Alan Scally Road Relay 2023

My morning errands took longer than anticipated so I arrived at the Green late. Hurriedly getting changed in to race kit I was shocked to find that my club vest seems to have shrunk by at least two sizes; or it was actually Niall’s left in my car after the Kilps relays. Robert had a spare and he was happy loan me the ‘retro vest’ that’s doing the rounds and I quickly swapped numbers over. No time for a decent warm-up, and barely enough time to find a quiet spot for a pre-race comfort break.

Standing on the start line I was nervous, really nervous in fact. I knew I wasn’t road fit and this wasn’t a goal race, to be honest I didn’t care all that much. But this meant that I hadn’t thought about the race at all and it was only at around 12.13 that I realised I had no idea what I was doing.

Soon enough Tom C appeared round the corner (he ran a fast time, but not the fast time he wanted) and I was off. I started on what I hoped was a reasonable pace tried to stay relaxed, upright and staring ahead.

G’damn, road racing seems hilariously difficult if you’re out of practice. I managed to hold our team’s placing more or less, but felt horrendous and increasingly weak as the race went on. At around the 4km mark an Irvine runner tried to nip past me, I knew he would but I wasn’t going to just let him have it so I upped the pace a bit. I was pleasantly surprised that the increased speed seemed sustainable. Oh yeah, that’s right, it’s supposed to feel horrendous, doesn’t mean you can’t go faster. I took a couple of scalps before the finish and sent Rob on his way to a quality PB.

Three teams of Westies put in solid performances at this classic event, a fine day all round. Results here.