British and Irish Masters Cross Country International

Race: GB/Ireland Masters XC Championships, Belfast (8k)
Time/Position: 29:21 (77th from 85)
It was a pleasant surprise, and a real honour, to be selected to represent Wales for the first time - albeit in a style of event that I rarely do. The race itself was inevitably a steep learning curve: despite doing around 300 races in 15 years of running, I have never experienced anything like this level of consistent, super-intense competition throughout the field. The calibre of all the athletes was incredible, as the race was closed to all but the international teams, although at least I was fully prepared for this! I was obviously keen to put in a decent performance, so was a little distressed to find my cold worsening again after last week's Abergele 5. By the time I flew out to Belfast last night, however, my sinuses were clearing and I felt reasonably good when we caught the bus from the city centre to the race. The championships were scheduled to be held at Stormont, which I was looking forward to visiting, but the circuit was sadly waterlogged so it was switched to the Queens University playing fields on the outskirts of Belfast. I was in a 6-strong Welsh team competing in the 40-45 category along with the 35-40/45-50s in the final, fastest four lap 8k race. The course had been badly cut up by the earlier races, and was very muddy and heavy going in places, but generally relatively flat by XC standards. The pace was extremely high from the start, although I managed to hold my own for the first three 2km laps. I concentrated on keeping clear of a big 10-12 strong group of Scottish and Irish runners, initially felt I could sustain the pace, and was quite pleased to be running strongly at first. But the sheer unrelenting speed started to cause me problems as I ploughed through the mud at the end of the third lap. With around 1km to go I began to blow, and slowed. Within seconds the big group that I'd been clear of caught up, then swept past: an indication of the ruthless intensity of the competition, and all rather gutting after the first three laps. A Welsh team-mate then went past right on the line. I was reasonably pleased with my time, given the muddy 5 mile course, but was obviously disappointed not to have put in a better performance to finish higher up the field.