Nigel Barge Road Race, 7th January 2005

Double Shock….Westies Horror at £10 Road Race AND Fraser Scalps Captain Chris

There were several surprises for Westies members turning out for the Nigel Barge Road race on Saturday. First was the entry fee ,which would probably just about have bought the week’s shopping at Summerston ASDA next door to the race HQ. It was hard to reconcile the £10 entry fee (£12 for non-SAL) with the plastic bag offreebies handed out at the end ( medal,banana, Mars bar, bottle of water, chart telling you when you’ve had too much to drink-just-in-case-you-didn’t-already-know, and a catalogue for Asics shoes). Great value race at £2/mile. By that reckoning, we should be charging about £20 for Ben Lomond! That would be a nice little earner!

Next surprise was a change in the trail. Maryhill Polis had forbidden the organisers to use the normal trail along Dorchester due to road works. Instead the race was run over a two-lap trail around Garscube, Temple Road, and Dawsholm. A longer race for competitors, but great for spectators.

Third surprise was Fraser gubbing Chris. I suppose it wasn’t that big a surprise as it has been looking likely for some time now, but there was no question that the Captain was well and truly trounced by the in-form Ayrshireman. Behind these two there was a bit of Cat and Mouse going on between Cat and Blair(squeak,squeak), with Cat pulling well away in the second lap. Jason is really starting to improve, finishing just behind Blair. Muffy wasn’t too far behind, also quite pleased with her performance. Ian and Drew were pretty close together for the first coupld of miles, just as they were at the Uni Road Race, however rather then leave the spectators with some excitement at the finish,Ian pulled away early for a comfortable victory.

At least there are no more double-pointer league races now until Carnethy in February. Just as well or we’d all be skint! Good news is that the Jack Crawford Rcae is only a fiver!

Results

1 Chris Mackay (Greenock Glenpark) 30:27

36 Fraser 34:58

51 Chris 35:38

111 Catriona 40:09

134 Blair 42:06

139 Jason 42:37

147 Muffy 43:09

175 Ian 46:21

186 Drew 47:33

244 finished