There are 3 words that come to mind when someone asks me about the national cross country. Mud, mud and mud. There was, perhaps unsurprisingly quite a lot of mud at this year's parliament hill national cross country. It had been raining fairly consistently for the past few weeks and the ground was saturated. Compounding this, it had then been dry for a couple of days beforehand, which meant the mud was actually slightly more dry and took on a clay like consistency.
If any one has run a national cross country before, you'll know it's a tough and painful affair. 7 miles across Hampstead heath, knee deep mud, 3000 burly (read; actually quite skinny) men, a lot of sharp elbows and even sharper spikes. It can be difficult in the first 400 metres (which is directly up parliament hill from the lido at the bottom) to just stay standing let alone get yourself in any decent position.
For me, this was my first nationals for several years after a spate of various injury and illness woes and my fitness isn't quite what it used to be. There was also the additional excitement of a KOM challenge to further increase the risk of being trampled by some skinny bloke in 30mm spikes. Fortunately, we managed to get to the top of the hill largely unscathed and thereafter followed 50minutes of trudging through clay like, deep mud.
As is always the case with these events, it was less about how you did in the race and more the general atmosphere. Thousands of like minded people, all supporting friends, family and each other creates a certain feeling of comradery which is difficult to replicate in many other walks of life. From the pat on the back from the person who beat you as you finish to the man with the pressure washer at the end, I look forward to next years event.
You can watch footage from the live stream here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhx-MJPeidw