Florence Haines promised me it never rains in Edinburgh. SHE
LIED. It rained when Durham University took a group to Edinburgh Big weekend
(Urban race on the Saturday and two sprint races – one urban, one terrain – on
the Sunday).
We arrived Saturday morning, having got the train up and had
a short wait until the first of us started. I was a bit wary of the urban race…I have never really enjoyed
them, finding them boring and pointless as you end up running double the stated
distance and (in my case) hurting your shins from the hard pounding! However, I
enjoyed this urban, knowing not to go too fast at the start but letting go at
times when I was feeling fresh. It was exciting, with longer legs and some
testing navigation before entering the meadows just before the finish. Although
I felt tired, I’d paced it really well so could still push at the end J Overall I’d come 5th,
which frankly I was over the moon with it, even though a lot of my age group
hadn’t actually ran (they were helping out organise the event!!).
In the evening Durham athletes went to Sambuca (an Italian
restaurant) for a meal before heading to an organised ceidhl and then onto a
nightclub where there was an event: The Big Cheese..playing OLD SCHOOL music
which was so much fun!! We left before the club shut at about 1pm and me and
Aine (BESTY FROM DURHAM <3<3) headed back to Florence’s for the night (Me and florence go waaay back...been orienteering together since we were little) Luckily me and Aine had a tiny bit of a ly-in before our start, whereas
Florence had to leave early to help out at the starts again hahaha (UNLUCKYYYY!!)
although we still very nearly missed our starts!
AND they made cagoules compulsory just as we were arriving
as some freak windy, rainy patch hit Edinburgh. For the record, I HATE RUNNING
IN CAGOULES! They just flap about and
don’t keep you warm at all…and if they do, I overheat (much prefer being cooler
when I run rather than hotter) and have to take them off, tie them around your
waist which is SUCH a nuisance as they then ride up and you have to tie them
back up every ten minutes. GAWWWD…such a palava..AND THEN I got to the start
and the sun came out. TYPICAL…I decided to take it off and left it with
Florence!! The race was then fine…raging a little at the downhill (the bit I
LOVE) as it was sooo steep you couldn’t actually run down...had to shuffle/fall/slide!
The next sprint (the urban one) was a chase and it was eventful with Kirstin
Maxwell planning a godly course which caused about half the field to mispunch
with a crazy surprise gaffle going on at the end. And yes they can complain but
they have no right to…it was a good course and they should have run their own
courses and checked their control codes. Rule 101 ALWAYS CHECK YOUR CONTROL
CODES PEOPLE!!
They day finished with some chips :P YUM and then a train
journey back to Durham, but all in all a successful weekend :D Results can be found here: http://www.rstrain.ndtilda.co.uk/results_13/euoc_bw/
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