Welsh Inter-Regional & Masters XC Champs, 2013
The cross country course at Builth Wells ticks all the boxes:
- hills ✓
- mud ✓
- scenery ✓
They even threw in a log jump (✓) this year!
They’ve adjusted the course since I last ran it. If anything, it’s better. What used to be a steady climb has been reversed, becoming a fast and treacherous descent, which you’ll have to undertake on wobbly legs after a woodland ascent through ditches and streams.
On the day, as a representative of West Wales in the inter-regional championships, I was running in a red and black vest. Since the race included the Welsh Masters cross country championships, I was also running for Swansea Harriers, and — for the first time ever — running in the V50 category.
This rare combination gave me several chances so I struck out at a sharp pace, stretching my legs on the rolling prelude, and — to my surprise — found myself just behind Peter Coles, last year’s V50 winner, on the first downhill. I passed him at speed.
Maybe if I’d paced myself better I could have finished in the top 10. Maybe not. In the end I came 12th.
I won a bronze medal in the masters V50 category, coming around minute behind V50 winner Ifan Lloyd and just 20 seconds behind Peter Coles. West Wales were the winning V50 team and Swansea Harriers were the winning V50 club.