Over the past weekend I have been in Toowoomba competing in
the State Cross Country Championships. After having a week and a half of solid
training in Canberra I noticed that there was a huge difference in how I was
able to breathe during the race and at no point did I feel like the air was
burning in my lungs. I was now preparing for a 6km battle.
Sunday was my individual race and the race was at 3:25 in
the afternoon. I knew that having my race at this time meant that the
temperature would be hovering around the maximum allowing for perfect racing
conditions. I was aware that I have been very inconsistent this year so I
didn’t put any pressure on myself and I wasn’t nervous. After lining up on the
start line I gave myself the goal of beating my best performance of 24th
and possibly even slipping into the top 20. As the gun sounded I didn’t sprint
off at a blistering pace because I knew that I wanted to save myself. The long
start line shortly came to a tight squeeze around the first corner where I
found myself in the perfect position of about 15th-20th
and I knew that all I had to do was stay here or even try move up, keeping in
mind that I had 6km’s. About 2.5km into the race I started losing feeling in my
arms and I knew that this was a bad sign because I wouldn't have anything to
drive with. I didn’t give up and just tried to keep pushing through whilst
trying to shake some blood into my arms while I ran. It was around the 4km mark
where the feeling came back and instantly I made up around 5 places easily
putting me in the top 20, but as soon as I came to the hills I lost the feeling
again and those people came straight past again. I knew this wasn’t good and I
was trying so hard to maintain where I was in the pack. As I crested the last
hill and onto the oval with around 500m to go I was exhausted and had nothing
left in the tank. I was able to cross the line without ending up in the medical
tent this year.
I lost two places in the last 200m and this hurt a bit on
the inside because I didn't have anything else to fight with. I ended up
finishing in 25th and although this isn’t anything to be ashamed of,
I am a little bit disappointed in how I finished. I knew that I could have
easily ran myself into the top 20 and to miss out on my best performance by
only one spot was really quite annoying.
On an overall the whole trip was really good and our teamed
finished around 7th or 8th in the relays, which is always
good fun. I am undecided on whether or not I will race next year because of the
distance (8km). I am now shifting my focus to athletics where I think I have a
chance of making the top 10 in the 1500m and the final in the 800m. I get more
enjoyment out of track running these days so I really want to work hard for
those championships later this year.
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| My favourite photo from the race. (Early stages of the 6km) |
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