Emma’s had a very busy winter; cramming in parkruns across
multiple venues (including one in France) and getting down and dirty
in the domestic cross-country scene.
She once again competed in all five rounds of the mainly
Leeds-area-based PECO cross country
series (pic); no mean feat given that these are all very tough and competitive races
and - inevitably - mean cold, inhospitable conditions and tough mental resolve.
The temptation to stay in a warm, comfy bed rather than face the arduous
task-at-hand is, for sure, a mental battle easily lost.
Showing resolve, Emma conquered the duvet challenge each and
every time and performed well at all 5 rounds; her individual results in the
senior ladies’ category were as follows:
Race 1 - Middleton
Park - 31/70
Race 2 - Temple
Newsam - 23/53
Race 3 - West
Park - 32/60
Race 4 - Crimple
Valley - 27/56
Race 5 - Roundhay
Park - 22/54
Consistent finishes meant she achieved a 24/81 series
position in her age category and a 161/653 in the female field overall.
Whilst in the
cross-country groove, Emma went on to compete in the English National Cross
Country Championship held at Harewood House, Yorkshire.
Now, this is an incredibly popular event, which inevitably means literally
thousands of competitors descending on the venue; some with more time to spare
than others. Suffice to say that Emma had an ‘interesting’ time of it and -
baulked by hundreds of cars all seemingly heading for the one-remaining parking
spot - had to park ‘creatively’ courtesy of a random roadside embankment before
sprinting off, layers of race-clothing flapping, in the rough general direction
of the number and race-chip muster point in order to be able to start.
After some frantic
searching, abandonment of unwanted over-clothing and a sprint towards the start
she was at maximum heart rate and still two minutes shy of the line when the
starting gun went and the huge field of racers disappeared over the horizon.
Accepting she was unlikely to be threatening the podium, she managed to reign
in expectations and calm all physical and mental systems down and settle into
the race. To her credit, and on a predictably challenging and technical 8K
course, she still managed to overtake a good chunk of competitors to finish in
a position of 900/1034 overall in the ladies’ ranks.
Given that the
winter had seen Emma race herself to a good level of fitness, and taking the
view it was a shame to waste the race miles in the bank, last weekend she
entered the Norton 9 mile road race. This race is a particularly tough one and
features relentless and wearing climbs and descents; some notably steep. In
spite of the tough nature of it, Emma reported enjoying the race and managed a 1:20:52 course PB to boot; almost four minutes
quicker than her last effort in this same event a full ten years ago. Her effort
was good enough for a 15/35 position in age category and 91/203 in the female
field overall.
