In 2013 I had surpassed my own expectations and had the
honour to represent Great Britain at the IAU World Ultra Trail Championships in
Llanrwst in Wales. The trail champs
are only held every two years so the next instalment is due to take place on
the 31st May 2015. They
will take place in Annecy in France. http://www.worldtrail2015.com/. I
am realistic and know that there may not
be too many more years that I can push my body to perform at the level I have
been over the last few years and that making the team again would be a big ask, but I was really keen to give it a go. Another reason that I was keen to make the team was the fact that while I have now been luck enough to represent Scotland twice and Great Britain once all three races have been in Wales. While I am very fond of Wales it would have been nice to have the opportunity to race abroad as part of the GB team.
The World Champs in 2013 was a weekend that I will never forget and the
achievement in my running career to date that I am most proud. With this in mind I had decided that I would find out what the selection race for the Worlds Champs would be and spend the later few months of 2014 preparing for this race, giving it my 100% focus.
Unfortunately, I soon found out that there a good chance there may not be a selection race due to the Worlds being earlier in the season than in previous years. Selection would be more on current form as demonstrated by a CV submitted by the end of the year. This was not ideal!
While my 2014 season had been reasonable it had not been outstanding and I hadn't done any ultras since the West Highland Way in June. In reaction to this news I hesitantly looked at the race calendar to see if I could find any races that I could feasibly enter to show current form. This wasn't easy due to the time of year and my lack of holidays. I ideally I would have like a technical race as close the world champs distance as possible but it just wasn't going to happen. As it happened I entered and raced Jedurgh 3 Peaks, winning the race and setting a new course record by about 20 minutes. I was happy with the result but couldn't help thinking it was too little too late.
I send in my CV for consideration and waited.
Early in January found out I had made the ballot for the UTMB, soon after the guys at Helly Hansen got in touch offering to renew my contract, 2015 was shaping up to be a fantastic year. All I needed was selection to make it a hat trick...... Sadly it wasn't to be. On the 19th January I got an email informing me that I hadn't made the team. I was gutted! I knew there was only a small chance that I would make the team, so I guess I wasn't too surprised but I was hugely disappointment. For the first time ever I began to question my motivation to keep pushing myself and making the sacrifices I make. Is it all worth it? What more can I achieve now? Have I peaked? These questions were all going round and round in my head. I've got to admit I was pretty low for a few days and struggled to keep training. However, slowly but surely I began to get my head together again. Ultimately, I am very lucky to have had the opportunities that I have had and being able to run full stop is a privilege that many people never get to experience. Time to move on.