Richmond Cross Country Race, 5 Feb 2023

Having not run on this course before, I was unsure what to expect, however, my team-mates said that last year they had to run uphill into a blizzard! Luckily, It was a sunny day with very little wind and the course gave great views over the Yorkshire countryside, being on the site of the old racecourse at the top of a hill.

The course involved three laps of the field, of which half is uphill and half is downhill. The start was roughly halfway up the uphill section and I decided to position myself near the front but I wasn’t too keen to get to the front due to the immediate uphill part. It was a hard start but once we reached the old grandstand at the top of the hill, we turned and started to go downhill. The route headed towards some gorse bushes where we took a sharp left then a right turn onto a stony track before coming out onto the field again and turning to go uphill. As I came uphill, close to where we started, there were people gathered around to watch and it was nice to have my family there to cheer me on, even if I did feel like I was moving slowly! As I started to get close to the old grandstand again, a runner overtook me and I could hear others gaining on me, however as we started to go downhill, I overtook her and managed to separate myself as I tried to maintain the same effort downhill as I was putting in on the uphill part.

Another lap followed, in which I overtook some of the slower runners and it felt good to hear them cheering for me as a team member. I then reached the bottom corner and tried to push a bit to the finish line, it was hard to do a fast finish going uphill and I was pleased to get to the end!

Sarah Hunter