This morning my legs are feeling the effects of two races in two days. Saturday was the first race of the cross-country season for the Surrey league – though I don't think Lightwater park got the memo. Barely any mud? That's not the spirit of cross country! It was more like a trail run, albeit a bit of a hilly one. Having arrived late due to traffic and parking issues, starting at the back and having no idea of the course (three loops, but of varying sizes), it wasn't a great race for me. And as always when doing cross-country races, I remembered why I like roads. Roads are nice. Roads, with their smooth asphalt that allows you to actually get into a rhythm … Roads are good.
Which takes me to Sunday, when I did the Cabbage Patch 10-miler. This is a lovely race that I heartily recommend to anyone hasn't done it before. It is run out of a pub – the Cabbage Patch – in Twickenham, and all the winners (of which there is an illustrious roll call, including one Mo Farah) get a cabbage. They get quite a nice cheque, too, but I'm sure it's the cabbage that's the real draw. The male winner, Boniface Kiprop Kongin, stormed home in 48min 45sec and the female winner, Steph Twell, in 55m dead. Now there's a woman I could get some cross-country tips from, in the unlikely event I'd be able to catch her to ask …
