Maybe it is. I do know I can be a bit hard about these things.
I also hate it when people tell me I must be mad. I have taken to replying to enquiries about my running with a shrug and a ' I don't really do that anymore'
AJ speak for 'I know you're only asking to be polite, but I don't really want to talk to you about it, your opinion on my running isn't wanted, needed or in anyway useful to me.'
Obviously I don't say this to people in my running community who know I run. That *would* be mad :-D and some of those people have advice that I respect and appreciate.
Anyway, enough of me being mardy I should tell you what I been doing.
Um.
.................... This is where I lost the rest of my post.........Grrrrrrrrr..............................
A number of parkruns on the trot.
Dec 22- 22-32
Dec 25 at Hull - 22.19 happy
Dec 29th - 22.30
Jan 1st at VP - 22.48 bah.
Jan 5th - 22.07 hello form!
I also did xc on 29th. A horrific mudfest at Orion. It was un runnable and I hated it. Went over once when I misjudged a ditch. Spent most of it swearing and straining my glutes and knees trying to stay upright. But I did it and we had one of only 2 full ladies teams out.
Yesterday, after parkrun was the Essex County xc champs at Hadleigh (miles away). I was a bit ambivalent about it, but I had put my name down and since the girls are flying the flag for the 88s at the moment I decided I should go.
Now, because my spikes didn't clean themselves, I decided I would have to use my pristine inov8s and hope for the best. When we got there I saw what a perfect spikes course it was. Teach me to be a lazy bint won't it!
Anyway, lined up mid pack.......girls at the front were in knickers and crop tops, first 5 qualify for the inter counties.....no danger of that from me. And we were off.
Straight down a big muddy hill. Jen hurled herself past me advising me to be careful at the bottom, no need, I'm crap at downhill, and actually it was quite ironic really as when I rounded the corner at the bottom I was confronted by Jen facedown in the mud :-D it wouldn't be a proper xc without Jen rolling around in the mud.
Anyway, got myself into a steady pace and started to target people, particularly a woman in the distance who always used to beat me at road races but that I have beaten lately. Find myself enjoying the course, it has enough ups and downs that it isn't a swamp, you can actually race it.
About 2.3 miles in you go up a proper hand on knees, Christ I'm going to be sick hill, which plateaus then rises again, and then you turn a corner and a guy tells you, 'you'll be starting the second lap in a minute ladies' oh JOY, I'm going to be running (!) up that fucker again :-D
Anyway, sometime on the second lap I pass my rival and spend the rest of the lap playing cat and mouse with a woman I know from tri sport. In the end she just has the better of me because her hill technique is better, ie she walks up them quicker than I run them, and then has more energy to get away from me on the flat. She tells me this at the end and we admit that we kept each other honest.
So I finish feeling I gave it a good shot, and wait at finish chute for rest of our ladies. Get bored go and get my clothes, go back, wait, get worried, start to walk back up the course and then see Jen turn the final corner. Shout ' come on Jen I'm freezing my tits off here!' Get glared at by a number of people, pretend I'm someone else :-D go back to finish chute to await the rest.
6 ladies finish safe, and then we cheer in our only male competitor.
A good day for the Dagenham 88 ladies xc team. I don't know the results but the fact we were there is enough. In my first year at dag 88 I WAS the ladies xc team :) we will get better, for now we just need to get people competing and enjoying it. That includes me. I'm better at road running but I know that xc does me good.
Next stop harrow lodge inaugural parkrun and Thorndon Sunday league xc.
This is a before pic, and an on my feet during pic.
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