Pirie 10 - Race Report

Today I completed the Pirie 10 race. A ten mile cross-country race across Farthing Downs in the Surrey countryside.

The race was organized and run (no pun intended !) by South London Harriers, which is the club that we all joined back late last year.

The race was hard. It consisted of two five mile loops. Whenever I think of cross country running, I now mistakenly think of trail running which consists of running trails, eg forests and paths, and tree stumps and hills through the woods - you get the picture. Cross country I have since learned, is NOT that. Basically, imagine a bare field. No trees, no animals, just grass. Now imagine it's a field on a hill, now imagine it's windy and you've got to run up the hill. That's what the race was like, running up bare-arsed fields with just a tiny bit of trail thrown in.  Not my kind of race...

Considering this was a race organized by a running club, I expected to come in at the straggly end of the competitor list - and I was not wrong, I managed 1 hour 40 minutes, which isn't a bad time in non-running circles. In running circles, it's not so hot. For example, at the race awards at the club house later, I heard that the second female had managed 1 hour and 12 minutes. Not bad eh ?

I was not the last across the line though, and I think the hill training that I do in France and in Oaks park helped immensely.
Would I do the race again ? Maybe ..... I can't fault the race, it's just that I have an extreme aversion to completing the same race twice. There are so many races out there after all....