East Kilbride 10k

1 December

Westies Captain and world-record breaker Charlie Campbell triumphed over the rest of the Westies men in his 2001 winter debut at the Hugh Wilson Memorial 10K at East Kilbride on Saturday.

Charlie managed to maintain a respectable lead over Don Reid for most of the race, finishing 20 seconds ahead in a close fought contest. Despite the wildly different climatic conditions, Charlie proclaimed that this was excellent preparation for the Honolulu Marathon next Sunday. Charlie’s victory however masks some disappointment that he is not considered by the organisers to be among the Elite Athletes, a list containing the usual coterie of Kenyans, Ethiopians and Tanzanians. We can also reveal that the organisers have snubbed Charlie by referring to him as an Englishman. Charlie’s best hope of a prize seems to be in the T-shirt category, although it would appear that he is in for a disappointment here as he has rather optimistically asked for a Large; presumably XXL were not available, Charlie?

Scanning through the Honolulu Website, it looks like the organisers have vastly underestimated Charlie’s effluent requirements by only arranging for 4450 rolls of toilet paper. It’s a good job Charlie won’t be along at Wednesday’s curry night!

For more details about Honolulu and Charlie, see: http://www.honolulumarathon.org/

By some reckoning, this year’s EK race conditions were almost sub-tropical, as there was a complete absence of ice or snow. The race was saved just in time by heavy rain, but only enough to soak those finishing after 45 minutes.

Don’s second place was a good result that catapults him into second place into the Winter League; way ahead of injured Blair Millen who looks unlikely to return to competition before the New Year.

Muffy was first Westies woman, just failing to take 3rd placing overall, but chuffed that she had sneaked past Al Wilson, another Winter League debutante. Al was going pretty well for the first half of the race but found the uphill section along the Queensway a bit rough. Looks like a bit of work needed before Carnethy, Al?

Not far behind Al came Pat, showing for the second week in a row a good return to form. Just behind Pat came Ian Struthers who finished ahead of Drew after a good battle.

It was also a debut for Ian Murray, aka Couch, after his marshalling success in the Dunbartonshire’s the previous week. Having completed the first 9.7K in about 53 minutes, Ian went on to complete the final 300metres in approximately 35.37 seconds, which augurs well for the future…and all that wearing waterproofs. It’s amazing what some people will do to avoid wearing the black “W”.

So, in the women’s league, Muffy stays top with an increased lead, due mainly to the 5-race double points rule coming into force. However, points are harder to come by in future, as will be the case with Pat, who has leapfrogged into second place.

Similarly, Drew seems to be permanently stuck at the top [of the men’s league, again taking advantage of double points. Mind you, Don Reid is starting to look dangerous in second place. Ian Struthers has also moved up several places into 5th position.

Results:

1 T Murray 31:17

57 Charlie 38:54

61 Don 39:15

96 Muffy 43:53

106 Al 44:45

120 Pat 44:14

123 Ian 47:03

127 Drew 47:39

158 Ian M 55:27

173 finished