For the first time in what seems like decades, we finally had a new venue for the National XC Relays on Saturday. With a massive turnout of clubs from all over Scotland, it was a little disappointing that we could manage only 2 incomplete teams and one complete M50 team, however all of our runners enjoyed a wide open course with some gentle hills and no mud to speak of! As with the West XC relays two weeks ago, the lap distance was nominally 4k but the absence of severe hills made this a very fast course indeed. On the basis of our runners and those from other clubs who also ran the West, the course was between 60 and 90 seconds faster than Alexandra Park.
Our two ladies ran each other very close indeed. Alison Lessells was on first leg duty and ran an impeccably paced run with a powerful finish in 18:04. That would be a hard time to beat but Julie Thomson had found her cross-country legs on the second leg and ran pretty much solo to finish in 18:01 (rounding the official time to the nearest second)! This was over 2 minutes faster than at Alexandra Park and proved that Julie needed a race under her belt to get the pacing worked out. Well done to both ladies. We now have a very close competition in the GP and Scratch Championships with only a few points covering the top 3 or 4 in both competitions.
For the men we had a senior team of 3 (one short of a complete team) and an M50 masters team of 3 (which was a complete team in that category). Kevin Farmer once again proved he can handle a crowded race situation on the first leg for the senior team, finishing in 112th position in 15:11. Jim Holmes took the first leg for the M50 team. Despite feeling a bit heavy-legged following the half x 4 hills on Thursday, Jim loosened off nicely for the race. It's a bit daunting to go straight to the back when the gun goes but this was the sensible place to be as many of the others were "over-reaching" on the fast, flat start straight and soon came back to Jim who picked his way through the field, finishing in 144th position in 17:07, again sticking to the formula of Alexandra Park minus approximately 1 minute.
Gordon McInally goes from strength to strength as his toe gradually heals and today was on the second leg for the senior team. Gordon followed the rules and also ran just over a minute faster than 2 weeks ago to cross the line in an excellent 18:39 (but failing to keep a flying Andy Butchart from passing in the overall lead on leg 3!). Gordon handed over in 132nd position. Jim Mearns continues to demonstrate the speed he has in addition to endurance on leg 2 for the M50 team. Jim was in fine form, not having handicapped himself with a double vaccinations beforehand this week, and finished in 17:19, a full 95 seconds faster than 2 weeks ago, suggesting that the vaccine is about a 30 second handicap! Jim was in 134 position which meant that the M50 team was now just 2 places behind the senior team.
Russell Couper was on leg 3 for the senior team up against me on leg 3 for the M50 team, starting 2 places behind. Russell had already agreed to pull his elbows in when/if I caught him to give me the shortest route around. With the long start straight, I could see Russell approaching the U-turn at the end when I started off. I was also aware that the 2nd and third placed overall (and several more teams) would probably come flying past early on so needed to keep my eyes (unsuccessfully) on the rear view mirrors to avoid tripping them up. This was one of those days which demonstrates the rule "do what the coach says, not what the coach does" as I have been suffering with a virus since the West and was tight chested and passing liquids like a mountain spring. The coach says "don't race if you feel like this!". Anyway, I didn't withdraw but felt the stress in the chest once the heart rate hit the max a few minutes in. Not a nice feeling. True to his word, Russell pulled the elbows in as I went past after about 400m just as we turned onto the first gentle climb up the banks towards the palace. The course climbed then dropped and then climbed again before finally dropping down a fantastic, firm grass surface to effectively the Tay flood plain. Surprisingly, this was also remarkably firm and the remaining 3.5km's to the finish were very smooth underfoot. The second, third, fourth (and possibly several other) teams flew past me eventually and I crossed the line in 14:49, only 50 seconds faster than the West, so a bit down. I subsequently noticed that all of the other club's M50's who were a similar time to me at the West were about 80 to 90 seconds faster here, so that kind of confirms how I felt, unable to push in the flat middle section, fearing I was going to flake out. Russell meanwhile put in a very even paced lap, except for the final 200m when he really piled on the pace, to finish in 20:24, some two and half minutes faster than at the West and the club's biggest improver. Russell is getting back to form with every race!
Jim Holmes has now taken a surprisingly early lead (Jim normally leaves it to the last couple of races) in the GP although the top 5 are very close. Kevin Farmer has stretched out a well deserved early lead in the scratch championship. The next GP race is the National 4km XC at Lanark Race Course.
For comparison, Andy Butchart ran 11:31 with all 4 in Central's winning team being between 11:29 and 11:34. Amazing strength in depth, particularly as Central's B team placed second.
I have only a couple of photos this week in this album.
Alan
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