Saturday, 26 January 2013

Edinburgh Big Weekend

26-27th January 2013


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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