National Cross Country Relays

Cumbernauld, 27 October 2007




Results
Photos

A nice wee blast round the grounds of Cumbernauld House. Central A.C. won, Inverclyde 2nd and my old club Shettleston Harriers were 3rd. Westies two teams were pushing them all the way.

WESTIES A TEAM
Steffen Gorgas - 17:05
Don Reid - 16:34
Scott McKendrick - 16:04
Johnston Orr - 17:29

WESTIES B TEAM
John Donnelly - 17:16
Dave Calder - 16:39
Ian Struthers - 21:16

WESTIES LADIES TEAM
Val Houston – 17:31
Jane Robertson – 19:29
Muffy Calder – 20:24

Westies New Lanark Trail Run, 21 October 2007

One of my all-time favourite runs. From Crossford in the Clyde Valley, up through Kirkfieldbank, round the New Lanark loop and back down. Managed to just about keep up with Steffen and Nigel for 2 hrs of the 2hrs 10mins. Rounded off, as the best runs always are, by a tea shop at the end. A great way to spend a Sunday.

Photos

Dunbartonshire Cross Country Relays

Saturday 20 October 2007

DAVE'S REPORT=In the end we had a good turnout of 9 men and 3 women racing at Garscube on a fine Autumnal afternoon. Don, Steffen, Nigel & David R made up the men's 1st team, finishing about 6th overall, with Hamilton, JD, Simon and Paulo making up the second team. Rob ran the 1st stage for our third team! Val H, Muffy and Pauline came 6th in the women's race. Over and above that we had a good turnout of marshalls, with Drew, Margaret, Isabel, Laura, Pat, Christine and Myra all doing their bit for club and county! I'll leave it to the runners to provide commentary on the race itself, as it all went by in a blur to me. In particular we want to know how Don managed to run into a tree?
MINE= It was a great day out Dave, well done to you and all your helpers, it was a good day out, especially the tea and sticky buns at the end. As for my run I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, with the legs feeling not too bad for a change. Lovely varied course, parkland, woodland and riverland - excellent, and great underfoot too. Got caught out a bit though by the finish arriving sooner than I expected and might have squeezed a few more seconds off my time.



Photos

Perthshire Cycling

Sunday 14 October 2007

A fantastic 56 mile cycle round Perthshire. Starting from Dunkeld heading out on back roads to Dalguise, Kinnaird, Logierait, Pitlochry, Linn of Tummel, South Loch Tummel, Tummel Bridge, Glengoulandie, Keltneyburn, Weem, Strathtay, Balnaguard and back down to Dunkeld. perfectly rounded off with tea and a cheese and mushroom pie. Scotland at it's best .

Photos

Manor Water Hill Race

Saturday 13 October 2007
10 miles 2200 feet

Results
Westies photos
Ian Nimmo's Photos


What more could a boy need - a hill race in the fab Scots countryside, Scotland winning at the football and even England winning at the rugby! Well, I could have done with feeling less than dead on the climb up to The Scrape.Never mind, as soon as we turned at the top and out of the headwind I perked up and sped away from that young scoundrel Triger, and tried to regain some of the many places I had lost on the dreadful climb. With Simon pushing me on and trying to catch Keith Burns ahead I really enjoyed the descent, though not enough to get anywhere near Ellie who was far far away. Even further away were David and Chris pushing each other on to the giddy heights of 3rd and 4th place. A great wee race, combined with the local sheepdog trials. Every runner got a free bottle of Greenmantle Ale courtesy of Broughton Ales and David even won a bottle of Port in the raffle. I eventually finished 43rd of 77 runners.

Pentlands Skyline Hill Race

17 miles/1885 metres
SCOTT'S REPORT =thought i would get this one in early before chris got wind of the results. the race officials recorded me as finishing in 76th place over 1 hour fifteen minutes behind the winner, but this paints a picture of an ill prepared runner, low on fitness, not fit to wear the covetted sunflower yellow 'w' vest, which i may add caused a few problems on such a scalding day, with a burning 'w' etched into my back on the 2 hour home straight. I entered this race on the back of some serious training/preparation, having spent 2 hours the previous night folding my inkjet printed map to fit into my small sandwich bag and so appointed myself as the unofficial pentlands team manager. my plan/goal was to secure our 3 man/ 1 woman team of chris, 8th/2:49 ellen 29th/ 3:11, JD 57th/3:32 and myself top 100/sub 4 hours into the spot prizes. unfortunately my pre race plan to run the race hand in hand went out the window as chris somehow managed to make 4 minutes on me in the first 2 minutes before i could relay my plan. after i allowed ellen to pass me at speed, before i could suggest the hand in hand bit, on the climb to turnhouse and monitored her progress into the distance i comfortably set into my shuffle walk inviting most of the runners to reel me in and pass me... but where was JD! fuelled by the free portions of dried fruit, by black hill he was on his 2nd or 3rd wind and it was here we ran together for a few seconds, again not hand in hand before i decided he was ready to kick on and so i eased off the pace/ slowed my walk down further and gifted him 13 minutes or so. all i had to do now was finish the race to be in with a chance of the spot prizes. this was easier said than done as by now my burning 'w' was causing me major discomfort and with no first aiders in sight, i found myself slipping even further down the pack and right out the prizes. well done to chris and ellen for a fine run and thanks to JD for not laughing aloud at my feeble descending. maybe the mcandrews next year...

As for me = Scott's race seemed to mirror my own, unlike the Golden Couple's great race - well done you two. Chris only 2 minutes off his PB and Ellie with a great debut. I had a shockingly bad first half, with my legs absolutely dead on the climbs and only negative thoughts in my head, mainly focusing on dropping out as I simply couldn't envisage completing. I managed to convince my poor wee legs and head to stutter on to half way, with the promise that at least it was a lovely warm sunny day for a nice slow walk, if nothing else. Fortunately I perked up during the second half and reeled in a dozen or so runners, including poor Scott. At the finish I was actually really chuffed to just get round, even though it was my slowest time in 13 attempts, and I even managed to keep in the top half of the field. A grand day out.

Results

Mountain Bike Orienteering on Arran

Alan's report of our mountain bike orienteering race on Arran =
JD & I teamed up to compete in this 3hr mountain-biking & orienteering competition in Arran. The start/finish was at Auchrannie. The course stretched from the lower slopes of Goatfell in the north to the forest at Whiting Bay in the south and west.
We headed out of Brodick into the Clauchland Hills to pick up 3 controls. The going was quite hard and we seemed to spend more time pushing our bikes than riding them. Crossing the Brodick-Lamlash road, we picked up our speed and collected a few higher value controls. Annoyingly, we missed a wee 10-pointer which would cost us later. Back through Brodick, we headed up the String Road before screaming back down and into Glen Rosa for 2 final controls. We had to hammer back to finish within the 3hr time limit. We made it with 4mins to spare. Once the points were totalled up, we were 2nd team, 9 points behind the winners. Remember the wee 10-pointer.....
A brilliant day out with great views over Brodick and Holy Isle. Highly recommended.