West District XC Relay - Kilmarnock

Let's start off with the important part of the message. Davie Searil is thankfully doing fine in hospital and I am sure all Harriers will join me in wishing Davie a speedy and full recovery from yesterday's traumatic event. He tells me he should be out in another 3 days or so, all going well. Please also join me in thanking the on-site first aid team, the ambulance staff, Frances Phimister for bringing her professional expertise before and during the ambulance journey to Hairmyres and to all the Harriers present who helped in one way or another. Thanks also to John Gebbie and the marshals and volunteers from Kilmarnock Harriers for their organisation and preparedness for this sort of eventuality. As Stephen said afterwards, it was a team effort. Get well soon Davie.

And so to the race. Given the weather of the past week, we could not have wished for a better day to run a cross-country relay. The sun was shining and the winds were light. Our new black tent was like a sauna inside such was the solar heating. Add to this a perfect cross country course with a mixture of fast grassy surfaces, some muddy paths, tufty fields, a bit of trail and of course a 20m section of mud and water filled ditch to run through.

Alison having fun in the sun.

Our ladies were off first. Although we did not have a full team, Alison Lessells and Morgan Beaton gave it everything and posted fine times towards the middle to top end of the large field. Alison finished in 18:41 and Morgan in 18:54. Somehow they both finished remarkably clean too! As the racing season progresses, I am confident that both of them will be showing a clean pair of heels to many more runners.

The rapidly improving Morgan looking smooth.

We had two and three quarter men's teams, all of which were in the masters (over 40) category. As always, this was going to be a pretty competitive challenge between our teams. On the first legs we had Jim Holmes pitched up against Davie Wardrope and Gordon McInally. This was Davie's first cross-country for a while and Jim was fired up after having his time increased by a few crucial seconds in the Houston official results which put him behind Eddie. Jim got the A team off to a great start recording a time (on his watch) of 17:55 (pretty much identical to the time he recorded at Houston the week before). Davie Wardrope was meantime having a relative nightmare. He was tracking Jim closely on the initial loop within the park but on exiting the park under the bridge and through the muddy ditch, his trail shoe was sucked off.

Where's my shoe!

A minute or so later, the shoe surfaced, looks like Gordon almost tripped over it!

Retrieved by Frances (Photo courtesy Bobby Gavin)

As his shoe had not re-surfaced, Davie made the decision to carry on with one shoe not realising that just around the next corner there was a section of broken, stony tarmac (and broken glass I noticed on our recce) and this was not pleasant with one bare foot. This section would have to be crossed again on the way back from the "rural" loop, so not good news. When his shoe did resurface, Frances waded in with the wellies and retrieved it and Martin Howell ran after Davie to give him his shoe, although I don't think he put it on and he carried on to the finish with only one shoe. Davie's significantly handicapped time was 20:05 but hopefully no injuries. If it ever happens again, he will definitely stop and put his shoe back on! After an exuberant start, Gordon settled down to a steady pace, finishing in 20:42.

Jim looking focussed

Jim was handing over to Eddie Reid, David was handing over to Kenny Leinster whilst Gordon was handing over to Davie Searil. There's always some psychological warfare where Kenny is involved and this time, Kenny was looking to set himself up for a head to head with Eddie (again). Davie's shoe mishap put paid to that so Eddie had a free run, finishing in 17:55 (on his watch). Oh no! Another tie with Jim. However, referring to the official results, Jim has been given 17:54 and Eddie 17:57, a reversal of last weeks result but confirming a very closely matched pair. Not only that, Kenny recorded 18:00 in a run which was very much part of his marathon taper, sensibly resisting the temptation to get involved in any finish line sprints (unless it was with Eddie). Before he set off on leg 2, Davie Searil had told me his hamstring/glute was acting up during the warm-up and I advised just to take it easy and get around. Little did we know.

Eddie floats through the mud.

On leg 3 we had Stephen Phimister, Geo Ferguson and Russell Couper. Stephen has had a really good spell of training through the summer and gets better and better with each week of uninterrupted training. This week was no exception and Stephen ran strongly to finish in 16:40. Geo is always strong on tough courses and this week he ploughed round in 19:24. Meanwhile, I was on the line waiting to take over from Stephen with Russell still there waiting to take over from Davie. At this point we were really wondering where Davie could be. I mentioned to Russell that his hamstring was giving him problems before the start and that he might just be walking the lap. Then Stephen appeared and I took off on leg 4.

Geo ploughs through.

Also on leg 4 we had Martin Howell using this as a recovery run from last weekend's Loch Ness Marathon. I had a pretty good run, with a steady line of teams to chase and pass throughout the whole lap. In the final km along the river bank I picked up the pace to my limit and made a long final burst to catch a few more veteran teams (identified by a "V" on the back of their vests) and even tried a sprint in the final 50m to pass a Cambuslang vets team (I failed), finishing in 15:16, which as it turns out was 6th M50 and 13th Masters team.

Martin wishing he was at mile 18 of a marathon again!

It looked to me that Martin's legs were well on the way to recovery as he ran a very creditable 17:23 making him third fastest of the Harriers. Meanwhile, as Davie had not appeared, the officials had let Russell start on his own. Running on adrenalin from a combination of frustration and worry, Russell had a very speedy run, finishing in 19:54.

Looks like the ditch had emptied a bit by the time Russell arrived!

Unfortunately, those of us on the last leg crossed the line to the sight of Davie receiving urgent medical attention and at that point all thoughts of the run disappeared.

Davie still looking OK.

As always, a big thanks to all those who ran and came to support and take photographs (Frances P, Frances F, Stuart and Maud). It was much appreciated as were the excellent cup cakes and carrot cake which Frances baked. All the many photos from Frances, Alison and me are in this album.
Alan

Done in.