Sunday 22 February 2009

Team success but individual disappointment

Unfortunately a disappointing race to report this time around, I finished 13th overall but after the way training has been going I felt I should have been in much closer order to the front of the race. I must admit I didn't feel particularly good today physically, right from the start of the race my legs just weren't feeling fresh like they should on a race day. It was tough going and whilst the course was particularly muddy and challenging terrain that's no excuse for the end result.

If there was a plus point to the weekend it was that we won Team gold. I was running for my new club Newham and Essex Beagles, its apparently the first time the club has won the mens event in the national for something like a century. Unfortunately I wasn't in particular good spirits for the presentation as was still mulling over a bad day at the office but pleased to have contributed to the team success none the less (i was 2nd scored, with 6 to count).

Had to skip the media pic's etc after the presentation as had to catch last flight home and only had 90mins to get to Gatwick, luckily central London traffic wasn't too bad believe it or not!

Next up World Cross Trials in 2 weeks time where I will be sure to put in a better perform in. For anyone who wants to check it out the race will televised on sky sports (saturday 7th March) they'll be showing all the junior races too and there a few Guernsey girls and lads running in these too.

All for now.

Cheers

Lee

Wednesday 18 February 2009

English National Champs a few days away

Its been a couple of weeks since my last post but I'm glad to say that my travel nightmares are behind me now! Looking back it wasn't too bad in the end and could have been worse, one members of the womens team who was travelling back to Edinburgh didn't get back home until 2 days after she was meant to.


Training has been going well since my Italy job, oh and before I forget sorry no pictures to post up from my race unfortunately. One of the team managers who was taking pics had advice from an Italian photographer on his camera settings only to find that the pictures came out badly! funnily enough the Italy photographer was also handing out cards to his website! I did find a foreign website though with a great link showing numerous pictures of the 2008 race and shows a lot of quirky aspects of the course. Unless you understand polish the pictures are likely the only bit you'll be able to follow though...
http://bieganie.pl/?show=1&cat=32&id=957


My last block of training has gone well and I've put in a good 2-3 weeks of decent training and I'm definately in much better shape than I was then. Track sessions have gone particularly well and I'm confident that I can put in a good performance at the weekend...

Its the English National Cross Country Champs this weekend, where as always a big field is likely to turn out. It's quite normal to see a field of 1500+ athletes running which looks quite impressive at the start with everyone flying off to get a good early position. The race is being run at a venue called Parliment Hill which carries a certain amount of history. Its known as a challenging course and will prove a good tester being that the World Cross Trials which are now just over 2 weeks away.

Race is Saturday afternoon will try to post up a race report Sunday afternoon if time allows.

Cheers

Lee

Tuesday 3 February 2009

Cinque Mulini Result

I'm currently sat in Gatwick aiport writing this, with my flight cancelled this morning to Guernsey I'm not sure I will even get back today as Guernsey Airport is closed. I was meant to fly back last night, however my flight back from Milan was delayed most of the day due to the weather in both locations. Long days in airports are not fun as you can imagine, so this report is my therapy!

Anyway back to the important stuff - racing! ...

The race was very unique, I finished 7th a minute behind the winner Shaheen ( a former Kenyan know as Steven Cherono who now runs for Qatar under his new name, he is currently world record holder for the 3000m Steeplechase), 2nd was Lebid (he won the European Cross Champs in December, I was 22nd in that). I was reasonably satisfied with my performance as its been a while since my last race, I felt quite strong and enjoyed raced again. I would have liked to have been a bit further up the field as I was actually the 4th British runners over but the guys who beat me have been racing since the Euro's in December and I wasn't far behind. I'm confident with another good block of training I will move my performances on before the National in 3 weeks time.

The race itself is quite unique, you run inside and through an old windmill on each lap! The race is stacked in history too, with lots of famous athletes running and winning the race over the years. See the link on my previous post to check out the full results and details about the history of the race which was first run in 1933 and has run every year since. Originally it ran through 5 mills but only 2 are left in tack now and one is now someone's house be the looks of it (we just run under the arch of that one) I will try to get hold of some pictures and post them up in the week as the surroundings are great. The route was still quite fast dispite runner through inside the mill, there were no hills of sorts, but your rhythm is broken by the turns and steps inside them!

I will probably update this post when I get home, apologies for typo's in advance as typed in a hurry!

Hopefully I get home today!

All for now

Cheers

Lee