Wind Swept in Cumbernauld

Joanne on a charge downhill

It is often wet and windy in Cumbernauld for the annual National Cross Country Relays, so we had to count ourselves lucky that on Saturday it was just windy. Very windy! After a strong start to the season by our ladies, we had a somewhat reduced turnout for Cumbernauld with only Joanne McEvoy and Frances Ferguson taking part to form half a team of four. However, this meant that there were good Grand Prix points available for both Joanne and Frances. Joanne was on the first leg of the undulating 4km course. Underfoot conditions were not as muddy as they sometimes are however, the winds were gusting to 50mph and were directly against the runners on the longest ascent up the middle of the course, making forward progress difficult in some cases. Joanne ran strongly to finish in 17:15, 12 seconds faster than last year and one of her fastest times on this course. Frances also set one of her fastest times for some years, gaining a few places to cross the line in 18:11. Although difficult to work out from the official results (as W50's running for senior or F40 teams are listed separately), this looks like a 6th best F50 time in a very large field.

Frances on leg 2 (leg 1 is off the ground)

The men had two teams of 4 and an M50 team of 3 competing. However, first task of the day was putting up the club tent which had been driven to the venue by Kenny and then manhandled cross country by Eddie and Gordon to our chosen spot in a natural hollow slightly out of the wind. All would have been well had we not lost all the tent pegs meaning that the club tent briefly became the club hang glider as it took off in a strong gust (we were not the only club to suffer this). Top scavenger Jim Holmes and others came to the rescue, finding several large tree branches with which to weigh the tent down. We also needed Harriers on permanent ballast duty, sitting on a chair inside the tent. I acted as a tent peg for a while too and that was pretty much my best contribution of the day as I was struggling on the running front.

This tent is going nowhere!

The A team was led off by Mark Saez who battled in the midst of a huge field to finish in 14:57 in 69th position. Andrew Buchanan intention was to run a more consistent effort than he had the previous week and this he did, pulling back 11 places to finish in 14:50. Stephen Phimister had not raced here since 2008 and due to recent injuries/missed training was not particularly looking forward to the race. However, he is now back and has the taste for these short, sharp races after running a time of 16:51 and 68th position, a drop of only a minute in 9 years which is not at all bad. Finally, having provided the branches to anchor the tent, Jim Holmes now had to anchor the team. Jim finished in 18:41 and 73rd position.

Andy Buchanan stretches out

Richard Lawton was first leg runner for the B (Masters team) and demonstrated that although he is not yet in the form of last year, he is running well enough, recording a time of 18:45. Gordon McInally continued his Grand Prix campaign on leg 2 with a time exactly one minute behind Richard, 19:45. Russell had a chance to shine on leg 3 for a change and hauled himself around in 21:14, only about 48 seconds down on last year. Finally, John Boyd did his first every cross country race. The last leg is a lonely experience and pace judgement is difficult with no runners around to latch on to. Therefore John ran well to record a time of 21:04 and he will hopefully get the chance to build on that first experience at other cross country races this season.

Gordon showing good form

The M50 event was contested by teams of 3. Our team was led off by Andy Henderson who called upon all his experience not to get dragged out too fast by the younger runners around him. Andy brought the team home in 20th position in a time of 18:01. I took the second leg, although would gladly have taken a final leg, due to suffering from a temperature and streaming nose since Thursday. The field was well spread out but I was catching teams at regular intervals which gave the illusion that I was going fast. In fact I was 40 seconds slower than last year, pulling the team up to 14th position but disappointed to be well down on many of the M50's I had been ahead of in recent weeks and months. Eddie Reid had also been struggling recently with both normal and bizarre injuries breaking the consistency of the training that he needs to get back to his true form. Eddie held on to 14th position in a time of 17:52.

John on the well trodden trail

Well done to all who competed and to Kenny for enthusiastically supporting us and transporting the tent. Thanks to Frances for the photos.

For those interested in how the course compared to last year, the image below shows my Garmin tracks. The yellow track was last year, the green/grey/purple track this year. Overall the distance was the same (3.8km) but there were a few wider corners here and there and a few tighter corners that cancelled out the difference. The red arrows inside the yellow circles are the wind direction and strength this year.
Alan