This Sunday I ran my first ever cross country race in Swanley Park. I have not been running enough recently. The lack of running has resulted in me gaining weight I am trying to motivate myself. I have been looking for something to help me fall back in love with running as I have lost all motivation for most things. Running the 5.3 mile course was hard and caused my legs to feel so drained and feeling awful. The voice in my head was saying “This race shouldn’t feel so hard at this pace. I’m running there is no excuse other than me being lazy. You need to get out and lose some weight JJ you need to run more.”
The cross country race was three laps around Swanley park which is a lovely park that we must visit again, me and Amy are aiming to visit more local parks for our Sunday runs. Last week I ran around Greenwich park which was also very nice.
Cross country is different to any other event I have raced in. The whole atmosphere was both jovial and serious. The race began with a minute silence to commemorate Remembrance Sunday. The moment the race started over 400 runners began.
My First Cross Country Race
In the first few minutes I was running too fast but I had to push myself too see where I am currently. In the second lap I realized my left shoe was too tight. Every time my foot hit the floor I could feel pins and needles shoot right through my leg. I fought through the pain for as long as I could. Eventually I had to stop for a second to try and stretch out my laces this was unsuccessful. I was so near to the finish I had to battle on until the end. On the final hill before the finish I managed to move up a gear. I overtook some of the runners who had overtaken me. At the finish I was in 301st place in 44:26 minutes. I fell this is good time considering. I have not ran enough and I am a lot heavier than I should be.
The race results for the Swanley park cross country can be found on the Kent fitness league website.