WEST SUSSEX Athletics held their 8km Masters Cross Country race on the 21st January 2023 at Coombe Farm, Lancing. Held in a natural bowl on the South Downs it hosts a run with a lot of effort but an amazing pay off at the end.
I always approach this run with a feeling of anticipation, because I know what's coming, but once I get moving I feel a lot better but it takes quite a while to settle into the effort that's required for this particular run with it's amazing views of the South Downs.
To run the course you have to start with a short run on the flat, you then run up the lowest but steepest side of the bowl, this turns right and you have to run a long distance up the ridge of the bowl towards some open fields. You then start a long loop downhill before turning right along a flat part of the field then head up again. Once you complete the long loop you end up back on the ridge of the bowl and have a long sweeping downhill section before you either head out for the second loop, and final loop, or cross the finish line.
This is the second time that I have run this course and absolutely love taking part, even though it saps your strength very quick with the run up the bowl, but the sweeping downhill run towards the finish line is so magnificent that you have to love it, expecially as you tear downt he hill and cross the finish line.
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