A Stonking Day in Post-industrial Ayrshire

West District Championships, Mosshill, Ayrshire – 4th December, 2016

The venue looked none-too-promising – several laps of fields around an old industrial estate to the south of Ayr – however it turned out to be a stonking race with undulating hills, sticky glaur and nice views in a cold but pleasant afternoon. In the women’s 4-mile race, Val ran a stormer to finish 23rd overall and 3rd V50, closely followed by Lorna, Maya, Christine (3rd V60), Leanne and Claire (winner of the sprint finish of the day award!).  However, despite Gaynor’s epic ultra performances in exotic Atlantic islands , she was defeated on this occasion by a stonker of a cold, and dropped out after a lap or so! The brilliant runs by Val, Lorna and Christine earned the ladies a 2nd in the Masters Team event.

By my reckoning, Westies men would have been about 4th in the senior 6-mile event had all our ex-members still been running for us!! Still, Bastien had a stonking run (as opposed to a stonking cold) to lead our boys home. Niall, Ian, Dave, Chris and John Q (dapper and stylish as one expects from a Kilbridian) followed home in that order.

Other clubs may well have stonking gazebos and tents, emblazoned with sponsor’s logos, to match the quality of their athletes. Our wee shelter is necessarily more modest in comparison. Shettleston may well have won the team event for running, however, when it comes to  canvas disassembly, Westies left the Shetts, and every other club, standing as JQ deftly crushed our pop-up protection into its bag in 49.23 seconds, a season’s best. There’s all to play for as we head towards the Nationals in February!

Results

Women

23 Val H 29:55 (3rd V50)

45 Lorna 32:18 (4th V50)

69 Maya 34:41

81 Christine 35:54 (3rd V60)

86 Leanne 36:31

89 Claire 36:52

Team – 6th overall, 2nd Masters.

Men

53 Bastien 40:35

62 Niall 41:04

153 Ian 46:29

180 Dave 48:17

208 Chris McK 51:24

226 John Q 54:18

Team- 15th overall, 20th Masters