XCR'09 Series, Round Seven, 10 Mile XC Champs

A busy day, starting at Eastern Gardens at 8.45am. I had volunteered Western Aths to assist with the marking of the XC course and the set up of the admin area etc and our Club were paid a nice sum.

Of course volunteering our Club means I need to find volunteers, which sometimes can be tough, but thankfully I did find sufficient numbers, but if course I was one. The day involved following a dotted white line (nearly every 10m or so), we then placed flags either side over a 4k & 3k course. I was then asked to run the course (with flags in hand) and look at the course as a runner and place move flags where ever I thought was not 100%... then setting marquees and then trotting the course with the course referee and again placing flags. All up, the course and admin area was ready to 'roll' at 12.10pm (first race 1pm). Then I put on my 'team manager' hat on and started preps for the Western Aths teams, then the coaching hat and running through the course and the race with my 2 U14 girls (Claire & Elyse).

A great run by Elyse, 11th her equal highest placing (wow), but most of my time was spent with Claire who due to a cold really struggled and I was really close to asking her to DNF, but as she was going in the direction of the finish line I decided against it, she finished probably 5 minutes slower than normal over a 4k course.

Next up was Jo, who started a very controlled race and then came home really strong and yet again showed a few girls who should beat her that a controlled race is the ONLY way to race!

With my race starting at 2.30pm I decided I would have a sit down around 2pm for the first time since 8.45... by now I knew we had 2 runners withdraw and we would only have one team and 3 emergencies, me being one of them.

So I'm standing on the start line, already feeling tired both mentally & in the legs, not really enjoying XC and knowing I will not finish in the first team, but I start... But I am fairly sure 8k will be enough but I'll check on others throughout the race (its that sort of course). I ran two even laps within 15 seconds of each other, but I was NOT enjoying myself and I knew that 8 other Wes Aths runners (we needed 6) were still rolling about and I was already 4 minutes behind 8th so .... yep I pulled out at the 8k marker and I DID NOT care how much 'stick' I got from others, I was buggered!