NSW Short Course XC - Mt Penang

Arrived up at the Mt Penang venue at about 1:50pm with Amjan after a spectacular display of lateness and poor direction-finding.

Got through a 2km warm up keeping an eye on the women's race, and managed some stretches and strides. The course was literally mown into a paddock, with spongey surface, meandering about the place, with a westerly wind into your face on all the downhills.

Hadn't thought too much about an expected time for today, other than to try for under 30 minutes, and hopefully keep Action at bay.

Gun went off, and I deliberately took it pretty easily through the first kilometre - there were two falls before we even got to the first corner. The field started to lean out a little and I started to wind into pace, the surface and the meandering nature of the course making it difficult to stretch out and find a rhythm. Felt okay, although not what I'd call fast.

Caught up to Action a bit after the 1km mark and nearly fell on an uneven section. From there, it was a matter of keeping a steady pace. CR 'Big Daddy' said G'day, as did Easy Tiger, who I was destined to follow home after he picked me up on the third lap. Managed to hold Action off, although not sure of the final margin, might have been 5 seconds.

Laps went 9:54, 9:55 (first two an estimate, as I didn't hit the lap button for a while) and 10:02 for the last. I think I lost the time just at the start of the third lap where I had a fair dose of nausea and reflux that came out of nowhere.

Hamstring was a bit niggly through the first kilometre but disappeared after that, and no sign of the hip until the walk back to the car.

Jogged through an easy lap with Action and Glenn (who won, congrats!) to cool down. The Men's Open team managed a third place (no thanks to Action and I!), and the Women's a second, so another good high profile result for the club.

A good afternoon's enterainment, but I must get better organised next time...