cc said...

Steffen, you shouldn't be drinking on the night before a serious race, that is not what Westies are all about......aye right, nothing like a good hill race to cure a hangover!

ps And good luck to the Westies B team - they'll need it if Stef is running.

Friday 25th January 2008 9.31pm

Chris said...

Provision results are now available here

Well done to all 6 Westies teams who took part!

Sunday 27th January 2008 12.19am

Johnston said...

Thanks to all the guys in Team C(omedy) - we weren't Team C(rap) after all. Good weather for running, and an enjoyable event for a Burdens virgin like me. I had a good run with Richard on Leg 1, and we seemed to be evenly matched. The gentle start paid off as we made progress throughout the leg, aided by Rich's ace descending, and kept passing teams right to the handover to the Grimster. Well done all!

Sunday 27th January 2008 1.10am

Manny said...

The captain can't count - Westies had 7 teams out yesterday.

For the first time we put in an unofficial junior team, and despite an enforced late pull out by one, the rest of the team made it round, depite me "losing" Deborah & Victoria for the entire leg 3!

Fraser showed his dad how to run on leg 1, Duncan was uncatchable on the descent on leg 2, Deborah & Victoria were unfindable on leg 3, and Helen completed the round with leg4.

Whilst I was panicing and flapping all over Bishop Hill & West Lomond looking for the girls, they carefully picked their way across the hills and made it to Strathmiglo as planned without too much trouble, other than just taking their time - sensible!Well done, I should have had more faith in you!Thanks to Helen for being so patient waiting to put up with her dad all the way back to Falkland.

Well done Westies Juniors!!!!

Sunday 27th January 2008 12.47pm

Muffy said...

You should have a look at photo of Chris and Manny at end of their leg, it's on bulletin board of Fife web site. Pure pain... :)

Monday 28th January 2008 8.30am

Don said...

Mannyit was all a clever ploy by the girls to give you some extra training. I think they must have hidden in the Gorse at the bottom of Bishop hill until you went haring past!. Thanks for hunting for them anyway. They appeared completely oblivious to the panic that ensued when you appeared minus your female companions. All the juniors really enjoyed it and are up for it next year in a more official capacity. Fraser was an absolute star on that first leg passing about a dozen teams on the climb up E Lomond, and I believe Manny had one of his leg-endary ankle 'busting ' experiences trying to keep up with young Duncan. Well done by all the junior Westies!!.

Congrats to all the guys in the men's Supervet team for picking up 1st SV prize. Well done.

Monday 28th January 2008 10.01am

Chris said...

The Fife AC photos can be found linked from here

Photos from end of Leg 1

You can tell Manny and I weren't trying that hard!

Monday 28th January 2008 10.55am

Chris said...

Rule 410 - Age LimitsI notice that UK Athletics rules mean that no Under-18 runners can compete on Leg 3 of the Burdens, since the maximum distance is 10k for U18 runners.UK Athletics rules for competition

Monday 28th January 2008 2.25pm

Don said...

Yeah,it turns out that Fife AC withdrew their junior team at the last minute so this year was probably a one off for us. Victoria will be 18 in July so no probs for her next year. Maybe next year, we could run a junior/senior composite team, with the young un's doing the short legs.

Monday 28th January 2008 3.25pm

The Grim Reaper said...

A special thanks to Cap'n Chris (fawn! Grovel !) for acceding to my demands for "Leg 2 or nuffink"...but why did I have to find myself in a parallel universe where the climb was twice as great (and the descent ten times as scary) as 2 years ago? Nearly lost my car keys as I flew (NOT!) downhill, leaving snails and giant sloths panting in my wake. Two tributes must be added - to John & Fiona Hutchison for getting me to the leg 1/2 change-over in time for my speedy namesake Johnston, IN SPITE of my dodgy detour into a dead end street in Leslie, and in spite of their becoming granny and grandpa (or vice versa) some hours earlier. Hey, this calls for a song!"Grandad, Grandma, you're lovelee, that's what we all think of YOOO..."Second tribute to Drew, the Grim Sweeper, who carried my minging tracky b's to the muddy change-over in spite of his knees knocking and locking. Hey, get well soon Drew...it's lonely out here in the over-60s section!!!

Monday 28th January 2008 3.32pm

David Rogers said...

Rules are intended to be circumvented. How about a 5-leg junior version next year, with a handover near John Knox's Pulpit?

Monday 28th January 2008 8.43pm

cc said...

"Rules are intended to be circumvented"

Brilliant!

If the man from the Government is saying that, then it must be a goer...

Monday 28th January 2008 10.18pm

cat said...

Don't know if anyone will ever get to this as it's so so far down the page!!

However - well done too to the Westies ladies teams. Two fab teams made it round the Burdens. In one team Elsie and ValB gave Pete and Keith a run for their money, Muffy hammered (!!) round leg 2 and then skidded down to the changeover, Christine put in a fine run to keep up with Clare, and then I got the legs working for Leg 4 (although they stopped working immediately I finished and stairs have been impossible for a few days - oh the joys of sport!). In the other team the girls did fab too, and it's great to see Liz and Isobel back out and about .. a baptism of fire for Liz, Leg 3 for her 1st hill race in years!!

Well done Ladieeez!!!

Tuesday 29th January 2008 8.57am

M said...

Great, thanks for your inspirational leadership skills Chris.I knew we could count on you for a hearty "Well done" juniors & adults alike for our first ever Westies Junior outing - even if it was an unofficial team, therefore missing all the lovely red tape you are waving about - sorry to disappoint you.It's really good to put it on the web site too, just incase anyone was daring think about doing it again!Wouldn't want the kids getting interested now would we!I'll get extra pies & pizza in for next years race so the kids have something to munch between meals whilst sitting on their backsides in the cars constantly playing computer games.

Thanks for the undermining of their achievement on Saturday - ye cannae beat it!

ps - Duncan will probably be kicking most of our arses in just a few years, because he's actively interested and I refuse to wrap him in cotton wool rules, within reason.

Tuesday 29th January 2008 2.24pm

scott mckendrick said...

fair point. as a junior under 15 years (many years back granted) i had a few problems entering races, although we always stated that we would run the race regardless and they usually relented and took the cash. the only downside i can see on steep downhill sections is the damage to still growing/ developing joints; i am still carrying an injury from running a karrimor at 16 years old. junior races have generally a low turn-out, if any and i feel many short & medium senior races should allow juniors entry.... this is the forum right?

Tuesday 29th January 2008 10.33pm

DON said...

I have taken my kids on many long walks on the hills and as soon as we start on the journey back downhill, the kids usually take off and run ahead like loonies. I never think, when I set off, that i might be contravening rule 410 because our walk is over 10k. As usual, a bit of common sense is required.

Tuesday 29th January 2008 11.20pm

Graham K said...

Guid effort to all who ran at the weekend regardless of age or gender !!!

The only "rule" I broke as a youngster (well ...that I am prepared to post on a website anyway) was one about being 18 years old before getting pished. Toooo many years later to remember ...I have to conclude a healthy bout of under age drinking did me no harm (other may disagree). Got to agree with Manny and Dave's comments ...what is that saying "Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools". Why not just lie about age when sensible to do like I did ????

Thankfully my daughter loves sport (figure skating in her case) but so many of her pals fall into the "Obesity Time Bomb" category. Orienteering does a heap to encourage juniors ...hopefully this may lead some into hill running rather than running round in circles (sorry track and field) ...or worse road running ! It might even make up for our lack of imagination.

Wednesday 30th January 2008 12.12am

Muffy said...

Dear Manny

I think that you are being a wee bit unfair to Chris, he didn't make the rules and he was referring to the 6 teams in the official results spreadsheet. Chris made a big effort to organise the official teams, that's 36+ people who continually change their mind about which leg they are doing and whether or not they will even turn up. Why don't we just thank him, and then you can take all the credit for organising and publicising the unofficial juniours race?

BTW there is interesing postings on the Fife site about rules for juniours. Ronnie implies that all the rules will be rewritten next year. Why don't you get involved?

Friday 1st February 2008 3.03pm

Manny said...

Dear Muffy

For the public record, "taking credit" for anything last week is a wee stick to wave at the guy who lost 2 of the juniors.My whole (obviously missed) point was that the biggest success of the day for Westerlands CCC, and meriting most adulation in my opinion, were the juniors themselves - not Dave, Don or me who all played an equal role in getting them to the start line.Yes, we know they were "unofficial" - the organiser did not have any problem with that when we asked him if they could take part.Originally, I was merely pointing out that they existed, as a lot of members were probably not aware of their achievement, it certainly did not merit a rule book quote, which we were already aware of - maybe with a "well done" we would not be on comment nr.19?Which one would you rather read of you were one of the juniors?

Involved? - I already am, thanks.

Saturday 2nd February 2008 12.55pm