Tadley xmas XC, 2017

This time last year, this was the lovely Mrs S's first ever race, on a bright frosty morning.  But today it was a sodden damp day, 2 degrees and periodic rain and sleet.  Mrs S was in support mode, rehabilitating her knee, and luckily on hand to lend hat and gloves because like an eejit I had failed to pack mine.

It was a cold and muddy trudge from race HQ to the start, in an exposed grassy field.  It was a bit grim at this stage, rather Type 2 fun, with lots of grimaces and semi-ironic what-are-we-doing-here and whose-idea-was-this discussions.  We stripped down to as few layers as we dared and stamped about on the start line.  The briefing was mercifully brief and off we went.

Lovely day for it

I had asked some bloke at the registration desk whether spikes would be a good footwear option. He said they'd be fine, so I gave them a go.  I'm not sure they were ideal, as it was hard to keep from slipping on the steep downhill sections.  They were great uphill, but I lost a couple of front spikes... I think there was a bit too much gravel on the course.  Lesson learned.

It was a glorious mudfest, and highly technical.  The conditions were very, very wet.  There was a lot of swerving, ducking and balancing on a variety of tight turns, overhanging vegetation, a few water splashes and deep ruts.  I picked off a few and by halfway was more or less on my own.

It was in the second lap that it went wrong.  The path took me to the edge of the woods.  I missed the sharp right turn and carried on to a path across an open in field.  No one in sight; no tape, no hi-vis.  I carried on for a bit and then heard a shout from back in the woods.  I turned around, and it dawned on me what had happened.  I scuttled back to join the course, cross at my lack of concentration.  Seven or eight runners had got ahead of me in the meantime, and I reckon it had cost me about 50 seconds (check out the Strava flyby - go to about 11:24:30).  I pressed on at full throttle, hoping there was enough distance remaining for me to regain a few places.

Back to the final leg to the finish... over the water splash (sorry I never saw you, Mrs S), and then up the long hill and onto the windy field.  I finished alone, in 5th place.  If I hadn't gone wrong I might have had a good chase with Stephen Ridley, who finished 48 seconds ahead of me.  Here are the results and my Garmin stats.  I was about 6 mins longer running than last year, with a longer course, slightly extended by my little detour, and about 10s/km slower in the mud.

The water splash before the final hill

This was a proper XC race with lashings of hearty British awful weather and good humour.  Lovely job!