Last weekend the National cross-country championships came to town. It has been three years since these events were held in Australia and 10 years since they were held in Adelaide. In fact, the last time they were in Adelaide, Birmingham Commonwealth games 1500m champion Ollie Hoare raced on what can only be described as a mud-run so we watched on in interest wondering who might be racing for Australia in 10 years’ time.
While the course was muddy it was nothing like the 2012 course. At least this year the course still had a good blend of grass and mud to make it entertaining for everyone, but there were plenty who ran home shoeless, with their expensive super spikes left behind- stuck in the mud!
Three years ago in Wollongong, South Australia’s Riley Cox and Louis Pietsch both came in 4th while Caitlyn Adams finished 5th. For 3 years these athletes have yearned for redemption and finally the time was here. For Louis it has been something that has driven him on, especially over the last 4 months as he ramped up his training.
The thing about runners, which Riley epitomises, is that they love to race. Every race offers up a wide variety of opportunities – distances, courses, weather, competition and opportunities that provide a new element to contend with. Racing is also one of the best training sessions you can do. In the last month Riley has raced the Ekidon relay, Adelaide half marathon and now the cross-country nationals, while Louis has raced The State cross country champs, the Ekidon relay and now the Championships. Caitlyn recently ran a world park run record, as well as winning the State Cross country champs.
The key take home point is that runners are not afraid to lay it on the line and have a crack.
Come race day Riley had to play the patience game. Matthew Clarke who won the SA cross country race a month ago went out to an early lead and Riley was hanging onto the back of the pack. But with 5 times up Oakbank hill this was a patience game, and Riley held strong, using his years of endurance training and racing to his advantage to work his way through the field to take the silver medal. Caitlyn also put herself in a position to win the race, choosing smart race lines that avoided the mud coming home in third. Both were extremely emotional at the end of their races thrilled to be on the podium and get some of the prize money on offer.
For Louis he had a clear plan. Knowing he doesn’t have the speed to match it if it comes down to a sprint finish, his plan was to go hard from the gun which he did taking the lead after 500m. Soon two others had joined him, and they opened up a nice gap on the rest of the field, which included two of the athletes who beat him in 2019. From there he simply gave it everything he had. While the other two got him in the sprint for the line, Louis celebrated that bronze as if he had won the world championship.
The take home point was that he was prepared to hurt, he was expecting it and was ready to embrace it.
I heard many athletes post-race say how hard it was and that the hills and mud was tough, but Louis had trained for it. While he only runs twice a week he trains hard. He had smashed out a month of hard reps around Montefiore and was ready to hurt. But then on race day he took it to another level.
While we can try to replicate racing in training nothing compares. Comparing Louis’s time for a slightly shorter and far easier course at the SA champs Louis got to within 12seconds of his time, which when you are running 3.20 pace for 3km is significant. No one came close to this, with most well over a minute slower. Louis was able to take his performance to an entirely different level on race day, driven on by the 4th place 3 years ago to finally climb the podium.
This is why, sometimes we need to hurt in training, and I mean really hurt. Unless we occasionally set the thermostat to extreme, we may never reach our true potential. Post-race Louis’s legs have been sore like never before but that is the price he was willing to pay. And he is looking forward to climbing higher on the podium in 2023.