Kinnoul Race

Wednesday 9 May

A good Westies contingent appeared at the Kinnoull Race in Perth last Wednesday, attracted not only by the novelty of a race, or even the sultry weather, but undoubtedly also by the prospect of a welcome spread of sandwiches and home baking at the end.

The race itself, a deceptively hard 800 foot ascent followed by a fast section through the woods and completed by a sting in the tail up-hill at the finish, has been rather accurately defined as Stuc A'Chroin in miniature. Westies managed to miss out on trophies, though Ronnie, finishing in 10th place, would have received a prize for second vet had there been any left! It was good to see Gary Thompsett running again for Westies; this was confirmed by the makeshift Black 'W' written onto a piece of card and pinned onto the back of his t-shirt. Gary finished in a respectable 20th place.

Third Westie home was Gordon Robinson, whose strong ascent was enough to hold off a late charge by Dave Calder. Both were followed closely by Don Reid. His Winter interval training paid dividends as he sprinted past three runners in the last 50 metres. Don was presumably even more elated by an emphatic victory over his nemesis, Blair Millen. Blair has spent the last couple of months at his Arbroath training camp, where rumours of a 60 mile a week regime are given credence by his appearance in the 22-mile Edinburgh to North Berwick Race last weekend. His performance at Kinnoull, though, can only be described as a nightmare. Not only was he gubbed by Don, but he registered under the colours of Arbroath Footers, as it was "the only way I could get a lift down to the race"! A feeble excuse or what? The general feeling after his poor performance was that Blair had learned his lesson and hopefully will be proudly adorning his yellow vest in future.

Not far behind Blair came Keith, who would probably have tried to scalp him, had he only recognised him in his red vest. Drew came in a few minutes afterwards, looking as if he had hardly been trying, but probably he was saving himself for the tea afterwards. Munching over large pieces of chocolate cake, everyone agreed that it was a jolly fine event.....and even the race itself had not been that bad! The only disappointment was the non-appearance of Mr Bonnyman for what should have been a local race!

Results

1 W Law(unattached, but for how long?) 25:46

10 Ronnie 27:01

20 Gary 28:44

33 Gordon 30:16

34 Dave 30:18

36 Don 30:42

44 Blair 31:45

52 Keith 32:21

81 Drew 37:50

93 finished

Posted by Dave Calder on Wed 30 Nov -0001 | comments are closed

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