Btr Tour of Merseyside my story so far.....stage Five :)

Well as ever we start with.... here we are again....and where are we today? and as always what stage is it tonight guys???

It's time for stage five :)

         
                                                           


Stage 5 - Stadt Moers cross country 6 miles Friday 11th July 2014.


Tonight's run was the turn of Knowsley and the Stadt Moers country park which was going to be a cross country run over 6 miles and consisting of two 3 mile loops over mainly grass and some trail and a little bit of tarmac.

This was going to be unknown territory for me as I had never run a cross country before and had certainly not run on rough grass up and down hills etc, this was indeed going to be a challenge to me, and I'm sure to many others.

I had already chatted with Sarah about tonight's race and offered to run together to ensure a victory over her closest rival, or at least try and pace and push for the win.I got a positive response and she seemed up for it which took a weight of my mind for the run.

Transport was courtesy of Mr M again and we arrived with plenty of time again and parked up and headed up towards the course etc.I did manage at this time to have a chat with `Mr Fist Pump` himself Danny. Some of you will recognise Danny from his customary fist pump at the start of races as he passes the camera's, and around the course as well it appears from the various pictures I've been going through for the blogs lol.

  Danny a.k.a Mr Fist Pump :)

                                                    

It was nice to speak to someone who had been reading the blogs and enjoying them, feedback is always welcomed so I can be sure they are liked by those that read them. And it was good to hear he was happy being in the blogs.

So onto the start/finish area and past the loo's on the way as it was too early to try the customary last wee lol, and lets face it it's the country, mans open toilet, every tree is his friend and all that lol...


The start area was in a nice open area just a little down a tarmac path and we could see some of the course as we approached.We could also see how thick the alleged cut grass is for cross country and how uneven the uphill and downhill can be, it was indeed an eye opener.

The start/finish area was in the same place as per usual which was good and the Btr hospitality tents etc, and it was time for people to say their hello's to our regular and new friends as per norm at the events and take pics etc.

It was also time to say hello to Sarah and Catherine and a new person who I recognized from Monday night at Thurstaston. It was infact Sarah and Catherines coach from their bootcamp and it appeared he was going to be Sarah's secret weapon including a suspicious looking Go Pro type camera that you wear on your body to record as you run.

I personally think it was a spy camera to look out for weak points in my racing so Sarah could beat me :)

Secret weapon complete with spycam :)

               

                                            

So it was  now about 10 mins before the start and Sarah asked if I had my Garmin on because she had forgotten hers, so I replied "yes, what pace do you want?" and set it for the pre planned 8 minute mile pace.

Sarah and Catherine then decided to totter off to the loo's and I carried on talking to her friends and a few others while we all patiently waited for the start.

It was now minutes away from start and I couldn't see either Sarah or Catherine anywhere and I panicked that they were still in the loo's, so I waited around the back of the line up of runners in the hope I'd spot them, but with no luck.

The race now started at the usual 7pm and we were off up the first steep grass embankment/hill and my head was now up my a*se because I suspected I may off been duped by a cunning plan to trick me.

I started off and slow ran with the people around me still wondering if Sarah had actually started or not. I continued on and eventually found Catherine running along and asked her where Sarah was and was told " she's miles ahead, get after her".

My first thought was what the hell ( or other words unsuitable for this blog ) and I ran on, but this was a demanding course and I didn't want to run ahead at speed and waste energy, so I ran with those around me and tried to work out the course.

Stadt Moers is infact demanding if your not used to it,especially with many path's up and down various grass hills and embankments and I was soon to discover it had some pretty nasty surprises as you suddenly find your self faced with a long uphill, a few twists and turns and then steep downhills, none of which you really want to bomb down.

Typical terrain for Stadt Moers.

                                                  

  Plenty of ups..

                                                                 

  One of the long gradual ups.

                                                   

Several people still managing a smile though :)

                                      

...and the occasional `fist pump` by the man himself :)

                               

So we continued on around the course and I don't think I was alone in finding it tough going as the extra oxygen needed to go up the hills etc was quite a challenge even if you were fairly fit as you didn't know if around the corner it was flat or another hill or what, so you couldn't pace properly on loop one at least.

As the course went on and after many more twists and turns I managed to get an idea of what lay ahead with the course and started to slowly put more effort in and try to overtake a few people as I went as we went around corners and downhills etc.....

But I wasn't the only one because Sarah was clearly out there somewhere ahead and because of the twisting and turning of the course I couldn't see how far ahead she actually was......

Sarah was of course still ahead and running with the secret weapon and at this moment pacer......

I continued on and as we started to near the last 1000 metres or so of lap one we were hit with a very steep uphill that we at some stage had come down earlier, this was a knackering hill if you went too fast, but fairly reasonable if you went slower, although you would usually find even the sensible shorter but quicker cadence was still a leg burner.

I got to the top of this hill and could hear cheers of " come on Sarah" ahead but down the hill and around to the right so I knew she was at least 800 metres ahead and probably still pushing the pace. I was struggling to maintain my own pace at the moment as I didn't know how much worse the course got and didn't want to burn out trying to catch up.

Sarah is at least 800 metres ahead on this downhill......

                               

....while I'm still desperately trying to catch her

                                      

So down the hill we went and through the start area again and up the steep grass embankment.By now we knew what was coming for lap two so I suspect most of us decided to push a little more to catch up with others, and in my case Sarah.

A few of the downhills were now much appreciated and it could clearly be seen on some people's faces that these were preferred as many were smiling as they passed the camera's on some of the more pleasurable declines.

So onwards we went with lap 2 and I continued now to try and push the pace a little, especially as I know knew roughly how far ahead Sarah was and I knew she at least wouldn't by now be going faster than me so there was a hope to catch up. After all we still had 2-3 miles to go ( ah hell).

Up and down we all went and around all the difficult bits again but this time knowing they were coming so pacing accordingly so more energy was available for the flats.And this was my Godsend in particular as I managed to push on past a fair few people on the flats as I was confident my energy level would stay sufficient and it was all down to maintaining a decent threshold pace at least and where available race pace.

I managed at one stage in the woodlands to sneak past Sarah's pacer/coach who had now dropped of her pace He did fail to spot me as I passed him  luckily for me as several people had offered to trip me up on the way around on Sarah's behalf, so stealthy running was required every time I recognized someone ahead lol.

I could see Sarah effectively no further than 100 metres ahead, and although I was fairly confident I could make that up subject to a decent sprint at the end I wasn't sure I could infact get up the last hill first and recover quick enough to sprint, and was it enough time wise?

I managed to sprint up a little on the second to last flat section under the bridge and as I turned to run up the final hill I also saw Mike running the opposite way who shouted encouragement at Sarah to get a move on as I was about to catch her on the hill.

So up the hill we went and thankfully Sarah had clearly used up most of her energy maintaining the lead and I pulled level.To be fair I now could of pulled ahead and gone off without her, but as I originally was supposed to be running with her on this run I was not prepared to do that.

We came down the final hill and around the corner to cheers from her friends who clearly now sensed a battle coming on, and it was mutual sprint time.Sarah would start to pull away and I'd follow and maintain the speed to stop her getting ahead.....

Neck and neck and sprinting in.

                                                   

....we continued the battle and approached the final corner and I realised Sarah had the inside line so panicked a little and sped up to make up for it, but then someone was in Sarah's way as she came around the corner so I moved over to give her room and indicated with my arm to move through the gap. 

We did cross the line together certainly as I had originally planned, but I'm not sure that was Sarah's plan but hey a battle's a battle and I'm just as competitive as her in the end as you can usually see in my efforts to make sure I at least cross the line at the same time rather than behind :)

   Neck and neck

                                                                

Still neck and neck over the line :)

                                                 

It was now the usual handshake time and time to watch remaining friends cross the line, in particular Sarah's partner in crime the bootcamp coach who after dropping off Sarah's pace dropped back to run with Catherine around the remainder of the course.

Catherine and coach.

                                                           

  King Kenny

                                                                    

     The Determinator himself Mr M :)

                                              

And not forgetting James and John.

                                                 



Slowly but surely we all came in and it was the best part of the day group photo time and your chance to get in the photo's with all your friends no matter which running club they are in as we are a running community not just club runners.

So it was now officially 2-0 between Sarah and myself still, as we crossed the line tonight with the same gun time, despite the head start, and we now had an agreed 3 draws due to gun times on some of the races so far.

I now had the overall win on actual races secured...but I was only roughly two and a half minutes ahead in overall time for the Tour itself so I could still infact lose the whole thing, and I knew Sarah can really push the pace on longer runs and can pass me on occasion.

I now was deeply worried that I was about to kiss the overall win goodbye tomorrow.....


Only one day remained , and it was a dreaded long slog down the Wirral Coastal Path and with no real recovery time as we had just ran in the evening but have to run in the morning this time, lterally 12 hours later inc any sleep we were lucky to get.....