WEST DISTRICT XC

Eight Harriers decided to put themselves through the torture of this years West District xc.
It was a cold wet and windy miserable morning, a day for the duvet really.
Anyway as I said eight of us made our way to Linwood ovder a decade since the last time some of us were there. A new course which consisted of 4 laps for the men and 2.5 laps for the ladies keeping the course within a more confined area. First out the shelter of the sports centre was Frances and Karen with the men staying indoors to keep warm only venturing out when the ladies came past to give a cheer then straight back indoors. Frances kept up her recent good form and ran the 6.4k in 30.34 finishing 41st and 2nd F50. Karen kept on the comeback trail with a fine performance finishing in 32.04 and 55th pos. Apart from any warm ups the men only left the confines of the sports centre 5mins before our start. The course was well cut up by now and the start line was barely visible. Off we went at the usual gallop and as expected I soon seen most of the field in front of me but having not run for 3 weeks it was what I expected and the back wasn't giving me much trouble. I would normally expect to get caught towards the end of lap 2 on a normal 3 lap course but with 4 laps I knew it would be sooner and was getting lapped during lap 2. It was a mostly flat course with a few muddy sharp climbs dotted around and 1st Harrier to complete the 10k was the first of many Andy's.
Andy Buchanan with a time of 39.45 in 53rd, next was Andrew McCafferry 42.54 in 105th followed by Andy Henderson 47.30 in 169th. Jim Holmes kept up some decent form to complete the course in 49.07 in 182nd. We now come to the 2 ever present GP participants for this year. First back was Hugh Simpson obviously feeling the cold as he ran with his jacket on, 59.09 in 220th then Russell Couper 67.39 in 225th. The mens team was 17th. Many thanks to Sandy for taking photos and shouting us on and to the many others that were on the course shouting us on.