impression as the race progressed, though I was finding it very hard work despite the relatively flat course and easy going. Too long since my last cross country and not enough off-road or hill training.

Approaching the highest point, a U-turn behind the stadium, I saw Paul well ahead of me but no sign of the others. I figured I must just have missed Darren, but there was a chance Rob might be behind me. On the second lap I saw Paul again, making ground on me as I'd expect, no sign of Darren again, but Rob was on his way up while I was heading back down, probably about 30 places behind.

This section of two-way traffic made it easy to judge progress relative to the Sparkhill guys, and mine was negative. Darren was indeed ahead of me, by some way, and all three were going faster. On the last lap I saw that Rob was about 20 places back, but with about 600m to go there was no way he was catching me.

The field had strung out now and there weren't many around me but I did manage to pass one more on the up-hill run in, albeit an older fella!

I was surprised to see so little local club representation, though Tipton Harriers and Birchfield Harriers were both present in numbers.

The results were posted today on the BMAF blog, but strangely not yet on their website. Surprisingly, BMAF have yet to cash my cheque.

Not a hugely successful run for me, but I admit it was nice to beat Rob for a change. One pleasing and yet puzzling thing about my performance was that, if you accept that the course was 8.22km (or 5.11 miles) as per my Garmin then my pace was actually 3 seconds per mile faster than the 5 mile PB I set six days earlier! Of course if you accept the nominal 8km distance, then I was 6 seconds per mile slower, but even so I would expect a larger differential between a cross country race and what was essentially flat tarmac and hard trail last Sunday.

The parkrun results were also posted, with no sign of any problems, so thankfully the timer must have started OK!

Having been out for one or two shandies last night after a tiring day, I'm afraid I slept in this morning (despite having left music playing all night) and when I did get up I was in no mood to go running as my head was pounding! It's about 6:30 as I write this, and I'm still feeling rather brittle.