West District XC was wet, wet & wet!

L to R: Kirsty, Sandy & Gordon

A total contrast from last weeks run in the sun at Houston with this weeks Grand Prix event being the West Districts Cross Country Relay Championships at a very wet Beach Park in Irvine. The weather forecast for Scotland was just a sea of blue across the west & central belt all day and for once they got it right. All be it wasn't cold with the temperature around 12c and the rain was just more constant drizzle so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. It was a great day for the newer more compact tent that everyone was glad to have to get changed in and keep dry while we all waited for our leg on the course.  Anyway to the race itself.

 

With still a lot of our ladies recovering from the Chester marathon we had a one complete team of three ladies running. As like last week the womens team was led off by Kay Conneff who looked like she was having a good run looking strong.  The club tent was well positioned at the half way point in the course where she got plenty of cheers and encouragement from everyone and her young son Nathan who is becoming a regular supporter at the races and feeding all the Harriers with chocolate biscuits.  Kay completed the first leg in a great standard of 18.09 passing the baton to Kirsty Wilson who again seemed to be running well after recently completing the Glasgow Half Marathon a couple of weeks ago crossing the line in 18.44 leaving the final leg to Sandy. Now Sandy was not looking too good on Thursday night suffering with a virus but had been to the doctor and now looking more fresh faced with medical intervention but still not 100%. However despite this handicap she completed her leg in 22.46 (and beating Russell) bringing the team home in 26th place in the senior team rankings.

 

Next up was the mens turn.  Coach had duly selected the teams based on availability and I was selected for the A team (cue theme tune to 80's classic kids Saturday night show) which is good but nerve racking as you want to go out and perform the best you can for club and yourself. I had a good team around me with Mark Saez on leg 1, late call up to the team Jim Holmes (his golf tournament was cancelled due to the weather) and our very own club president King Kenny on the final leg. The B team was being led out by Alan Cullie followed by Gordon McInally, Russell Couper and Jim Mearns. The C team was a solo effort for club stalwart Chas Stevens using this as good preparation for Brampton.

 

Leg 1 Harriers were ready and were led out by Mark Saez who is running in good form just now and put in a challenging performance around the Beach Park course finishing in the top 15 of his age group M45 in 15.42 handing over to Jim Holmes who had ran the course as a warm up to assess the route establishing where the hills were and the lead up to the finish line.  This worked out well for Jim who ran his leg in 18.21. Next up was Richard Lawton who was keen but nervous being his first cross country race since Falkirk and was aiming to maintain a good performance however the challenging ascents and descents in the hills played havoc with his back making the 2nd half of the course tough. Richard completed leg 3 in 18.41 and passing the anchor leg to Kenny Leinster.  This is was Kenny's last race before his marathon and even though he said he wasn't going to run hard he did!  Kenny was the second fastest of the male Harriers running a great time of 18.14 bringing the team home in 15th place in the master team rankings.

 

Alan Cullie led out the B team who wasn't keen in running the first leg but it served him well as he ran a competitive race with a time of 18.20 just pipping Jim Holmes for those vital Grand Prix points. Next up was Gordon McInally continuing his comeback after having an enduring niggling leg injury running a time of 20.22 handing over leg 3 duties to Russell Couper who by his own admissions didn't have a good run and the descents in the course gubbed his abductor. Despite this Russell finished in 23.13 passing the anchor leg over to Jim Mearns who had not long finished a morning shift at work. Jim admitted cross country isn't his favourite type of running and had at least 4 excuses for not running well (including Thursday's session). However Jim ran a respectful time of 19.31 bringing the team home 20th place in the master team rankings.

 

Last but not least Chas Stevens put in a determined performance in leg 1 and put down a time of 25.01 which I am sure Chas will have no complaints.

 

Well done to everyone who ran at this event and a big thank you to young Nathan Conneff,  John Boyd and Allison Johnstone for coming out to support it was greatly appreciated by all.

 

Richard