Qld Short Course Cross Country Champs, St Pauls, Bald Hills

Thurs 14 - 40 mins easy

Fri 15 - Rest due to recovery week

Sat 16 - Qld 4000m XC Champs - 25th in 13:56

Wow, what a torrid run!!! Had a solid start tracking Don Wallace into the race and felt like i was where I should be after 1k on a dry, fast course. Struggled a bit and lost ground going through the hoof marks in the cow paddocks before regaining momentum coming out of the paddocks. In the gully behind the main oval at the 1600m mark, I ran into a low over hanging branch with stubbed me sharply under the left eye before springing back. I staggered and momentum, swore violently and got on with it. Picked up a stitch at 2500m and began to lose some ground really feeling like I was going up and down on the spot at times but managed to keep plugging away. Passed a runner on the final hill before kicking home passing a runner in the finishing straight and another right on the line. Clearly it wasn't quite my day and I felt like I could have run at least 20 seconds faster and finished in the top 20 but I still have a lot to learn about running cross country and preparing for and executing a good race in the afternoon timeslot.

After swapping some war stories and doing a gentle 4k warm down, I popped into the gents before leaving and was stunned to see my face in the mirror. I had completely forgotten about running into the tree branch only to see that I was bruised and cut under the left eye - it was a close call indeed. Luckily for QA, I'm not predisposed to litigation but it did get me thinking: if a runner was to lose an eye or some vision in a similar accident, could they sue QA for failing to execute their duty of care despite the usual waiver form signed by runners?

Sunday 17 - 170 mins, 37k's @ 4:32 mins/km

Was hoping to do my usual Sunday run on an empty stomach but it proved impossible. I'm finding that after a hard cross country run on Saturday arvo, I can't eat enough to replenish my fuel stores from that effort and then top them up for Sunday morning despite eating like a horse!! So, it was with a couple of pieces of toast in my stomach that I joined Darren for a run after doing 20 mins by myself. Did a clockwise Green Bridge loop in 86:12 followed by another 10k's out to West End and back in 45 flat. Felt pretty good most of the way and the final tally was 37k's with a 29k stretch in the middle at 4:32 pace - I could have sworn it was closer to 4:45 pace - now that's what I call a quality long run. Very pleased with that one. I remember three years ago finishing a couple of long runs with Glenda with 4k's at 4:25 pace and thinking it was a huge effort. What difference a few years makes!!