GUHH 5-Mile Road Race

A grand total of 7 Westies turned up for the Glasgow University Hares and Hounds 5-Mile Road Race on Saturday. All interest was focussed on the semi-elite end of the field with the long running rivalry between Grim and Struthers being re-kindled. At the start, new member Chris and his pal went off at a pace I couldn’t match so I settled down to churn out some consistent kms, pretty difficult with the course having more ups and downs than I realised. On the 2nd lap people were starting to struggle a bit and I moved up a few places and crept past Chris and pushed on to the finish.

Highlight of the day, however, was watching the battle between Grim and Struthers. Grim entered the last 250m with a 20m lead only to see it come down to 1 or 2 metres as Struthers pushed hard for glory. However, Grim held on to win by 1 second in his best time since 2013. For those of you who remember the classic battles between Seb Coe and Steve Ovett its a bit like that, except in slow motion.

Alas, no points gained on Winter League leader Don who also turned up. With his attendance at Devilla on Sunday and the National XC next weekend he’s looking good for the Winter League 2016/17.

Westies:

41) Ian Thurlbeck 32:16

48) Chris Butler 33:16

56) Don Reid 34:09

58) Chris McKiddie 34:27

107) Graeme Orr 41:29

108) Ian Struthers 41:30

123) Eileen Hamil 46:01