Dances With Cougars

[co] Race 4 of the cross country series ticked off yesterday afternoon. This time we were out at Long Bay with the North Harbour Bays club (the Cougars) for their hosted event. We were pretty lucky as the weather had cleared from the morning’s fog and cold (operating in a cloud until about 11 am at 8 degrees) to a balmy and sunny 13ish… lucky us.

So after my morning training session of about 2.5 hours, it was off to practice running ‘fast’ (it is all relative) that afternoon. Now today was only 4 kms, short and sharp. Not something I am very skilled at… so as usual got to practice my prerace nerves and apprehension control. I try to laugh it all off… but actually I am normally rather nervous and even when fighting it out near the rear, I still know it’ll suck!

Today I was told, as I warmed up on my way to the bathroom (a 5 minute warm up is pretty good for me… even did a + 10 minute warm down as well…. Needed to crack 6+ hours running this week… so that made sure I actually had to warm up and down…. Not saying I wouldn’t of anyway of course), that there were plenty of good (national level) athletes here today. Apparently it was Nationals soon, in the athletics world, and Long Bay being relatively flat, they were all out to eye each other up….

… And yes there was certainly a lot of running glamour about. As I noted the obvious ‘good’ athletes from their legs to Africa, or perhaps their immaculate eye liner (whoops, no one told me… so I hadn’t put any on… now I know it makes you faster… I will consider it); I could feel the buzz up front.

So after a small rain shower to cool us all down (thankfully, as I was heating up as we reached double digits), the gun went off. Two laps of pain…. Here we go.
So I sighted my usual spotters and today worked hard at keeping up with them. First lap steady-fast; second lap fast (don’t fade…), was the plan. Managed it with a first lap of about 8.52 and a total time of 17.12.

My personal highlight was the end of lap one, when a ‘well meaning’ older guy (yet to run in his race) yelled out the supportive words of wisdom “Keep going ladies, you know you can run faster, its only 4 kms today”. Hmmmm lets say in the immortal words of Hannibal, Face, Murdoch and BA “Alpha Mike Foxtrot” to that…. But I had bigger things to worry about. Like breathing, so on I went.

As we rounded into the second lap, made my move past my arch rival Liz (well arch is strong, but makes a good story) and tried to beat her in… managed to do so. The score is 2 -2 so far in the meets… not sure if we will need extra time or penalty shoot outs to decide the result yet.

Learned a bit more about my racing, as my gut issues didn’t surface. Decided that eggs on toast and flat whites are the way to go between training (and probably a later start of 3.10 pm helped)… none of this going home and eating properly. Eat out for brunch I say… coffee always wins! Embrace the JAFA within.