A short race... and a victory!

10M - double; recovery run & 2.5M race
4M am recovery run at ~6.30min/M
6M pm incl 2.5M St Albans 6 stage x-country relay in 14min10s

My first cross-country race in over 16 years! I felt pretty tired this morning after that last couple of days' heavy exercise. Just a gentle four miles up to Hungerford Bridge and back. My legs were pretty heavy by the time I got to St Albans, but were probably fine really.

I got the warmest of welcomes from the rest of the Highgate Harriers team who were there. Somewhat unwisely, they gambled on putting me in the A team (it was a 6 leg relay, with each runner running a 2.5M leg). I was the slowest of our team (and slower than the first leg runner in our B team) but my time was no disgrace in my eyes over such a short distance. We won by quite a long way and I ran my leg all alone (apart from lapped athletes). A bit surreal.

A hillyish course, but hard under foot and so short that I was glad I warmed up hard. I need more practice on pacing runs like this. I was worried ahead of time that I wouldn't go out hard enough. But when it came to it, I was probably a bit quick right at the beginning. My arms were heavy with lactate from 2 minutes in.

The club is impressively strong and even more impressively friendly/vocally supportive. I'm very pleased I chose them. We went for a communal warm down jog afterwards.