Newtyle

First race of the summer league …..apologies for short notice…..and four Westies started the race. Myself, Brian Bonnyman, Stefan Gorgas, and George Douglas. Due to problems with parking at the Loch of the Lowes the start/finish has been moved and the race altered ……makes it a bit longer and with a bit more climb. Despite a few people getting lost before the start ….presumably headed to the old one …..the race headed off on a stretch of tarmac to start which meant the pace was fierce. I soon found my position, well back, lying 4th westie by a good margin. On the climb up the first hill I caught big George a bit and managed to sneak ahead of him on the zigzag descent by going straight down, sorry George ……battered down the trail and managed to catch up to 5 yards behind Davie D at the foot of the second hill …..but that was as close as i got as he made good time up and over ……kept going and was joined by Jonathan Weir who was having a bad run and Hilary Ritchie of Fife who had got lost but had retraced her route. Up the steep tarmac hill to the golf course, dying badly but half way up Colin Wilson started to catch and I knew he’d had a hard run at the weekend so that spurred me on so ran the rest of the way ……amazing the number of times the appearance of another runner ahead or behind either spurs you on or destroys you, just shows how much of running is in the head. Got to the end to find Prasad Prasad had won, Brian Bonnyman was well placed and I don’t know any other results as I had to head off sharpish to meet Reverend Brennan at the Presbytery Partnership meal in Pitlochry. First blood in the summer league to Brian B the younger, Stefan seemed to be running well again, and George competes in a whole host of events around the country which are not ideally placed relative to his home in Helensburgh, so what happened to the rest of you ?