Day 16: What's your biggest accomplishment
Well that's just annoying. I told you my biggest accomplishment on Day 15 (that's my punishment for not planning ahead). So this time I'll set the scene a little bit...
I've often wondered what would have happened if I hadn't gone up to my P.E. teacher in year 8 and said "Can I do cross-country?". I was upset because in the trials I'd beaten quite a few of the girls who had made the team, but I hadn't been picked. Delighted to have someone actually volunteering for it, my teacher immediately signed me up. Ever since that day, I've had a very turbulent love-hate relationship with cross-country (aka running through mud in the rain). Even now that I've quit, I still miss the hard-core sense of achievement I felt after a good race or training session.
For the first year or so, I was also training as a competitive swimmer, but as school became more intense, I realised that I'd have to make a decision. For some entirely unknown reason, I chose cross-country.
My running coach was a man called George Harrison, who was (and still is) an absolute legend. I'm not just saying this; he recently received an MBE for his contribution to British Athletics (!). He was the kind of person who didn't just hand out compliments for the sake of it. If you were doing badly, he'd let you know. But equally, if you raced well or had a good session, a 'well done' from George would be enough to make all the hard work seem worth it.
A bit more on the hard work: cross-country is tough. It's not just the races that are horrible, but it's the training too. In the winter, my training group would meet in the Abbey Orchard in St Albans to do 'Hills'. Urg, that word makes me feel nervous even now. This basically involved running from the bottom of a fairly steep hill up to the top as fast as we could. Once we reached the top, we'd have to turn around and jog back down, only to start all over again. If we were lucky, we'd do 15x35 (15 times UP the hill, each time lasting for 35 seconds). If George wanted to work us particularly hard before a race, for example, we'd do 18 hills, or even 21 (which I remember doing once in the snow). This may not sound that hard to you, but I ended up in tears a few times, and even the fittest guys would collapse in a heap at the end.
Anyway, after all this effort, I didn't have a lot to show for it. Fair enough, as Juniors, a group of us at school had been the 'dream team' and had come 2nd at Nationals. But individually I was always up against some amazing runners who just happened to live in Hertforshire too.
So in 2012, when I qualified to run for Herts in the English Schools Cross Country Championships in Somerset, I was thrilled. I hadn't done too well in the trials and had taken the 8th and final position in the team. This also meant that on the day of the big race, I had to start at the back of the pen (each county has a pen on the start line; think horse-racing). I think this must have make me even more determined to do well, because I ended up coming 2nd out of the Hertfordshire runners and 102nd overall out of around 300 runners. I wasn't particularly pleased with 102nd, but I couldn't believe I'd beaten most of my rivals from my county! After the race I ran over to my Dad with the biggest smile on my face and he gave me a huge hug; one that I'll never forget!
The next year (2013), my cross-country season had been pretty rubbish. I hadn't raced much because of exams, but the ones I had done hadn't gone too well. I think this was a combination of a lack of motivation in training, stress from school, as well as the longer distance I now had to run in races. So I was very surprised and pleased when I came 2nd in the Herts qualification for English Schools, especially as this would be the last year I was able to compete in this particular race.
On race day, I was extremely nervous as I travelled up towards Birmingham on the Herts coach. I knew that my Dad would be bring my boyfriend up in the car in time for my race. Not only would this be the first time he'd seen me in a cross-country, but it was also such a huge event so the pressure was on to do well. When we arrived, the course, which undulated and weaved around a farm, was already a mud-bath. Some parts were very steep, so this only added to my anxieties. To be honest, I wasn't that worried about my finishing position, but more about the pain I was about to subject myself to!
The rest of the day is a bit of a blur. I just remember feeling as though I wanted to give up, but then pushing through it because I couldn't bear to pull out of such an important race. When I finally crossed the line, I had no idea where I had come, but my Dad seemed to think I'd done quite well and I was hoping for top 100. I did know that I'd managed to come 2nd for Hertfordshire, which had been my main aim!
As it turned out, I'd done better that I'd ever imagined possible! On the way home, we looked online at the results and found out that I'd come 52nd! It had been a difficult year juggling sixth-form with training, so to surpass my expectations, as well as those of George and my family, definitely made this race my biggest accomplishment.
Although it was horrible and I'd felt as though I was going to pass out, I'm so glad that I put in the effort, as that race ended up being my last proper cross-country event. I guess no one can accuse me of not going out on a high!
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| Me in my Herts vest at English Schools 2013 |
Harriet x
