My first ever cross country race

My husband and I recently took part in our very first ever cross country race.

It seemed like a crazy decision for me. Here are three things I don’t like: being muddy; being wet; being cold. And here is one thing I do like: running.

Somehow, the love of running trumped the dislike of everything else for me and we decided to give it a go. Since joining the club, I’ve been embracing everything running has to offer – things I would never have known about before.

Our club takes part in the Gloucestershire cross country league. That is just four races a year around the local(ish) area. I’d been to watch the most local race in February this year and it looked BRUTAL. It was in a park I know well, but the course took in every difficult bit of the park that you would never think of running (or even walking) over. And the runners had to run through a stream and then scramble up a bank to get out. I would hate that!

Our first cross country race was the third race of the season. I’d tried to persuade my husband to take part in the previous two races in this winter’s series. But he sensibly pointed out that we were already running a lot of races and needed to leave some weekends free to see our kids.

We ran the race in Bath – which is not that local at all. It was not only the third race of the the season for the Gloucestershire league, it was also the county championship for four counties.

We’re 51 years old and Storm Darragh was still raging. It didn’t exactly seem the perfect time to start our cross country career.

A couple of days before the race, my husband had panicked and said we needed spikes. I thought I would just run in trail shoes. I thought I might feel like an idiot rocking up in spikes for my very first race. But my husband ordered us a pair each for a quick click and collect from Decathlon. Of course it was the right decision and everyone was wearing spikes!

The race instructions said to arrive 70 to 90 minutes before your race to walk the course. I had no intention of walking the course, but as I rule I do like to arrive at a race an hour early. My race was at 1:10 and Bath is quite a long way away, so I said we should set off at 10:30. My husband thought 11am, so we set off at 11. And the journey was extremely slow! We arrived at 12:45. Then it took us five attempts to pay for parking with the JustPark app.

I went straight to queue for the portaloo and bumped into a couple of ladies from the club. Then my husband went to collect my number, while I went to remove some layers and get ready to run. I thought we would have some sort of gazebo to shelter our stuff. I asked one of the ladies from the club where we were hanging out.

“Behind the cowpat.”

Yep, we had no gazebo (too windy, of course), and the club members had dumped their stuff on the ground literally behind a cowpat. Except it was slightly close to the cowpat and I managed to put my rucksack in it!

I wobbled around trying to remove my tracksuit bottoms and change my shoes, then pinned my number on. I was wearing shorts with a tight long sleeve top under my club vest. Normally I would never wear shorts in those sort of weather conditions, but I know nearly everyone wears shorts for cross country. I ran up and down the field for about two minutes to warm up, then it was time to get to the start line.

The women and men race separately. The women’s race was 6.6k (about four miles) and the men’s was 10.3k, although men over 65 race in the women’s race. In our race, we had six women and one man from the club. Earlier in the day, there had been various kids’ races for different age categories. Our race was described as ‘two short and one long lap’. I had no idea what constituted a short lap or long lap, but would just follow the person in front. Cross country attracts some very elite runners, so I knew I would be a really long way from the front.

The race started with a gradual downhill. But of course you never notice it’s a gradual downhill until you’re running the gradual uphill in the other direction. There was a small patch of mud at the turn, then it was on to the gradual uphill! To make matters worse, we had a headwind on the uphill. At the top of the hill, about a mile in, there was a really thick patch of mud. I was grateful for the spikes.

I’d had visions of myself soaking wet and coated head to toe in mud, but it wasn’t like that at all. As I started the second lap, I realised it was nowhere near as hard as I’d been expecting. It was no harder than a slightly tougher than average parkrun. I was running faster than I’d expected to. I was still feeling pretty good at the end of the second lap.

The third lap (the long lap!) started the same as the second lap, in fact it was the same for most of the way. But as we got to the top of the hill, we had to run down again, then it was a really long, slow run up again. That bit was hard! And I thought I had to run down again before I finished. Then I looked at the distance on my watch and realised I was nearly at four miles and I was very close to the end. I just had to run to the top of the hill, turn round and run a very short distance down again and over the finish line!

According to my watch, I finished in 31:30, running at 7:55 minute/ miles. It was basically the same pace I’d run Gloucester North parkrun the previous day. About an hour later, I discovered that I’d won a county age group bronze medal! I was very happy with that. My son has county medals (although his are gold and for long jump) and it made me feel like a ‘proper athlete’.

Then it was time to watch the men’s race. I think there were just five men from our club taking part, including my husband. There were some very young, very elite men in that race. The men’s race was brutal – three long laps and one short lap. We’d got Hetty with us, who was very cold (I tried to wrap her in a towel to keep her warm) and very unhappy at seeing my husband running past. He said he could hear her crying from miles away.

It felt like a very long time for the first runners to go past us, then a very, very long time for my husband to go past. Yes, he finishes in the top 10% at parkrun, but was pretty close to the back at cross country. He looked more tired every time he ran past. Watching him run up the final hill, he looked half dead. But he ran it in about 50 minutes, which is pretty good. His 10k PB is 43:41, on a flat road, without 45mph winds. But it felt like longer than 50 minutes, standing watching  him, while freezing in the strong wind

So that was our first experience of cross country. I enjoyed it and found it much easier than my husband. The next race is the local one. We’ll have to run through water, but it will only take a short time to drive there and there will be loads of club members also running and supporting. Hopefully, there won’t be a storm blowing!