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Apr 2019
2:58pm, 1 Apr 2019
1,585 posts
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Will_Uyuni
It did look good fun WS – I would have loved to have a crack at the mass race that they did on the course afterwards.
Everyone was saying how brutal it was and while running up the museum roof was undoubtedly very hard work, especially as they did it 4 times, the artificial mud section looked very tame. 7 miles round that mudbath at Castle Donnington the other year, or the Midlands at Wollaton last year it was not – I’m still traumatised by the memory of those two 
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Apr 2019
3:01pm, 1 Apr 2019
21,974 posts
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Wriggling Snake
I reckon the sheer number of ups and downs make it pretty hard, the water was pants too...recent years has been almost flat, so a good set up really.
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Apr 2019
3:11pm, 1 Apr 2019
1,586 posts
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Will_Uyuni
Yes a course that is always undulating really takes it out of you, and it was interesting to see just how properly knackered many of the finishers in the senior races looked - no jogging over the line and then having a nice chat
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Apr 2019
3:20pm, 1 Apr 2019
21,975 posts
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Wriggling Snake
I liked the Danish bloke in the Senior race who had his 30s on TV
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Apr 2019
3:20pm, 1 Apr 2019
7,202 posts
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larkim
The things that stuck with me from that were:-
- how poor the crowds were, despite the decent setup
- they could have made the mud muddier and the water deeper
- that roof did look like a better challenge that I was expecting
- how spread out the fields get.
On that last point, in local leagues broadly you get the local superstars coming in say about 35 minutes, then about 3 minutes later the very good but not quite superstars are coming in thick and fast. It surprised me that, given that these were supposedly the best in the world, the field strung out so much that even the best Brits were 2-3 minutes back, and even they were spread out by more than a couple of minutes.
I don't think I'm over-egging it if I say that I think I would have beaten some of the women in the seniors race, and I don't beat our best local ladies in road races.
It doesn't surprise me too much that the very best have a clear lead, but when 100 of the best XC racers in the world get together I do expect them to be more bunched together.
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Apr 2019
3:38pm, 1 Apr 2019
1,587 posts
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Will_Uyuni
It’s not the 100 best XC racers in the world though is it lark, but the 100 who qualify via the national associations (that can be bothered to enter). Well done on the Lebanese for sending a full team, but given that they filled 5 of the 8 final places I don’t imagine that they are “elite” in any real sense, and while you might have beaten them, I’m sure that the British women would have finished a good 5 minutes before you
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Apr 2019
3:58pm, 1 Apr 2019
7,203 posts
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larkim
No, that's of course true - some of them are truly poor XC runners.
But when it's a spectacle like that, it was disappointing to have so few really classy runners taking part. Or alternatively, it's frustrating to see the gap between the really good XC nations (i.e. Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia) and the rest. The way they came in in dribs and drabs was so similar to the spread of a field of a local event.
And yes, there's no way I'd be anywhere near the British women!
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Apr 2019
4:04pm, 1 Apr 2019
7,204 posts
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larkim
Funny though how the commentators were bigging up the course so much. They really should try some of the local league races that appear on the calendars - I'd love to have seen them running at Woodbank Park or Boggart Hole Clough, then they'd know what tough XC can look like!
(Though for the record, I do quite like XC having different flavours in different parts of the world, so I don't mind a few hot, pan flat courses providing it is mixed up year in year out).
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Apr 2019
4:19pm, 1 Apr 2019
1,588 posts
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Will_Uyuni
I think that the Aarhus course was a good balance between “challenging” and “reasonable” and we don’t want to go OTT. I don’t know those 2 courses in your area lark, but we have a ridiculous one in Nottingham, and I wouldn’t expect Kamworor et al to risk their livelihoods running round Colwick Woods – its got a flight of stairs in it for goodness sake, and a 1 in 3 muddy hill
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Apr 2019
4:26pm, 1 Apr 2019
21,978 posts
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Wriggling Snake
Woodbank Park, my home course!
I think Kamworor would win MACCL, with a bit in hand . Millington did well enough, 64th, bearing in mind he ran for GB in the 2015 Olympic games at 10,000 and is a Stockport Harrier
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