Last Sunday, Ciara Grant, Elise Rognsvag, and I (Fiona, DUO's PRO) headed off to the Dublin Mountains for the club's first outing of the year. The morning started hectic, as I'd left all the equipment in college and Sunday bus times did not aid the situation! But the chaos woke us up and got us pumped!
Now, Ciara and I only joined the club last year. We would by no means consider ourselves experienced (despite what we wrote during Fresher's Week!) but the club's expectations weighed down fully on us. We had to choose our course wisely, not wanting to get stuck in the midst of 10 year olds showing us up (although, their courses did look appealing). Likewise, we were afraid of ending up among the serious pros, the elites of the clubs, who run mad courses that are nearly 9KM... The likes of which Elise took on. Not yet, we decided!! Red seemed like the best bet - long and easy. We'd be able to focus on speed and technical abilities without much worrying of route choice or mad tracks.
We psyched ourselves up, got a few lovely smiles and tips from those who spotted us looking just a bit out of our depth, and set off! Ciara's skills lie in the speed, mine in the map reading, together, we are the ultimate team. 5.8KM lay in front of us, with a 280 metre climb. We ran along, pausing briefly for a quick breather (photo shoot) and took the course one control at a time.
When we finished on a time of 102 minutes, we were quite pleased with ourselves! It was the first time we'd ever done a course of that length and we came out unscathed. And we hadn't got totally lost or ended up off the map like our last outing!! With 14 people undertaking our course, we came 4th and 5th. To say that made our day is an understatement! It may have gone to our heads just a tad, but we now feel ready to conquer. Come at us 9KM, we got this.
Now, Ciara and I only joined the club last year. We would by no means consider ourselves experienced (despite what we wrote during Fresher's Week!) but the club's expectations weighed down fully on us. We had to choose our course wisely, not wanting to get stuck in the midst of 10 year olds showing us up (although, their courses did look appealing). Likewise, we were afraid of ending up among the serious pros, the elites of the clubs, who run mad courses that are nearly 9KM... The likes of which Elise took on. Not yet, we decided!! Red seemed like the best bet - long and easy. We'd be able to focus on speed and technical abilities without much worrying of route choice or mad tracks.
We psyched ourselves up, got a few lovely smiles and tips from those who spotted us looking just a bit out of our depth, and set off! Ciara's skills lie in the speed, mine in the map reading, together, we are the ultimate team. 5.8KM lay in front of us, with a 280 metre climb. We ran along, pausing briefly for a quick breather (photo shoot) and took the course one control at a time.
When we finished on a time of 102 minutes, we were quite pleased with ourselves! It was the first time we'd ever done a course of that length and we came out unscathed. And we hadn't got totally lost or ended up off the map like our last outing!! With 14 people undertaking our course, we came 4th and 5th. To say that made our day is an understatement! It may have gone to our heads just a tad, but we now feel ready to conquer. Come at us 9KM, we got this.