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West District Cross Country
16th January 2011
Dry and windy conditions on Irvine Moor.
The women's team was reduced to the reliable Pat and Pauline, with Helen and Ellie both crocked, and no shows from Cat and Ana.
For the men's team we managed 8 runners with 4 old-timers: me, Gibby, Don and John Quinn, and 4 new boys: Peter Grassl, Niall McAlinden, Cameron Burt and Scott Mitchell. After the initial stampede, Niall caught me half way around the first lap and then drifted away into the distance. I was feeling fairly unwell and it was as much as I could do to hang onto to Greenock Glenpark's David Henderson on the 2nd lap, and then claw 2 places on the last lap, passing Greig Glendinning and Marc McColl with a struggle. I'd also passed Adam Gatens on the 2nd lap, but he rallied and got by again on the final lap, as did Andy Campbell and Russ Whittington from Bella Harriers and Road Runners.
Disappointingly there were precisely no refreshments on offer back at the Irvine High School, which I thought was a poor show for a District Cross Country event, so after the race we headed back to Glasgow in a hypoglycaemic haze.
Posted by Chris Upson on Mon 17 Jan 2011 | 7 comments
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Comments
John Quinn said...
The course was surprisingly dry after the rain on Saturday and conditions were good under foot. I moved away from Don in lap 1 and by the end of the lap was well ahead of him. By the end of lap 2 my only thought was I've done him he'll never catch me now. Oh well I can but dream. In his usual inimitable way he caught me in his sights, some how picked up the pace and passed me with 500 metres to go. So close yet so far.
Oh well, a year older but over a minute faster. Can't be bad, 2 PB points in the winter league. Bring on the burdens.
Monday 17th January 2011 2.58pm
Pauline said...
Being so much better at finding post-race refreshment than the men obviously are, Pat and I managed to survive the chilly wind long enough to cheer them on for 1 lap and then headed for Costa Coffee in Riverside Park so no hypo haze for us!!
Monday 17th January 2011 3.32pm
Don said...
Sorry John for zapping you again but it was a miracle i caught you at all. I felt like packing it in on lap 1 i felt so crap. Gibby passed me along with Peter and so i was last in the Westies train. Then about 500m into lap 2 all hell broke loose in my body and i felt fantastic. I quickly despatched Peter and Gibby who were locked in battle with Bobby Young of Clydesdale and blasted past loads of runners to get John in my sights. With about 1000m to go i caught John and knowing he can kick like mad in a sprint, decided the best tactic was to blast past and hope he did not come with me.
Really enjoyable race despite the crappy 1st lap. It was great to see lots of younger westies out and cannot wait to see the results
Monday 17th January 2011 4.15pm
Gibson said...
Felt I had a good race and was encouraged by overtaking Don on lap 1 tracked Bobby for two and a half laps but on a flat x-c the inevitable happened and he got away from me on the last lap hope Kirkaldy is hilly and muddy
Monday 17th January 2011 5.07pm
Cam Burt said...
My first XC since leaving uni 6 years ago and I was pleasantly surprised - ok, it was 3 laps but the moor had some interesting features.
Like Chris I wasn't feeling 100%. I spent the whole race following the W on Scott's back except for the brief moment I drew level:
- I survived the initial scrum and put in a good 1st lap;
- I found the 2nd lap tough;
- but the second wind kicked in by the 3rd lap and managed to push on and (unofficially) clock a 36m30s.
I kept myself amused during the race by playing with the runners more used to the road and track on the short climbs - if the climbs had been longer than 15ft I may have placed better!
Great to see so many Westies out and thankfully Chris still drove us safely back to the Westend despite his hypoglycaemic haze.
Monday 17th January 2011 7.40pm
Peter said...
My first xc ever. I really enjoyed the course.
Maybe I ran lap 1 too quickly, as my legs were still tired from Saturday's parkrun. Took it easy on lap 2, so that I felt even good enough to overtake a few runners on the last lap and finished with a small sprint. Was nice to see Gibson and Don during lap 2.
A nice day out and an incredibly delicious bowl of pasta back home after near starvation. Thanks to Chris for the driving.
Monday 17th January 2011 8.09pm
Dave said...
Great to see a good turnout, from the men at least, for a real race. Gibby must think racing at Irvine Moor is like Groundhog Day? Every time he ventures out, Bobby Young nips past on the last lap!
Also nice to see some whippersnappers biting on Cap'n Chris's heels; no offence to Chris, but he is getting on a bit!
Young Mr Quinn is obviously keeping up his early season form whilst Don is coming back to the level he was at a year or so ago.
Thanks to everyone for the reports; they keep me well amused out here in the Orient. I'm pining for a good cross-country outing...If only I'd been there, I'm sure I would still have Don's scalp!!!!
But Chris, your excuse for no refreshments at the end is frankly pathetic. Why, back in the good old days when I first joined the club (1982), we would have quickly made a beeline for the Turf, which is a mere warmdown's distance from the course, where the fine array of real ales could have been sampled.
Wednesday 19th January 2011 6.01am