Cross country race 47:23 [5] 12.09 km (3:55 / km)
shoes: Saucony Shay XC 2 spikes
English National Cross Country Championships 2013, Herrington Park, Sunderland
Probably one of the most physical races I've done in a long time. By the time of the senior men's race, almost every patch had been turned to churned mud as the two thousand-odd runners from earlier races had sought to pick their way through the remaining firm spots.
I felt I had a fairly steady start, not too fast, but found myself being passed over much of the 1st of three laps. I held things a bit on the 2nd, making up ground on a Tipton guy and, for a time being near to Serpentine's Jonathan Poole. This seemed to continue going into the 3rd, and I was almost shocked to catch Ryan McKinley of Highgate around 1/3rd of the way through the final lap. However, despite generally overtaking on the climbs and descents, I lost ground in the 3rd, Ryan and fellow Highgate runner Henry Dodwell passing me near the top of the 2nd hill.
I ultimately finished in 146th, 52 places down on last year so somewhat disappointed, especially given that there were over 600 fewer finishers compared to last year's race at Parliament Hill. Hmm, need to think why I didn't do better....