Spikes! First win of 2011

[Sylv]

Happy new year to everyone. If you intend to win races in 2011 you might as well start early! I heard of the Knacker Cracker when Chloe was doing it a few years ago and I think young Stuart did it once too. It's a super-hilly cross country race on Box Hill that takes the full gradient (much steeper than on the road) several times. After a break last year due to knee injury I am doing cross-country skiing races again this year in Feb (50 and 90km) but with zero ski training, so am doing a fair bit of running on top of the cycling to be in shape for that. Doing a duathlon in three weeks, but started the year with a gruelling 10km run.

I went to reccy the course on Tuesday, the zigzags were still closed to traffic due to the snow, and the course, well what I was able to follow of it, was either snowy, icy or muddy. I was wearing my Adidas Kanadia which are quite worn out, and was slipping all over the place, the downhills were treacherous and the uphills tough on the legs as you had to add a balancing act to the forward motion. So on the way back I stopped at Runathlon in Croydon, and enquired about what was the type of shoes for these conditions. They had a Brooks Mach 12 with spikes at the front, looking cool in black/yellow acc colours, but not in my size so I went for the previous model in white grey, then changed my mind and found out they did have a pair that fitted me, but I didn't get it until Thurs night, so didn't get a chance to try them on before the race. Not ideal but hey. They come with 3mm spikes but that's more for the track, so I got a set of 12mm ones too for the race.

The snow had cleared by this morning but it looked like it was going to be muddy, still I took my old Adidas just in case. Before the start I was looking at everyone's feet, couldn't see anyone with spikes. Either I knew better than them or I was going to find out the other way round the hard way! I was just getting worried they wouldn't work on the hard-packed and stony parts of the course. Lots of fancy dresses like is common for this race, but some "normal" runners too. Something like 3-400 altogether?

They changed the course this year as the previous version turned out to only be 9.6km on gps files, so we went down most of the hill first, before turning back and up. I got in the first 5 but one guy shot off ahead, looked like he was more gravity assisted, so I took it easy on the way down. Soon enough he tired on the way up, and I passed him easily. One guy with a yellow shirt of a past event shot past though, I let him go and followed suite now in second place. It's a long way up to the top, about 1km. You can't go flat out so I followed my instinct. Once at the top (near the cake shop) you cross the road and turn left, above the zigzags. I still had 1st place in sight, but the shoes weren't perfect on the almost hard surface of the forest track. I was in the unlikely situation of looking for looser parts of the track, where the spikes would bite without being a hindrance. Guy ahead was slightly pulling away.

Then we came to a super steep downhill. I made ground and managed to come past him. I was flying on my spikes and he was having to be ever so careful on the treacherous downhill section. The ground levelled up and I wondered what to do next, try and drop him or let him get back on me. It was too early for option 1 so we were soon together, on the now hard packed track, before turning back, near the road at the back of the Ballbuster course. Next up was a gate, which in my panick I couldn't work out how to open, so I just hopped over it. This lost a few seconds and I could see a few more runners coming up to us.

Next was a long uphill in a field. There the shoes were working great. I was making good use of my arms and got a bit of a gap. Later on we crossed the road near the Buffalo Grill, before shooting right downhill and losing all of the elevation again. Again the shoes were brilliant in the loose mud and fallen leaves. Never did I lose my balance or felt like I was slipping. I made up some good ground there, and when I looked back I was well clear.

At the bottom you crossed a river I never knew was there until my reccy, first on a bridge then back again on footsteps, which got your feet wet. Then the course backed itself, and you had to go up some mega-steep steps which you'd just been going down. People going the other way were all going "what you're back up again?!" which was good for morale. It was so steep I actually walked some of them, which I found was just as effective. When I reccied the course I got some of the bits wrong, but from now I knew that I knew the course all the way to the finish, just got to get done with those bloody steps, and then it's mostly downhill all the way. I wasn't going full out like you would if you were head to head with someone (which I was glad I wasn't), but it was hard work still. I made sure I thanked the marshalls as I went past them, and pulled a tongue for the photographers.

Finally, the last downhill, the grassy track on the left of the zigzags. What a great feeling, I felt I could go as fast as gravity would let me, with the spikes digging into the wet ground, I remembered the finish time I put in the entry form (they used to send runners in waves, the fastest last - with for only reference the course record of 43 something I wrote 46, but the course was 400m longer this year, and they sent everyone together now), and it was getting close, so I tried to stay under 46, looking back all the time but I was well clear. Crossed the line in 45.52, brilliant race, great atmosphere during and after, will all the fancy dresses. Soup and sandwich most welcome, as was the champagne and cup! Yellow guy had actually been passed by a guy in a toge fancy dress, respect! And first lady was well fast too, maybe 3-4 min after me.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/61381769

photos to come

[Andrew G]

Well done Sylv, great stuff. What a way to start the year though scrambling up and down Box Hill.

Spikes are a revelation for running if you've never used them before, I used to use them on the track and the purchase you get is superb. Even on grass tracks with the shorter track spikes they were great and save so much effort as none gets wasted. So comfy too being so light it's like running in slippers. My brother used to do a lot of cross country and used the big spikes in his shoes, they grip even in the slimy stuff on a wet day as he pounded round places like Sparrows Den woods in a storm. Not great for concrete though and the stepping stones over the river can't have been much fun. If you enjoy the cross country running and fancy some races think about joining a club as there used to be, and probably still is, a good cross country race season over winter. Have a word with my Dad if you do as his club used to do a lot of them and have always tended to have some very good runners. Not sure where you'd fit it in amongst the CX, MTB, skiing, road race training... .

[Sylv]

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[Sylv]

Will do Andrew at the diner. Oh yeh forgot to mention how light they are, over 100gm lighter per foot that makes up for the chocolate eaten over the last couple days.

[Sylv]

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[Andrew G]

Were you delivering Milk Tray?

[Rogan]

[quote="Andrew G"]Were you delivering Milk Tray?

[George]

Fantastic race win Sylv well done!! they asked him what running club he runs for then Sylv told them ADDISCOMBE CYCLING CLUB

[Marek]

Well done Sylv, I went mountain biking around that area today, some tough old hills to run up, good time considering the terrain. Happy new year.

Cheers

Marek....

[Sylv]

Yep George I just had time to rush to my car to get the club cap for the photos
Rob the organiser joked that "addiscombe cc" must be a cricket club
I didn't see any barefoot runners Marek

My legs were fine till about halfway on today's TG, then they just completely shut down
I aimed for a pothole in Redhill just to get a puncture, but the others "kindly" waited for me to mend it

[Marek]

Have got up to 10km now on the Nike Run Frees 3.0 without pain, am going to try and up it in the next few weeks as want to do a half marathon at beginning of February.

Cheers

Marek....

[Elliot M]

Nice one Sylv!

What are the carrots for?

[Sylv]

I thought they were for making snowmen if the snow had held up, but it seems it's part of the tradition of the race to offer a carrot to finishers

[Brian Nolan]

wow - fantastic result Sylv, well done -you must be really flying

[Sylv]

... but I ain't got wings ♪ ♫

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