Renfrewshire Cross Country Race
It’s been quite a while since I ran a proper cross country race and I was looking forward to it! I dropped Katrina off at home after church and drive the few miles to Shanks Park, Johnstone.
I met up with David Mac and we went for a warm up lap around the course. It was pretty dry underfoot with a few hills to make it an interesting course.
It was very mild so most people ran in vests. Neal G was running as well so it was good to catch up with him before the start.
We had to run 5 laps of the course to make the 6 miles. I asked David what he was aiming for in comparison to a road 10k and we both thought maybe 5mins slower so I thought anything under 45mins would be good.
4-5 runners went past me on lap 2 but from then on I held my place with maybe a couple went past. I was working pretty hard to maintain my pace. At the end of lap 4 I saw Donald K not too far ahead and I caught him on the hill. He stayed with me and then pushed away on lap 5 to finish a few places ahead.
I finished 48th (out of 64) in 39mins 48secs which was a fair bit faster than I had aimed for. A few people had said this must be easy for you after running ultras but to be honest it is totally different. This is an eye balls out run for 40mins with my heart rate as near to max as I can manage so it hurts in a different way!
My splits ….
Results are on the Kilbarchan web site
It was great having friends around the course cheering us on and taking some photos.
Here are some of them ….
Photos from Steven Hill ….
