Ill

I have to concede my UK Cup title, my Scottish title and my aspirations at reclaiming the Scottish Relay title (actually the chances of reclaiming that were slim to non-existant anyway) as I have been sick since Tuesday. I should have known it was coming really, I have been illness free since before the winter. The last time I was sick for more than a day or two was back at the World Cup in Italy. For me that is almost unheard of. Stringing together more than a month or two training without getting ill has been a dream for me since I started training. I have never had a great immune system, and I missed years of school with serious illnesses, but over the last few years I have been improving. Since graduating especially I have been very healthy which I put down to a healthy diet, a good sleeping pattern and a good lifestyle with plenty of relaxation.

I woke up on Tuesday with a plan to run first thing, then take part in a trail challenge in the evening, but when I woke, I could hardly breath so I went straight back to bed. I thought catching it early would make the difference and I would get over it quickly, but I didnt sleep very well Tuesday night and woke up feverish and drenched in sweat.

I am starting to feel better now, but I have cancelled my trip up to the Scottish Champs in the hope that I will feel better for next weeks training camp in Slovakia for the World Students. I should be in the team for that competition after my good Spring season.

Disappointing defeat

Middle distance UK Cup and World Ranking Event at Rowney Warren today, and second place for me, 12 seconds behind Neil Northrop. Well done to Neil for a great run, but I am a little bit disappointed with the result. I had a good run, and looking at the splits, I made one route choice mistake, and 3 small wobbles. Both Neil and myself, as well as Nick Barrable and Rob Baker were all running about the same speed, and it looks like Neil was the cleanest round today.

The results also make the UK Cup standings very interesting. With 6 races to count, I have 3 victories and 2 second places. Neil has 4 victories, a 2nd place and a 5th place. There are only 2 races left in the series, and I am only running one of those races - next Saturday at the Scottish Championships. If Neil wins either, he has the title. I need to win next weekend and hope that Neil does not get a win to retain my title.

The race itself was very enjoyable. 6.8km in 35mins which shows how runnable the area is. There was little technical challenge other than route choice, but the planner set a good course with lots of changes of direction and enough to keep us interested the whole way round. The critical legs were, I think -

7 - I chose to go round rather than straight and lost 20 seconds to Neil
22 - Where Nick Barrable (leading at the time) lost 45 secs hunting on the spur
26 and 27 - Where 2 little wobbles (5-10secs each) cost me the chance to win the race

I felt good and was running strongly all the way round. If anything I was overconfident and took no chances, choosing to rely on the mistakes of others or superior fitness. This obviously proved to be a mistake as I was running no faster than the others and actually made more mistakes. A good lesson learnt today - I still have to push these races if I want to win - but again well done to Neil who deserves the reputation he is building at the moment. Hopefully he can do it in the important races and get into the GB team later this year.

British Sprint Champion

My trophy, medal and shiny new iPod shuffle :)

My first individual senior British title.
The weather may have been awful, but the British Sprint Championships was a great competition in Campbell Park in the centre of Milton Keynes. You could imagine on a bright sunny day the park might have been filled with members of the public and spectators, but unfortunately there were showers on and off all day. This meant most people sheltered in their tents and cars for as long as possible.
The races themselves made very good use of what could have been very limited urban parkland. The heats and final used different parts of the area, with a common last section and finish.

The heats took us through an urban area, with some high speed route choices through built up areas in and out of small parks. Then there was a short run along the canal under the main road and into the main parkland for a control pick through an area of woodland with a complex park network. My qualifying run was very good. Taking no chances I ran hard, and with only a small miss at number 4 (about 6 or 7 seconds), I had an almost flawless run technically. I read all the detail well and really enjoyed the course. I caught up Dave Rollins one minute at around number 17, having seen him as early as number 10.
The final was quite different, with 28 controls crammed into 3.5km there was very little time to plan ahead and constant map contact was essential. Again I ran a very good race. I ran hard from the start, and tried to read as much detail as possible all the way round. The course was very well planned and very challenging, with loads of changes of direction, cross overs and some good route choices. I had a small moment of doubt on the way to number 3, when I passed through a gap in the hedge only to find an impenetrable wall of undergrowth in front of me. On the way to number 8 I caught sight of Duncan Archer, my minute man, and I gradually reeled him in and passed him on the way to number 17. He basically decided my route choice for number 12, as he went straight over the top and I was chasing him. Nick Barrable went round and lost time. As I ran into number 12, the spectator control, they announced I was in the lead which was nice. My largest problem on the course was actually how wet it was. My choice of footwear (Adidas Swoops) lived up to their reputation of having very little grip of flat wet surfaces, and I virtually had to skate along all the footpaths. This was a major problem on the way to number 17, and I almost ended up in the hedge on a couple of occasions. The last section of the course was perhaps the most dangerous, through the complex woodland that we had already encountered in the heats. It was here that I had my only time loss. At number 21 I failed to identify which area of woodland was more dense than the rest, and ran straight past the control. Not a huge mistake, but enough to let Duncan almost catch me again. I was clean through the last section and I could tell from the commentary that as I approached the finish that I was going to take my first senior national title.

Well done to the organisers for a really enjoyable competition. The only sour note to the day was that as soon as I finished the race I was whisked off to be drugs tested along with a selection of other competitors. It is a necessary part of the sport but that does not make it any more enjoyable.

Heats results here
Final results here

Tess for JWOC

Congratulations to Tess Hill who has been selected for the GB JWOC team. I have been working closely with Tess over the winter, helping her with physical and technical training, and helping her to plan her season. She will be going out to Lithuania on a pre-JWOC camp shortly, and then JWOC is in July. Well done also to Iain Embrey, who I also work with at Warwick university. Iain has been selected as a reserve for the JWOC team.

Loooooooooooooooooong Final

16.2km, 111 minutes, 35th place - a long race. A new PB in classic distance easily beating my 55th in Italy last year. We don't have the maps back yet so can't put it up, and am really tired after the race so not really got much to say. A few points though-
Ran a steady pace, not too many mistakes, and pushed a bit harder at the end.
Never really ran at my maximum as was slightly afraid to hit the wall, so maybe should have pushed a little harder (although I'm not sure I could have really).
Was caught by an Estonian guy and couldnt get away from him - every time we took different routes or I pulled ahead he caught me again.
Caught David Schneider, got away from him, let him catch me again and finished with him.

The course was long and tough, the forest was very green and quite vague in places. Supposedly quicker than winning times due to dry marshes turned into a bit of an epic with only a few people breaking the 100 mins mark in the mens.

British team -
Oli, blew 4 mins at first 2 controls, then turned it around and had a really good race.
JD - running in a good group, hit the wall and blew up. Also forgot to punch the drinks control
Jamie - 'lacked inspiration and never really got into the race'
Craney - lost most of his trousers on the way to the 4th control and struggled to keep his motivation up (although he got a lot of lady attention after the finish)

Sarah - 23rd, relatively satisfied, maybe could have been a few places higher

Relay tomorrow, I'm running team 2 leg 1.