Back in 2020, I joined one of the local running clubs, City of Stoke AC, because I wanted to mix up the running by adding some cross country races to my road racing schedule. That year I picked up a knee injury in October which meant I missed the entire 2020 season. Although, we all know what happened to racing in 2020 thanks to COVID so I didn’t actually miss any races.

Flash forward 12 months to Sept/Oct 2021 and I am still with City of Stoke AC, the knee injury has mostly healed up and I am gearing up for a full season of cross country racing. Then I go down with a stress fracture of the sacrum which put me out of running for 6 weeks in September. I built back up and finally got to race in two cross country races in January and February 2022.

The last time I raced cross country was in high school 26 years ago, so it was more or less a new experience for me. I had never run in cross country spikes before but was ready and willing.

The first race was the Staffordshire County Championship on 8th January and the second and final race was the region champs at Midland Counties Championship on 29th January.

Staffordshire County Cross Country Championship – 0:40.54

By this stage, I was only 8 weeks back in training following the back injury but the fitness levels were improving and the speed was starting to come back but still far from peak levels. That being said, it is only the second week of the year and most people are building back up from the winter offseason.

The weather for this race was actually fairly mild and turned out to be dry during the race, although, the hours before were pouring with race. The kid’s and women’s races were in the rain and luckily for the men, it was dry. It was a little wet underfoot but not too bad for cross country standards. I had gone with 12mm spikes for the warm up but quickly realised that they may not give the best grip so I swapped them out for 15mm spikes and was glad when the race got going.

My only goal for this race was to go out, run hard, have fun and learn from those around me.

The course was three 2 mile laps. On the first lap I went out pretty hard despite starting towards the back of the field and picked up a few places before getting into a pack with three other guys.

On the second lap around, I slowed down a little but was still running in that same group. I think all of us had gone out a little too hard on that first lap. three or four guys came past us and pulled away but we kept plugging.

The third time around I tried to push the pace and go for a faster finish and the effort felt like I was running faster even if the watch and data proved otherwise. I pulled away from our little group but was unable to catch anyone in front of us.

In the end, my fastest lap was the first and each lap progressively got slower. Not a good pacing strategy and is a sign of low fitness levels at present. The fact I was able to break away from the group in the end was one positive.

The men’s team managed to bag a silver medal not that I contributed to that and the women’s team came away with gold and 1st overall lady. A really strong showing from City of Stoke AC as always.

Midland Counties Cross Country Championship – 0:48.22

By the time the second cross country race came around, I had 4 more weeks of training in the legs. The fitness levels were improving and I had 3 solid speed sessions back with the City of Stoke AC Endurance group. I felt more confident for this one and knew what to expect having raced one XC race now.

The Midland champs were at Berry Hill in Mansfield, which was three 4km laps. It had been really dry for the end of January standards but on the day it was very windy, gusting over 50mph.

Given the drier ground conditions, I went with 8mm spikes but could have easily gotten away with trail shoes. There was no mud at all just loose dirt.

Having gone out too fast at the Staffs XC Champs, I learnt that lesson and held back on the first lap here. It was a hard lesson to learn and took discipline to hold back when others were running past me but I stuck to the plan.

The first quarter-mile and second half of each lap was into that headwind and man it was tough going, at times it felt like I wasn’t moving. The first time around I had a few guys in front of me so I tucked in behind them for some shelter from the wind.

On the second lap I picked up the pace and was soon passing by the group who had sheltered me from the wind, thanks guys but see ya. All around that lap I was going past people and moving up through the field but still not giving it everything.

Again, I found a couple of guys to tuck in behind on the hill into the headwind which I was pleased with.

The third lap was all about digging deep and pushing as hard as I could. Still moving up through the field and really enjoying this experience in compression to the struggles later on in Staffs. The field was more spread out now and I enjoy that feeling when you are chasing down someone in front of you and then moving on to the next person down the road.

Sadly this time there was nobody to shelter me from that wind, I was running by myself and taking the full force of the wind in the face… not that I was the only one facing that torture but still, not nice.

That was my final cross country race for this season, a short but enjoyable dip of the toe back into the cross country scene. The ankles certainly felt that lack of off-road running but in the longer term, the added strength and stability work from running on the uneven ground will only pay dividends when I get back to racing on the road at the Paris Marathon in April.