"Team" has been a major motivation for me over the last couple of weeks as my training and racing has all been geared towards team competition.
Although running is an individual sport and can never be considered a team sport in the way that football and hockey can, the Winter season is full of team competitions that mean I want to run the best I can, not just for myself but for my team mates as well.
In fact, looking at my race calendar for the next few months I've only got 2 races scheduled this side of Christmas where I'll be running solely for myself as an individual, though those are both races where I have high individual goals so the pressure will still be on!
I'm very lucky to have been part of a fantastic women's team for the last few years - in fact I've been a member of Telford AC since I started training, but I feel really lucky to have such a great group of ladies to train and compete with over the last few year. Together we've had successes some of us would never have had as individuals - we've won league cross country competitions, medals at the Midlands Cross Country Championships, Midlands Road Relay Championships and even a silver medal at the National XC Championships a few years ago.
When I started back running a couple of years ago after a long period of injury, it was the Telford AC ladies who encouraged me on what were initially very short runs, and then longer runs till eventually I was back racing. I can say with all certainty that if it wasn't for this fabulous group that I wouldn't have made it back to the level I'm at now. Thank you girls!
This Winter we've got a few league competitions, North Wales and North Staffs XC where I know if everybody runs well we've got a chance of winning the league - and that's a fantastic thing to be part of. Personally I'm aiming for a few top 10 places and after missing a whole summer with injury I'm delighted to have already scored a 12th and an 11th place finish in each of the respective leagues. What's even more fantastic is that as a team we've finished 1st in each of these races, giving us a great start to the season. It's pretty exciting to be aiming for some silverware as a team and makes the races that bit more important and interesting.
Last year we took a surprise 3rd at the Midlands Cross Country Champs and I can still remember how hard I worked over the last 1/2 mile to overtake runners who I knew were likely to be scoring runners from rival clubs. I felt far more motivated to work hard up the last hill knowing that finishing 50th instead of 51st could be the difference between a bronze medal and nothing. In the end we took bronze by a single point - and we all went home from that race far happier than if we'd raced as individuals and just had our individual results to celebrate.
Every time we get together and run well as a team, it's so much better than just pottering round on my own! If I have a bad run, there's a whole group of friends there to pick me up, encourage me on and tell me next time will be better - and that counts for everyone! And regardless of how well anybody runs, we always have a fantastic day out.
Here we are on a lovely day out in Bangor:
So why have I suddenly been struck by the importance of the team?
2 reasons - firstly, racing triathlon and duathlon over most of the year I've missed out on the team atmosphere, and being back within that for the cross country season has really emphasized the difference having a good team makes.
Secondly, this weekend we competed in the National Road Relay Championships - the first National Champs of the Winter season and a great event. It really is one of the best social occassions of the Winter calendar, providing an opportunity to meet up with running friends from all over the country without the unfriendly snow of February's National XC Champs. The National Road Relays is all about TEAM (it's pretty hard to finish a relay without any team mates!) and this weekend brought together the best teams from all over the country. Aldershot, Farnham & District took the womens title for the umpteenth consecutive year and broke the course record, showing what a team of superstars they are. With every single athlete on their team having represented Great Britain or England they were always going to be unbeatable. I don't think any other team had a recent World or European Junior Champion, but AFD had 2!
Now we're not a team of superstars, but we do have our super runner, Claire Martin as team captain and leg 1 runner. Claire's been consistently among the top 20 in the country for the last 20 years and she doesn't seem to be slowing down at all! Despite being by far and away the fastest runner on the team, she seems just as delighted as the rest of us when we get a good result as a team. However there is a downside to having one runner who's super speedy...whoever runs the leg after her on the relays knows they're likely to be overtaken by a few teams! Claire brought us back in 9th with a great run, 18 seconds faster than she clocked at the Midlands version of this event 3 weeks ago. Nellie took over on 2nd and also took 18 seconds off her Midlands time to handover to Michelle in 31st place before I ran the last leg, running a few seconds faster than 3 week ago. Last time I ran the 2nd leg and had a lot of athletes around me and really enjoyed moving through the field overtaking 18 teams on my way. This time I was quite isolated on last leg and didn't enjoy it quite so much, though the rain may have had something to do with that as well! I'm definitely more of a racer than a time trial-er and I'm looking forward to some actual "races" over the next few weeks now.
Together we finished 32nd in the Nationals and everyone was really pleased with their runs. We were also 7th of the Midlands teams - not a bad performance at all and a great day out...made even better by the Costa Coffee that's just opened at Sutton Park. A post race Chocolate Orange Mocha kept me awake for the rest of the day and our Telford AC girls night out.
Here's the full team about to enjoy a nice meal together - our first team outing for quite a while! Thanks girls for making running so much fun. Together we achieve so much - here's to a good Winter :)
P.S. Oh and thanks to Nellie for the lovely run through the field of cows - not every day we narrowly escape cows by climbing over barbed wire fences and through a compost heap! Crumpets and homemade jam totally made up for the trauma!
