Cambridgeshire XC Championships, 8 Jan 2023

As usual cross country is about racing hard and having fun. The Cambridgeshire county champs was no exception. The course was proposed to be 10km, so 2km longer than the Met League distance I am used to. Pacing this was made easy by being a 4 lap course with 2 long laps followed by 2 shorter laps. Having never run cross country in Cambridgeshire before I didn't know what to expect, though I had a hunch there wouldn't be any killer climbs - I was not wrong. Despite this I stuck to my usual strengths and descended hard and fast, often making ground on those around me. Unusually for cross country this was mostly a solo effort after the first lap and a half, with another solo runner 20 metres or so ahead of me and the same gap to behind - normally I am running in the bunch and able to take shelter into headwinds etc. This made for some tough sections, especially the home straight, which was into a stonking headwind with no cover! Overall, I was happy with how I raced and happy with 10th overall, missing out on inter county qualifications by 1 spot!

David Shepherd