XC at ALSAA, Dublin airport.
5 mile cross country
With a bright morning again lets repeat the shoe bathing in the spring sun, it worked last time 😃.
Today’s race is a bit longer than the last one, so how am I going to approach it. It’s a 5 mile race, consisting of 4 laps. Ground is in excellent condition, firm everywhere, so no mud bath today. Still don’t recognise anyone so my pace will be totally dictated by myself. A steady first lap is probably the best strategy, just trying to enjoy the fact that I am racing again.
At ALSAA it’s still a sunny, though windy and cool morning. Every two minutes a landing plane comes in overhead, we are directly under the flight path with the planes looking like they are barely above the height of the trees. After my steady first lap, sticking behind a few guys, I have to decide what to do, again it’s more of a subconscious decision to increase the pace and chase after a few people ahead.
Its quite a pleasant experience, I end up smiling quite a bit as I proceed through the next two laps. Final lap sees someone maybe 50m ahead with another runner a similar distance ahead. I decide to put in extra effort now to see what happens. Slowly I catch the guy and as I pass him I realise that the next position is probably not on but hey, lets give it a try. 200 m left I here someone coming up behind, so I put in extra effort, down the home straight its a flat out sprint, but my stomach is turning and my head is getting light. My legs were happy but I just had to relent and allow my stomach and head to return to normal and jog in, losing a place. What fun! 10th position overall.
