Christmas Handicap 2008

Mankini Freer At Full Stretch Fails to Catch Cameron

A beautifully sunny day rewarded the 18 Westies who turned up for the Annual Christmas Handicap at Carbeth. Andy Freer took full advantage of the sultry conditions to show off his lime-green lycra mankini, which just about managed to circumnavigate his belly without doing too much damage to his manhood. However, although Andy looked like the dog's b*****ks in his attractive garb, it was not enough to stop Archie Cameron from sneaking the overall winner's title, showing a clean pair of heels in traditional club black and gold colours. I don't know when last Archie won the handicap, although I'm certain he must have done so back in his halcyon days in the 80's!!!!

Archie's victory probably owes something to his new training technique which is a variation of the Michael Divers cycle-out-to-the-race-beforehand style. In Archie's case, this involves traversing the Milngavie to Carbeth road and being cut up by other Westie cars, therefore providing the necessary adrenaline surge to ensure victory

Archie came in half a minute ahead of Stuart "Rasta" Burns, with Grimorr in 3rd place and Chris "Bedford" Upson taking the fastest overall time to come in 4th.

Muffy was first woman in 5th place, finishing ahead of Andy Mott and Johnston "PInko" Orr, both of whom had raced earlier in the day (Bravo boys, that's real running). They were split by Grunter Gibson, sporting a graze to the head caused by not buying Sheila the right Christmas Pressie ( I've made that last bit up, but it's more interesting than the truth).

Dave was next in; in fact Dave should really have been declared the true winner as he was the only runner to complete the original course, i.e. by vaulting the fence at the end of the trail instead of opening the recently installed gate. He was followed closely by John H, complete with Top Hat and cape, with Helen, Keith ( amazingly running the handicap for the first time), Graham B and Ian trundling in afterwards. Star of the Show Andy F came in at the same time as surprise participant Drew, with the very late Steffen and Cat , in the absence of ex-Cap'n Campbell, being the tail-end Charlies!

There was plenty of support and help as usual, so thanks to Ellie ( showing off her stapled back) and her Mum, Sally, Isabel, Karen, Margaret for avoiding the obvious allure of Andy and cheering us all on instead.

Results

Pos, Name, Cat, Finish Time, Actual Time

1 Archie Cameron M50 26:25, 24:07

2 Stuart Burns M 26:59, 23:29

3 Graeme Orr M60 27:22, 24:22

4 Chris Upson M40 27:55, 17:55

5 Muffy Calder F50 28:10, 24:10

6 Andy Mott M 28:16, 21:46

7 Gibson Fleming M60 28:25, 21:25

8 Johnston Orr M 28:41, 22:41

9 Dave Calder M40 28:59, 20:59

10 John Hutchinson M50 29:43, 23:43

11 Helen MacPherson F50 31:15, 26:15

12 Keith Adams M50 32:30, 23:00

13 Graham Benny M50 33:14, 31:58

14 Ian Struthers M50 33:36, 28:21

15 Andy Freer M50 37:45, 32:45

16 Drew Turnbull M60 37:46, 37:45

17 Catriona Gorgas F 38:30, 25:30

18 Steffen Gorgas M 38:31, 25:31

Posted by Dave Calder on Mon 29 Dec 2008 | 3 comments

Category handicap races