GLOUCESTER SPORTS BLOG

Cross-country season returns!!

Ran my first cross-country race in 2 years last Saturday, a Gloucestershire League race at Blackbridge in Gloucester (home course!), so thought I'd write about how it went. I've not been running much recently owing to the arrival of baby Eve, so this was a first opportunity to get back into the swing of racing!

After no warm-up and working on the stall al day, not ideal preparations but I toed the start line with 180 others. Two small laps of the field were taken at a steady pace but I was trying to warm myself up, sitting just off the lead pack of 4/5. Out onto the first big lap and I moved into fourth after over-taking a couple who had got carried away early on. Tried to settle into a steady rhythm, always hard to do on cross-country! Onto the second lap and started to feel good so reeled in third place and pushed hard up the incline to discourage him from sticking to me. Tried desperately to close the gap on 2nd placer but he pulled away on the final straight, showing my lack of strength at the end. Happy with my run though, sets me up for the big one this Saturday, the first fixture in the Birmingham and District cross-country League at Leamington.

The Adidas XCS 2 (the green/black spikes) were the shoe of choice, absolutely great shoe. Quite a broad-fitting spike, nice and light and extemely flexible, helped me get up on my toes. They can be found in our spikes section on the left-hand side of the home page!!!