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Early Sunday I was scraping ice off the car for the journey down to
Leatherhead. The start was in a pavilion, described as a “wooden shack
with no facilities”. Cobham Services just 5 miles from Leatherhead
provided the necessary facilities with the advantage of a Starbucks for
breakfast. The start was just a matter of picking up a number and checking
with the start marshal before heading off into the hills. The temperature
was around zero but the air was still and dry so quite pleasant, and it
wasn’t too long before my jacket was stuffed into my backpack. Route
instructions were good, perhaps a little too good; it took the first 2˝
lines involving 4 turns to say “take the footpath down the side of the
sports centre”. Before long I met up with some familiar faces. In fact
the group had representatives from Leighton, Amphtill, Flitwick and
Dunstable so the cross country element was well covered. We did consider
having a race for the finish line to decide the XC championships. We
stayed together for a bit of a catch-up but I’d started conservatively and
was feeling that I could push the pace a bit more so eventually we lost
contact. While we didn’t go up Box Hill (for a change) there were plenty
of tough hills and there was a tendency to go the most direct route up or
down them. One particular path in the shade had us all heading downhill
very gingerly with quite a few slips despite the caution. Otherwise, the
paths were good but got a bit boggier as we progressed. We all started off
dodging the puddles as there isn’t any point if getting wet feet if you
can avoid it with 30 miles to go. By half way my feet were wet anyway so I
started merrily splashing through whatever came my way. Checkpoints were
basic but adequate with tea being available at the last one which was
welcome because it had got foggy up on Ranmore (!) Common and I was
beginning to chill a bit. I had a few supplies with me and tucked into
these too as 8 miles was too far between feeds to keep the energy up. I am
finally learning to recognise the early signs of energy depletion so I
managed to avoid any insurmountable “walls”. I could also tell that all of
the circuit training over the last year is paying dividends and towards
the end I was still putting in stints of sub 9 minutes per mile. Overall
my pace increased throughout which was most satisfying. We didn’t get to
decide the XC championships since the others decided to do an extra couple
of miles. I thought it odd that I didn’t see them again after the first
check point. I could have showered in the leisure centre but by the time
I’d walked the half mile back to the car where my bag was I couldn’t be
bothered so I changed in the car park and set a course back via Cobham
Services again. Overall a great day out.
Noel |