The attraction of cross-country is, says Megan Keith, getting the opportunity to “take chunks out of each other and see who can suffer the most”.
She means it, of course, in a metaphorical sense but with such a mentality, it comes as little surprise the Inverness native has found her niche amongst the mud, wind and rain that inevitably accompanies the cross-country season.
Keith entered this winter in what was a novel position for her; in winning the European under-20 cross-country title last season, she is now widely recognised as one of the best young runners around at the discipline but she has carried that pressure with ease, and has already proven she is a better runner this year than last by winning her first Scottish senior title when she crossed the line first at the Scottish Short-Course Cross-Country Championships just a couple of weeks ago, despite this season being only her first in the under-23 category.
Getting her hands on a first Scottish senior title was, she admits, a significant achievement but it was little more than she expected of herself, such are the standards she now sets.
“In cross-country, everyone has different strengths so it’s often so hard to know how the races are going to go.
“At the Scottish earlier this month, I didn’t really know what I was going to be aiming for because last year, Laura Muir turned up and while I had a good go, winning wasn’t really a realistic goal with her in the field,” the 20-year-old says.
“But this year, when I saw the start list, I really wanted to give it a good, hard shot and go for the title so I was really happy to win, it was a big thing for me.”
Keith’s European title last year has elevated her standing in terms of what is now expected of her but she admits her view of herself has changed little since that impressive run in Ireland almost exactly 12 months ago.
And her aggressive, all-in style of running has certainly not changed since her title.
“At the Europeans, I really didn’t go in expecting to win,” she says.
“About 10 days before, I caught a cold and so I thought oh well, it’s not my year and it took all the pressure off for me in terms of my expectations.
“On the day, I just thought I’m going to give this the best go I can right from the start – I was expecting some of the girls who are more middle-distance runners to come sprinting past me towards the end but then they never came and I ended up winning it, so it was very cool.
“I hold myself to pretty high standards anyway - I like to run big and put myself in the mix in races so the Europeans hasn’t changed my mindset really at all.
“I’ve always liked really going for it in races even though it doesn’t always work and sometimes, I finish races and think I should have been a bit more cautious but that’s just the way I like to race.
“When that’s the way I run, I have to take the rough with the smooth and I know that if I go for it and completely blow up, at least I’ve given everything.”
Keith is, once again, set on claiming a spot in the GB team for the European Cross-Country Championships.
However, having turned 20 this year, she is now targeting a spot in the under-23 squad, which will require a top-4 finish at the British Athletics Cross Challenge in Liverpool on Saturday, which doubles as the trials for next month’s European Championships in Italy, with Olympian Steph Twell also on the start line.
Moving out of juniors has, unsurprisingly, presented quite a challenge to Keith but she is dealing with the step up impressively, despite the fact she is now having to slog her way through 8km of mud rather than only 4km, which is the distance under-20 races are over.
The step up has, encouragingly, not been quite as much of a shock to the system as she initially feared.
“Last year, I was running against girls my age or younger whereas this year, they’re all my age or older and that’s a noticeable difference, but they’re all the same girls I raced a few years ago, pre-pandemic, so in that respect, it feels quite familiar,” Keith says.
“And the distance increases so it’s not only that the competition I’m racing against gets tougher, the challenge itself becomes harder – getting round 8k trying to hold onto the coat-tails of the senior women is tough.
“But I’m happy with how I’m feeling and I think I am in good shape for the long races as well so I’m feeling pretty confident.”
