National Cross Country, Falkirk

Twenty years after my first ever "National" at Falkirk as a nine year old, I returned, having only missed two in between (one by being in New Zealand in 2004 and one due to injury last year). Despite the passage of all those years, I still sort of "enjoyed" my energetic plod round 3 laps of Callendar Park - nice firm tracks, muddy corners, a few wee hills. With my usual even pacing I managed to take Hamilton at the start of the last lap and edged past Rob with a quarter of a mile to go. Fighting off the urge to heave my guts up due to the effort I was putting in at that point I managed to stay ahead and had a sprint finish down the home straight to come home in 52min 51sec and 282nd 0f 413 runners, only a mere 14mins behind the winner! My heartrate monitor showed that I was working at an average of 90% max during the race, 735 calories and 90 metres of ascent. Chris had a great race to lead home Westies in 88th place, 8 mins ahead of me, followed by Brian Bonnyman, me, Rob, Hamilton, Jason, Graeme and Drew. Results here