Training Log Archive: Craney

16th place, 1.46 behind the winner. One of my best international races in a while, which was a pleasant surprise. Didn't make any technical time losses to speak of - nice and in control, picking easy lines to run on. Felt pretty good early on (through the cabbage patch!) but started to suffer on the last couple of kms which were all uphill.

Unfortunately most of those in front of me got shunted further in front due to some arbitrary time bonus rule and I had a huge pack of some pretty good guys right up my arse. Still, set off calmly and wasn't too flustered as, sure enough, I dropped about 10 places in the first km. Hung onto the pack round most of the rest of the course. It was brutally hilly and, being all in the open and in 30+ degree heat on an ungaffled course, it was one of the toughest races of any kind I've ever run! Gradually most of the pack inched away from me but it was reassuring how gradual it was - we were all pretty much crawling up the hills around the spectator control at #20. Alas, I came unstuck at #23 and dropped 1minute - fortunately it only cost me 2 places (Chris Forne and Murray) as I dropped from the back of one pack to the front of the next - but it made my time a bit worse than it should've been. As it was I lost a slow-motion sprint finish to Murray by a few seconds and crawled in in 27th place, having dropped around 4mins to the leaders.

Not a bad effort - many other World Cup runners were saying how tough it was which was reassuring. A few years back I'd have crumbled in a race like this. As it was, I still had lots of negative thoughts in my head the whole way - I really don't enjoy running in packs - but I didn't give up. In hindsight it was bloody good fun.

2x warm-ups and 1x warm-downs.