National reflections

I was disapponted to miss the trip to the National in London last weekend but having injured my calf/achilles the wek after the Lancs Champs I knew it was unlikely I could make it.

Although Keith Gerrard was the first IOM runner, pride of place went to Kevin Loundes. To finish in the top 5% after just three years of running was a great achievement. Keith will be disappointed with his run and hopefully he can rectify things quickly in next weekend's Inter Counties/World Cross trial.

The course looked to be very muddy but it was good to see the largest field for around a decade - hopefully this trend will continue. The best way to measure your performance from one National to the next is to take your position as a percentage of the number of finishers - 300th from 1400 is better than 300th from 1000 finishers - so even those whose position is constant are still improving!

Gail Griffiths continued her improvement in the women's race and it would be great to have a women's team at some point in the future.

Next year the event is at Roundhay Park, Leeds so it should be more accessible for many. Indeed it should - just about - be possible to do in a day, weather permitting. It was a common Northern venue for the National in the 1970's, 80' and 90's but has not been used since 1998. I remember running there that year - the course was quite firm but features Hill 60 - a lung bursting 250 hill something like Crellins Hill!

Next weekend we have the Inter Counties/World Cross trial at Nottingham on Saturday and locally the last round of the Manx Gas League at Nobles Park on Sunday. The last round can be a bit of an anti climax as people start to concentrate on their own goals for later in the year i.e. Manx Mountain Marathon, London Marathon, track season etc plus some already have enough races completed to finish the league. Still, Nobles Park is our spiritual home of cross country so it would be good to see a decent turn-out.

I hope to make the start line myself. I managed my longest run for about three months last weekend covering around 11-12 miles. After only managing about 9 runs in each of December and January I have done much better in February. Most of my training is just steady running but I managed some intervals on the cross trainer on Monday. I hope it stays dry over the next 10 days so it is not too muddy!

Next time I will say a bit more on next week's events including my thoughts on Inter Counties selections - suffice to say, I don't think they always give our runners a fair hearing when making selections.