Around Cumbrae 10 Miler

Various Harriers have ran this race over the years but this year it seemed like it caught the attention of the club. Through various early sign ups and reserve lists its seemed at one point half the club were running. Of course injury took its toll so in the end we had 12 runners in the race but with a large contingent of family and friends over to support. 

As we stood in Largs waiting  for the ferry the rain battered down and the wind whipped the sea. It was more like winter. The runners and supporters alike questioned the decision but the clouds were breaking in the distance. It’s not often the weather forecast is right but by 1pm the sun was making an appearance. 

It tuned out to be a lovely dry afternoon although the strong wind would prove a problem later on. 

The organisation is pretty slick and there were no problems with changing or registration. 

The race itself starts from Millport post office and goes round the island perimeter road in an anti-clockwise direction. We were told it was a “closed road” start which they said meant that it was a gun start and a chipped finish. Not so good for those further back in the start line and meant that people were tempted to get near the front of the pack, although Russell would have been OK if he had been running ! The race limit was 500 runners but looking at the results only 349 finished. Maybe the organisers need to be a bit more lenient about their approach to transferring entries. After all, if the intention is to boost visitors to the island it seems a shame that 150 places went begging on a race that was supposed to be full. Of course maybe people just looked at Sunday morning’s weather and decided to give it a miss. 

To the race itself, the course is pretty flat all the way round. There was a nice tail wind for the first few km then the benefit seemed to drop. We went round past the ferry slipway which was just short of halfway. The turn after this brought us directly into a headwind. Everyone’s splits dropped and was a case of managing effort against pace.  There were a few “undulations” but nothing like the hills at our other favourite 10-miler at Brampton.

Past the café at Fintry bay, a small climb and finally we were turning out of the wind with a couple of km to go. There’s one last short climb then a nice downhill to the harbour. It was great to hear the Harriers supporters at this point “encouraging” us down the hill (Frances Ferguson really needs to go on anger management courses) . One last turn then a few hundred wind-assisted meters along the sea front to the finish.

Results for Harriers and friends are below.

Robert Dewar was first Harrier home which was no mean feat given his crippling back problems in recent month’s.

PBs for Julie Thompson (by 1 minute 30) and Tarlochan.

On the other side Jason did well just to finish as he succumbed to the bug that was working its way around his family.

Also good to see David Searil back racing after some time out injured. He got a guard of honour at the finish so that we could all show our appreciation !

Early chat is that quite a few are interested in giving this another go next year. Whether its a weekend away or a day trip it was a really enjoyable event.

Robert Dewar 1:09:33 Cat Pos 18

Stephen Phimister 1:10:16 Cat Pos 7

Karen Allen 1:14:12 Cat Pos 4

Jim Mearns 1:17:05 Cat Pos 16

Julie Thomson 1:18:40  Cat Pos 9

Jim Holmes 1:19:19 Cat Pos 20

Gordon McInally 1:19:53 Cat Pos 23

Jason Grant 1:24:52 Cat Pos 45

Billy Buchanan 1:19:17 Cat Pos 7

Tarlochan Mothada 1:31:13 Cat Pos 39

David Searil 1:42:00 Cat Pos 22

Well done also to Marion with a 1:17:39 and 2nd FV60. Also good to see Richard Stark who paced some friends around (and was going home to do another 10 miles).

Stephen P