Lancashire Cross Country - the final countdown

It is less than two days to go until one of the winter highlights. As I write I am still aiming to reach the start line.

It will be an early start on Saturday morning as we need to be at the airport at 06.00 - an hour before my alarm normally goes off! It is also eight hours before the senior mens race so it is long day. Do not forget your ID and remember to put your spikes in a bag to go in the hold of the plane.

We usually stop for a breakfast on the way to Blackburn - I will make an extra special effort this year to avoid the temptation of a fry up at the service station (will try and save it until Sunday). I will buy some water as well to avoid becoming dehydrated. On arrival it will be a mixture of obtaining our numbers, looking at the course, supporting the runners in the other races and resting all before warming up!

I have bought a new club vest and shorts in order to look the part. An inspection of the course will determine what length spikes to use.

As for the race itself, with the cold dry weather it should be reasonably firm going and therefore quite fast running. There are still normally some muddy gateways and the downhill section after the hill can be very rutted. The junior events also cut up the course. I commented the other day that there are 4 of the 6 hills in the second half of the race so that is something to note when making a race plan.

I have been doing some extra preparation during the week - going to bed a little bit earlier than usual to help with the early start. I also checked last year's results to look at the level and depth of competition - I noted that around 5-7 athletes finished per minute.

I set myself some targets a while ago. I wanted to reach the start line. After that I had an optimistic target based on training going really well, a realistic target and then one just to finish (I will reveal these next week - honestly as well!). Training over the past few weeks has been disrupted and I have only done about half of what I planned to do. I ran quite well on Boxing Day but the hills of Blackburn will be a different proposition.

I expect there to be lots of races within the race with a number of Manx Harriers in close proximity and predicting a finishing order of between the Harriers runners is very difficult. To win the team race we will need to try and finish six runners in the first 30.

It is easy to look at the negatives leading up to a race - missed training, etc. I will try to be positive - I have built my fitness up over the past 12 months and I feel I as fit as I have been in the last five years, I have run the course several times so know what to expect, my diet is the healthiest it has ever been and I am the lightest I have been for around ten years.

Good luck to everyone taking part on Saturday.