West District XC Champs, East Kilbride, 9th December 2006

Vet Wet Sweat As Westies PIck up 3rd Vets Prize

More mud and glaur was evident at the West Districts at East Kilbride showground yesterday. Although afficionados reckoned it bore no comparison with Kirkintilloch two weeks ago in terms of the quality of mud, it remained a surprisingly good 3 lap, strength-sapping trail which made excellent use of its sole hill. At least it remained dry and calm, unlike the conditions at the previous weekend’s 10K.

The woman’s race saw a fine return by Captainess Cat, who started slowly but surely caught Jane in the second lap to be first Westie home. It was a fine prelude to Cat being awarded Westie of the year at the club dinner that evening. Jane finished a few seconds behind Cat, Muffy was next home and it was good to see Pauline back competing to make up the Westies quartet.

In the Men’s race, David Riach made short work of the mud, striding easily through the quagmire. Captain Chris was only 1 place behind, but it was further back where the real battle was taking place. Don was determined to gain revenge for the home-turf humiliation by Dave in the Hugh Wilson 10K the previous Sunday. Dave had to admit that his pre-race, 2-in-the-morning, 21 alcohol unit preparation was far from ideal. Nevertheless the two were literally neck and neck from 400 metres until about 1km frome the end when Don’s superior strength allowed him to gain enough clear space to strike home for a convincing victory. Dave says “I’ll be back”, so there are more sparks to come from this pair over the rest of the season!

JD ran a competent race a few minutes behind, although he does seem to lack the leg speed of old; probably the result of too many long hill runs over the summer. Hamilton made his usual last minute appearance, using some excuse about singing in Buchanan Galleries for his late arrival. He didn’t have time to collect his number and had to be handed it 200 metres from the finish line! Grimorr was easily spotted in the crowd of runners with his trademark mustard bunnet and DM Hoey vest. Finally Drew came in, one of only 4 Westies (Muffy, Chris and Don being the other 3) to complete the testing trio of races at Kirkie, Kilbride and Kilbride.

The good news was that Westies were third vets team after Shettleston and Cambuslang, with David, Chris and Don being the counters.

A well deserved rest in the Winter League now until the Christmas handicap on 30th December.

Results

Women

1 Allison Simpson Kilmarnock 25:09

31 Cat 30:54

32 Jane 30:59

41 Muffy 32:30

51 Pauline 34:10

60 finished

team 10th

Men

1 Connor McNulty 33:33

50 David 39:51

51 Chris 39:57

71 Don 42:20

72 Dave 42:29

109 John 46:26

119 Hamilton 47:55

136 Graeme 52:26

147 Drew 59:35

149 finishers

9th team

3rd vets team