Tuffman 2012
The race that brought tears to my eyes!
Last year this was the last race of the series, and it took place in Pippingford Park in Uckfield. The race was two laps of 4 km, and you start at the top of the valley, run 3 km down in some kind of a zigzag track with a little bit of ups and downs, and then it's 1 km of 10% slope uphill. It was grueling.
This year they changed the track so as to make it only one lap, roughly 6 km from top to bottom of the valley, 1 km around lakes and marsh at the bottom, and for home stretch, the infamous 1 km uphill.
Having had a good look at the topographic map before the race, my strategy this time was "save the best for last". I knew that if I made a steady race in the first 7 km, I could tackle the last uphill in better than average shape, and get a good result.
It was a cold morning. A VERY cold morning. A trickle of snow flakes coming down the gray skies. I get to the start line for the race briefing. They tell us that it's going to be "technical" by the lakes at the bottom. Technical? I ask myself. Do we need ropes and ice axes or something? Nope, they explain: the terrain is normally muddy, but given the cold, it's all frozen mud, a very uneven and hard surface underfoot. Darn! Just what I needed for my weak ankles...
So the race starts and there we go. We start heading down and up and through the woods and such, and I find myself crying... WTF? It's not THAT beautiful, I reflect. There's still another race in the series too, so it's not sadness either... Well, aaappaaaarently (and this is myself being a rookie in this cross-country thing) when it's this cold the wind in your face makes you cry. And although I was not sobbing or anything, the bloody tears would not let me see much, and that's not very good news while running in frozen mud!
Luckily the tears subsided after a few minutes, and I could see other runners go past me. "Easy tiger" I kept telling myself. "Save it for the last hill"... So I kept my pace and it wasn't a very graceful race: at every other ravine or creek or you name it, more than once I had to flap my arms like a drunken stork to try and keep balance and avoid a crash landing...
More runners went pass, until I realize we are getting to the base of the last uphill.
Let's do this, I say to myself, and uphill we go, and I overtake one, two, three, four, maybe five of those that flew past me in the flats. And just like last year, the final sprint was a head-to-head-to-head against a man and his dog.
Last year I managed to snatch the finish line from the guy+dog at the very last stride, but this year it was photo-finish.
It's a bit of a shame that it takes 1 1/2 hours to get there, in order to run 40 minutes, relax for maybe half an hour, and then 2 hours to get back to London. Then again it was great fun and I can't wait for the next race!
Last year this was the last race of the series, and it took place in Pippingford Park in Uckfield. The race was two laps of 4 km, and you start at the top of the valley, run 3 km down in some kind of a zigzag track with a little bit of ups and downs, and then it's 1 km of 10% slope uphill. It was grueling.
This year they changed the track so as to make it only one lap, roughly 6 km from top to bottom of the valley, 1 km around lakes and marsh at the bottom, and for home stretch, the infamous 1 km uphill.
Having had a good look at the topographic map before the race, my strategy this time was "save the best for last". I knew that if I made a steady race in the first 7 km, I could tackle the last uphill in better than average shape, and get a good result.
It was a cold morning. A VERY cold morning. A trickle of snow flakes coming down the gray skies. I get to the start line for the race briefing. They tell us that it's going to be "technical" by the lakes at the bottom. Technical? I ask myself. Do we need ropes and ice axes or something? Nope, they explain: the terrain is normally muddy, but given the cold, it's all frozen mud, a very uneven and hard surface underfoot. Darn! Just what I needed for my weak ankles...
So the race starts and there we go. We start heading down and up and through the woods and such, and I find myself crying... WTF? It's not THAT beautiful, I reflect. There's still another race in the series too, so it's not sadness either... Well, aaappaaaarently (and this is myself being a rookie in this cross-country thing) when it's this cold the wind in your face makes you cry. And although I was not sobbing or anything, the bloody tears would not let me see much, and that's not very good news while running in frozen mud!
Luckily the tears subsided after a few minutes, and I could see other runners go past me. "Easy tiger" I kept telling myself. "Save it for the last hill"... So I kept my pace and it wasn't a very graceful race: at every other ravine or creek or you name it, more than once I had to flap my arms like a drunken stork to try and keep balance and avoid a crash landing...
More runners went pass, until I realize we are getting to the base of the last uphill.
Let's do this, I say to myself, and uphill we go, and I overtake one, two, three, four, maybe five of those that flew past me in the flats. And just like last year, the final sprint was a head-to-head-to-head against a man and his dog.
Last year I managed to snatch the finish line from the guy+dog at the very last stride, but this year it was photo-finish.
It's a bit of a shame that it takes 1 1/2 hours to get there, in order to run 40 minutes, relax for maybe half an hour, and then 2 hours to get back to London. Then again it was great fun and I can't wait for the next race!
Comments
Post a Comment