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West District XC Champs, East Kilbride, 9th December 2006

Vet Wet Sweat As Westies PIck up 3rd Vets Prize

More mud and glaur was evident at the West Districts at East Kilbride showground yesterday. Although afficionados reckoned it bore no comparison with Kirkintilloch two weeks ago in terms of the quality of mud, it remained a surprisingly good 3 lap, strength-sapping trail which made excellent use of its sole hill. At least it remained dry and calm, unlike the conditions at the previous weekend's 10K.

The woman's race saw a fine return by Captainess Cat, who started slowly but surely caught Jane in the second lap to be first Westie home. It was a fine prelude to Cat being awarded Westie of the year at the club dinner that evening. Jane finished a few seconds behind Cat, Muffy was next home and it was good to see Pauline back competing to make up the Westies quartet.

In the Men's race, David Riach made short work of the mud, striding easily through the quagmire. Captain Chris was only 1 place behind, but it was further back where the real battle was taking place. Don was determined to gain revenge for the home-turf humiliation by Dave in the Hugh Wilson 10K the previous Sunday. Dave had to admit that his pre-race, 2-in-the-morning, 21 alcohol unit preparation was far from ideal. Nevertheless the two were literally neck and neck from 400 metres until about 1km frome the end when Don's superior strength allowed him to gain enough clear space to strike home for a convincing victory. Dave says "I'll be back", so there are more sparks to come from this pair over the rest of the season!

JD ran a competent race a few minutes behind, although he does seem to lack the leg speed of old; probably the result of too many long hill runs over the summer. Hamilton made his usual last minute appearance, using some excuse about singing in Buchanan Galleries for his late arrival. He didn't have time to collect his number and had to be handed it 200 metres from the finish line! Grimorr was easily spotted in the crowd of runners with his trademark mustard bunnet and DM Hoey vest. Finally Drew came in, one of only 4 Westies (Muffy, Chris and Don being the other 3) to complete the testing trio of races at Kirkie, Kilbride and Kilbride.

The good news was that Westies were third vets team after Shettleston and Cambuslang, with David, Chris and Don being the counters.

A well deserved rest in the Winter League now until the Christmas handicap on 30th December.

Results

Women

1 Allison Simpson Kilmarnock 25:09

31 Cat 30:54

32 Jane 30:59

41 Muffy 32:30

51 Pauline 34:10

60 finished

team 10th

Men

1 Connor McNulty 33:33

50 David 39:51

51 Chris 39:57

71 Don 42:20

72 Dave 42:29

109 John 46:26

119 Hamilton 47:55

136 Graeme 52:26

147 Drew 59:35

149 finishers

9th team

3rd vets team

Posted by Dave Calder on Sun 10 Dec 2006 | 8 comments

Category summer league

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Comments

  1. Dave said...

    Whoops...sorry, I missed out Alan Anderson, another man racing on his home turf, from the results. Alan finished just a few places behind Hamilton in 48:32.

    Apologies again Alan!

    Sunday 10th December 2006 6.57pm

  2. Don said...

    Good report Dave. Thanks for a great race yesterday. We really pulled the best out of each other and scalped a lot of people who I think would otherwise have beaten us on the day if either of us had been there on our own. I am thriving on the competition though it is bloody hard work at the time!! I make that one each. Keep training (not too hard!) and I will see you at the next race.To everybody else that ran - a big well done.

    Sunday 10th December 2006 9.38pm

  3. JD said...

    What better way to spend a sunny Sat afternoon than slipping, sliding and slithering your way round a muddy field in East Kilbride? Well lots actually,after my painfully slow plod which lived down to the low expectations of my cross country ability. While Don and Dave were battling way ahead of me I was doing my best slippery shuffle just to stay ahead of Alan and Hamilton. A slow steady lap was followed by.... a slow steady lap and then finally.... another slow steady lap. It was a continual effort just to keep on my feet, especially on the final wee hill where on the last lap I was grateful not to have slid back down it as I scrambled my way to the top. Overall, fun in a perverse, masochistic sort of way.

    Sunday 10th December 2006 10.48pm

  4. Chris said...

    Thanks to David Riach for running round the course so slowly, thereby giving me half a chance at catching near the end. For some reason beating your fellow clubmates seems far more important than battling with the hundreds of other random people on the course. I'm not sure whether Dave and Don would agree...

    A few photos here

    Monday 11th December 2006 7.34am

  5. Don said...

    Chris,beating your team mates is not a matter of life and death - its much more important!!

    Monday 11th December 2006 2.05pm

  6. Grim and bear it! said...

    Following my dodgy rendition of "Mud, glorious Mud" at the Westy dinner, perhaps another song would be appropriate? I recall Dick Gaughan singing an old Pete Seeger song with the chorus, "We're knee-deep in the big muddy, and the damn fool keeps saying, Keep on!" However, a mud 'n' mud series (to supplement the Bog n Burn) might be fun?

    Monday 11th December 2006 8.21pm

  7. David said...

    I must admit, what seemed to matter most to me was 'Where's Chris?'. I was sneaking looks on corners and knew he was holding me within striking distance on the second lap. A more comfortable gap opened on the last lap until I got a stitch on the last descent - as other folk ran away from me, my uppermost thought 'Where's Chris?' spurred me to hang in until the finish. That was my first ever proper cross-country and my hamstrings are still tight from all that mud plugging. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised to see so much mud ... even in the changing tent!!

    Monday 11th December 2006 9.08pm

  8. Chris said...

    Men's results&nbsp|&nbspWomen's results

    The results tell a story... 6 seconds between me and David,9 seconds between Don and Dave,5 seconds between Cat and Jane.

    A few close fought battles going on!

    Monday 11th December 2006 9.59pm

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