EAST KILBRIDE AC OPEN CROSS COUNTRY 2016

Frances Maxwell, 3rd Female Veteran

In its 3rd year, East Kilbride AC hosted its now annual open cross-country races on Saturday 16th January. Based at O'Cathian Farm, Hay Hill Road, Jackton provided a challenging course in its own right with 3 hills in a lap and tough under foot conditions running on agricultural land with entrenched tractor tracks.  This was all compounded today with heavy snow fall, minus frozen temperature, my car measured -1c, and the snow increasely getting worse during the mens race.

 

They were 10 races scheduled for the event from Under 11 to Veteran men and woman and despite the weather EKAC were happy with the turn out.  There was junior Harriers running today and once we have the official results I will be able to report this on the junior blog.  First senior to line up was our very own marathon woman Frances Maxwell who after a warm up with Richard around the course decide just to take it easy as the ground was so uneven.  The ladies race was ran over 3 big laps over 6.3k consisting of Seniors, Veterans and under 20 women.

 

Frances with Mens winner Robert Gilroy

By the end of the first lap Frances was settle into about 7th place and was covering the laps around 8:20 minutes seemly finding a comfortable groove in the snow. Again her training from the autumn marathon firmly not lacking and showing good strength and pacing.  With a determined performance Frances (28:41) was 3rd veteran runner and duly won a lovely shield plaque (not the plague!) and small prize fund.  Well done Frances.  Lorraine Buchanan was due to make her club cross country debut today but her youngest child came down with whooping cough so she was on Mummy duty.

 

Next up was the mens race which was ran over a 8.4k course (4 big laps).  The mens was also a combined age group race consisting of Seniors, Veterans and under 20 men. The Harriers line up was Andrew J Buchanan, Russell Couper and Richard Lawton.  Davie Herbertson was scheduled to run but pulled out due to the weather conditions and wanted to ensure he was fit for the Devil Burden's Recce tomorrow.

 

The race organisers gathered the men for the start and then duly set us all go.  After my warm up lap I decided to take an easy start in the race and assess the lap  as I was racing down the first down hill section from the start was treacherous trying to avoid the bumps and find safe passage through the snow. Then the course turned left along a flat ground before beginning the mildest of three substantial climbs to be tackled on each lap.  Towards the end of this section led through a gate which had large frozen mud to navigate through leading to the second hill which was very steep and as I climbed was thinking I need to do this another 3 times! Once at the top you turned left which was bumpy ground with frozen mud sections so you had to be very careful placing your foot down to avoid going over your ankle. And so when there is an uphill there is a downhill which took you back to the gate which the marshalls advised to take wide to ensure you got round on two feet leading up the the final hill back to the start.

 

By lap 2 the snow was getting heavier, I was losing sight and had to ditch my glasses to complete the next 2 laps. So running on white snow, with snow falling, looking for the white sticks with blue and white tape at times was challenging. I must of been the only runner running in a zig zag!

 

First Harrier home was Andrew J Buchanan (31:00) in 10th place, then Richard Lawton (38:40) and Russell Couper (45:29).  Frances said Andrew J Buchanan had a  faster time than Andy Buchanan's time last year and can confirm it was faster by 51 seconds (31:51). Russell had a major event Pb of 9:47 on the course compared to last year's time of (55:16).

 

Afterwards O'Cathian Farm proved a cold but dry base for the race with a hall for declarations, changing facilities, and EKAC providing FREE tea, coffee, sandwiches and biscuits afterwards.

 

Official times have been inserted in red.

Thank you Martin & Aidan Howell for cheering the Harriers on around the course and sorry there was 2 other new members doing cheering but don't know your names.

Link to junior report: http://calderglenjuniors.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/east-kilbride-ac-open-cross-country-2016_16.html

I can confirm Frances is fighting fit and doesn't have the plague as she was spotted out doing the Devil Burdens Recce and she has emailed me.

 

Richard