Somehow, through either bad or excellent planning, depending on your point of view, I have managed to avoid any cross country races until this weekend. Then, like buses, they all arrive at once: Saturday just gone was the Surrey XC Champs, and next Saturday is the Surrey league. To add insult to injury, both take place in Lloyd Park. I’m sure I will manage to offend some Croydon natives but god, it’s not my favourite place to run. Mud, mud, hideous mud, nothing quite like it for making a run a slog …
Not feeling great myself, I treated Saturday’s race as a recce for next weekend (which somewhat blows my excuses for that one, I suppose). My recce revealed mud, hills and that Croydon hosts a sport called disc golf. The website’s claim to have “18 beautiful holes” is .. well.. anyone got an email for Trading Standards?
Then Sunday’s longish 15 miler, followed by today’s tube strike 10 mile run commute. Probably not the ideal recovery run for a Monday, and leaving open the question of how the hell I’m going to get home – split runs are one thing, a 20 mile split run the day after a 15 miler I draw the line at.
So, come and tell me about your weekend. Did you XC – if I can use that as a verb? If so, what are your go-to shoes? I have a pair of Inov-8 Mudclaws that have safely seen me round many an XC course, and are particularly good on the mixed terrain sort where you cross gravel as well as mud. Or were you parkrunning, or racing? As always, share triumphs and woes below the line. And defend Croydon, if you can …
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