I t turned out to be a lovely day, however I had three layers of clothes on as I am normally cold. I also had 3/4 length leggings and so went to buy some shorts at one of the stalls. However they only had little tiny ones. I said, I like my backside covered up thank you! Everyone at the stall was laughing.
I got to the start line where you were guided to pens with numbers on where you had to stand and everyone was spread out along the field. It was a brilliant sight to see all the ladies in a line at the start. The gun went and everyone charged to the middle. With 1034 ladies charging up the hill you got a bit stuck at times with arms, legs and uneven ground to contend with. It was a very warm day and quite a few ladies pulled out, it was very tempting; however I was very determined to finish.
T here was a slight wind which was nice to cool off, a few inclines and two lovely down hills. No mud either to my delight as running round fields is not my favourite racing. It was supposed to be a training run (ha ha) however I did have a good race as I was two and a half minutes quicker than last year (maybe not that fast at 40.10 for the 5 miles and placed 492nd). It was a very friendly atmosphere but I was the only lady Harrier running.
Do I love cross country racing? No, but it’s good training… x
By Lisa Darby
Results: https://www.englishcrosscountry.co.uk/news/saucony-english-national-xc-results-2019/
