Round Two!

Sunday I participated in my second ever XC race!  And this time I was equipped with spikes thanks to Marianne!  Yay!  The Don Farquharson Memorial Harriers XC race was at Sunnybrook park and was approx 4km.  I considered this race a bit harder than the Taylor Creek run...that one uphill was evil! ;)  I again was silly enough to race in between my 12-hr night shifts!  And again, I managed to push my body with no sleep and tired legs.  I rode my bike to the race site which involved one pretty steep hill.  I have ridden up that hill before on a bike with gears which is no problem.  But on a single speed commuter bike it was a whole different story.  I wasn't sure if I was going to make it up that hill when I was trying to figure out a route to get to the park.  I decided to ride it anyway and it was a toughy!  I suffered going up that hill.  I pretty much destroyed my legs going up that thing and I was winded and sweating...haha!  After I checked in I decided to do a warm up run and that lasted no more than 100m.  My post marathon and post night shift legs were done!  Their response: "ahem....what do you think you are doing! I want to go back and sleep!".  I honestly did about a 100m jog and then walked back.  I decided to save whatever I had for the race.  The gun went off and we were off.  I think I started a bit too fast because I felt myself die early in the race.  But the spikes made a huge difference.  I had a grip going up the hills!  Awesome!  There was one long downhill that I once again got crushed on!  Got passed lots but passed some back on the flats and some uphills.  The one steep uphill was muddy but the spikes did their job.  My lungs on the other hand were on FIRE!  They were burning and hurting!  And probably about half way into the run I got a good side stitch and I wasn't able to push the last part as much as I wanted to.  Oh....and this time I didn't follow my team mate's line.  It wasn't because I didn't want to...it was because I couldn't!  Oy!  I had my a$$ handed to me! Haha!  I ended with a near asthma attack as I was coughing away trying to get my breath back.  I did have fun out there and clocked in at 20:58, good enough for a 3rd place medal in my age group.  LoL!  UTTC as a group came in 2nd!  Good job guys!  Nice work! I didn't contribute to that but am proud to be part of the team!  Next challenge is the Sunnybrook 8km XC race in two weeks!  I hope to get out on the course and practice a bit and try to become a better XC runner.