What a brilliant event 'The National' is.
This year the race returned to Parliament Hill, the home of Cross Country in England, for the 125th running of the event.
We arrived at the event fairly strong and with medal hopes. Steve Naylor had to withdraw due to a dodgy Achilles, but Mark Draper had come in. My aim was to make the top six for Bedford and hope the team could get a medal. I had hopes of returning home with some metal.
The day was very warm for February and the ground was as firm as you could possibly expect for a cross country at this time of year. It was unprecedented really. I've never seen it so dry, and I thought that would suit me.
I had raced the Wokingham Half Marathon just six days before but had run easy all week and felt fine on race day. I had decided to go out fairly aggressively and hope I could hang in and make the scoring six.
We assembled at the start and looked up the hill, poised for the off. We were soon on our way and I felt like I was racing the National more than previous, when I've just been swallowed up and gotten frustrated fairly quickly. I seemed to be going well as we went over the hill and the race started to sort itself out. I was fairly well placed and was feeling quite strong. I was anticipating a decent run.
I started to push on past groups and was making some good progress with the right people around me. Nigel Stirk was alongside for a good while, and I seemed to be holding him quite well as we skipped over the firm ground. I could see guys like Martin Williams not too far ahead.
My fairly good start meant I was the 5th scorer for the team, and although I couldn't control how the team would perform, I could control being among the scorers. This continued for a while before we commenced the second lap and team mate Will Mckay drew alongside, and then fairly quickly pushed on. Likewise, Nigel Stirk and started to move away and I went into the second lap feeling a bit tired but on course for 6th scorer.
As we begun the second lap I was aware I was now more tired and was unlikely to improve my position. I've no idea where I was but "top 100" kept being shouted out, which I was a bit disappointed with - I thought I was going better than that (actually having since seen footage of the race, at halfway, I was 122nd - which was my final finishing position).
Huw Lobb came alongside and quickly went five, then ten metres ahead. He was running strongly. I'd last seen Huw about 800 metres into the race and now he was back and moving through strongly. This was a real blow to me as I knew I wouldn't medal if we did manage to be up there in the team positions. I tried to focus on Huw but he, like Will and Nigel before, was going away too fast.
I seemed to have the same guys around me generally, but occasionally I'd get passed by those moving through the field and I wasn't moving in the same direction. The volume of bodies seemed crowded, there were barely any gaps where I was. This was after all the best attended National for nearly 20 years.
I was starting to long for the end and had nothing like the strength I'd had in the Wokingham Half just a few days before. I tried to keep motivated, despite being 7th Bedford scorer, by what I thought might be my best ever National placing. As we were finally directed towards the finish and the final run in to the line, I dropped a good few places and couldn't get on terms with a line of blokes ahead of me and wound up 122nd.
I got a bit confused at the finish line as they handed out '125th anniversary' pin badges as I have got a '125th anniversary' shot glass at home from 2001, but it all became clear that the pin badge commemorated the actual 125th running of the National, due to the years lost to the war. The shot glass was just for 125 years. Anyway, a nice touch.
Upon reviewing the results I was in front of most of the guys I was disappointed to finish behind at the Southern XC four weeks ago - but I expected this as I'm quite significantly fitter than I was then. I felt fairly dejected at being 7th Bedford man again (it's happened in the two most recent Nationals I've run when the team have scooped medals), but to be fair I was nowhere near Huw to make a race of it in the end, which was disappointing.
As it was Bedford didn't make the medals, despite Neilson Hall being 8th and Mark Draper 12th. If I'd been one minute quicker I'd have been 74th. That's almost 50 people through in 60 seconds.
We warmed down and headed off to the pub for a few pints - the Dartmouth Arms. After that we got the train home where I managed to lose my wallet before rolling back into Bedford. With seven weeks left to Rotterdam I afforded myself a night out, which went on a bit longer and featured a few more pints than planned (and no proper dinner, which was a schoolboy error) - but I reckoned I've earned it recently.
The 22 miler the morning after was therefore a bit of a slog, and I woke up off just five hours sleep and with a fairly sore head and got myself out the door. After 10 miles I felt fine, but as it was still (relatively, for February) warm I was feeling tired and dehydrated. I seemed to be moving pretty well but the last two miles were very tough and I was on my knees at the end. That's the last night out I'll have for a good while.