Frostbike XC Series Rd 4, 16 Jan 2022

Another new course for Round 4, around a prison in March. It didn’t sound very promising, and the course briefing from people who’d done it before said it was part road, part trail, part grass, so definitely no spikes and maybe even road shoes! After a decent warmup I decided on trail shoes as the first trail section looked quite muddy, and went for the minimum shorts and vest as it was relatively warm.

The start was quite fast as there was talk of a pinch-point through a gateway early in the course, which wasn’t a problem in the end. After a short road section it was onto the first trail and after steadying my pace to a (hopefully) sustainable one, the awful moment when loads of runners went past me making me feel like I was going slower than I was. After this I managed to keep to my target pace, even over the muddiest part. Back onto the road for a section and some headwind (not too bad as the wind wasn’t strong) with me trying to work my way the field from person to person and go a bit faster, which I was able to. Some muddy back roads meant I still wasn’t regretting the trail shoe choice, and then a really bumpy grass section along a field was the hardest and slowest part of the course. After this it was a relief to get back onto ‘normal’ muddy trails and back through a section we had done early in the race, so I knew we were nearly back.

The 8km came up on my watch when we were still some way from the end, but I managed to up my pace for a final push. I was very pleased with my time overall - just 1 sec/km off my 10k (road) PB pace. I was also higher up the placings than in the previous rounds, and made my debut as a ‘scoring’ runner for BRJ.

Tim Phillips