Report from Bruce Nine Bellas made the journey out to Gourock for the first running of the Frank Sinclair 10K race on its new route, which promised to be ‘flat and fast’ (don’t they all?). Registration was at the newly opened Gourock outdoor swimming pool, which looks really good. Poor Jane got a fright at the registration desk when she asked, after being handed number 107, if there was only 100 people running. The answer was ‘no – there’s only 21 people entered so far!’…… Not a good sign! They ended up with a total of 46 entrants, and before the start on the promenade runners were asked to remember their race numbers, as the rain was starting and the numbers were likely to disintegrate. The route was actually quite nice, out and back along the coast with a wee loop through the park at Lunderston Bay before heading back and was flat as promised. Some km markers might have been useful though! After running what felt like a really good race I was surprised to see my time at the finish was a bit slower than I was hoping for. All of those with Garmins soon confirmed that they had clocked it at 6.33 miles. Ooops! This mistake was acknowledged by the race organisers afterwards and they reckoned they’ll have it right for next year. The race was won by a country mile by Stephen Trainer of Greenock Glenpark in 32.41, and the Bella results are below, complete with mis-spelt names and thanks to the wonders of excel I have calculated our actual 10k times, just to add to the sense of injustice! I think there’s a few could-have-been-PBs in there: Pos Name Official Time Unofficial actual 10k time! 2 Bruce Carse 35:07 34:27 5 Craig Reid 35:51 35:10 12 Peter Callaghan 38:48 38:03 17 Alistair Maclachlan 39:49 39:03 18 John Gilhooly 40:01 39:15 32 Christopher Doak 44:59 44:07 34 Jane Wild 45:52 1st Lady 44:59 36 Keith Gibb 46:08 45:15 40 June Winter 47:51 46:56 This would have been a pretty good race if it weren’t so low-key, and a bit on the long side. Easily fixed in the future I’m sure. Still, big well done to Jane for winning the ladies race – you do realise this means you HAVE to go back next year to defend your title? Results
Frank Sinclair 10k – Sat, 9 June 2012
Entry is now available for this years race series. The Bella 5K takes place on Sunday August 19th and the Jimmy Irvine Bella 10K takes place on Saturday 10th November 2012. Both races will be in Bellahouston Park. Online entry is available for both races through EntryCentral.com with discounts available when pre entering both events. Both races are kindly sponsored by Achilles Heel. For more details, please see the Events page.
Report from Bruce from race on Sunday, 27 May with further comments from Tomoyo. After having a worried eye on the weather forecast for most of the week beforehand, like most I was dreading running yet another hot marathon. The day got off to a bad start with us leaving the house a little bit later than planned, getting caught in a diversion getting onto the M8, having underestimated how long it took to drive to Edinburgh City Centre and then realising that the ‘London Road’ start was actually quite a long way from the old Regents Road start. Oh dear. So after a panicked warm-up scurry to the baggage truck, flinging on some factor 30 all that remained was to fight my way through the crowds of spectators to the start pen. By that point I didn’t actually care that I had 26.2 miles to run. Victory was mine just for making it to the start line. Once the race started the crowds thinned out quite nicely, and (as usual) I set off too fast at sub-6 minute miling and ended up 3.5 minutes ahead of my target by halfway. I spent the rest of the race waiting for my legs to seize up – but thankfully it never happened and was able to hang on. And luckily the weather never got quite as hot as it looked thanks to a cool sea breeze. My low-tech anti-Garmin device (race pace band printed off the Runner’s World website: http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/pacing/javascriptcalcs3-v2.asp) worked quite well until the latter stages, by which point I’d flung so much water over myself to keep cool that it had turned to a gooey pulp. Oops. It wasn’t like I was paying attention to the plan anyway, so it didn’t really matter. After a seamless hand over of hydration juice and a gel from Nina at the 23 mile point, I was able to relax and soak up the atmosphere as the realisation that I was going to beat the 2:45 target sunk in. All that remained was a quick dash up the finish straight for 7 minute PB, encouraged along by a big shout-out from our own race commentator Bryan and the impressive crowd. The nice weather brought out a decent crowd of spectators on a pretty inaccessible route for spectators – special thanks to Gerry, Louise and Mrs (Geordie Jim’s wife) Robinson for the shouts of support, they were much appreciated. So all in all, a great day out! Here are the results I could find on the EMF site before it crashed, I’m sure I saw more Bellas than this though: Pos Gun Chip Name Category 18 2:41:33 2:41:24 Bruce Carse SENM 220 3:07:28 3:07:10 Neil McEwan SENM 236 3:08:31 3:08:12 Jim Robinson V50M* 307 3:11:53 3:11:35 Robert McEwan V55M** 1220 3:38:07 3:35:02 Tomoyo Fujiwara V35W 2132 ? 3:51:46 Lucy Mackay 2907 ? 4:02:29 Sarah Gillies * PB, 5th in MV50 category and all important London Good-for-age place ** 7th in MV55 category Race report […]
Report from Suzanne on the Brathay Windermere marathon. On Sunday 20 May I ran the Brathay Windermere Marathon. It starts just outside Ambleside in the Lake District, and the route takes you round Lake Windermere via Hawkshead and Newby Bridge. This is not a fast course, in fact I was stuggling to find any flat sections. The first half is on closed ‘B’ roads and the second half takes you up towards Windermere on the A952/A591 which does get a little busy with traffic, but the drivers were careful. Most of the course is ‘hilly undulating’ interspersed with some bigger hills between, 1-3 miles, 7-8 miles, 13-17 miles and a ‘mountain’ at 22 miles. The ‘mountain’ has a viewpoint and an ice-cream van at the top should you wish your efforts to be rewarded with a double nougat or a 99 cone. Despite the hills the course is beautiful and there is great support all the way round – helped by the glorious sunshine we had. If you enjoy a challenge and taking part in a beautiful hilly marathon, with a good local atmosphere then this is for you. If you are chasing a PB then probably best to avoid. There was about 800 participants. http://www.brathaywindermeremarathon.org.uk/ First woman: Nicola Shaw at 3:15:46 First man: Mike Jeffries 2:45:30 (Swaledale Road Runners) First and only Bella – me at 4:06:32!
Report from Matt of the 55 mile Cateran trail race on Saturday, 19 May. So the Cateran Trail race was really my first serious race this year. Having had a decent season last year, my body final said enough is enough at the end of September last year and I picked up a bit of an injury ( a pain in the butt- to use the technical term). A wee lesson learnt on the number of ultra races it is wise to do in a year! This frustratingly lasted a number of months and I only managed to start training in earnest about Feb/March.. Having looked at the racing calendar the Cateran was the main race that caught my eye, but by time I was on the mend the race was full. I contacted the organiser who put me the waiting list, in the mean time I trained assuming i’d be racing. A few weeks later I was in! The race is a 55m loop starting and finishing in Glenshee, it’s a waymarked course taking in 7450ft of ascent. Terrain varies between road, farm track, single track, muddy fields, bog- oh and some of the highest stiles I have ever seen! I had never set foot on the course before Saturday, which many of the other racers found odd, but for me part of what I enjoy about a race like that is running somewhere new and not knowing what is around the corner. It’s all part of the adventure. Another part of the adventure was the fact that entering late meant there was no room at the inn (or hotel) where most others were staying. Thankfully they had a suitable square of grass outside for me to pitch my tent- ( a tree outside even had a plug in it to let me charge my phone- luxury to me). On the morning of the race conditions were pretty much perfect, nice and cool, dry and not too windy. After a quick race briefing warning us about the potentially aggressive cattle on the course we set off. The first few miles took us over some farm tracks and some pretty muddy, sh***y fields and I thought “yeeh ha this is a proper trail race” A few of the ultras i have done have had a bit too much road for my liking. At this stage I was just running steadily along with a few others wondering who the guy was way out on front. I wasn’t too concerned though as in a race like this, as far as i’m concerned the race doesn’t really begin until about 30m. Our first check point came close to a nice pad by the name of Dalnagair Castle before a road section took us onto a more agreeable off road trail towards Loch Shandra. I chatted to a few other runners and enjoyed the Perthshire countryside until we hit out next check point at 15m (still not an angry bull in sight). At the check […]
OK the pain is starting to fade so I suppose it would be rude not to rustle up a little race report from last weeks 53mile Highland Fling race. I’ve been struggling to put this race into words but fellow Bella Chris Brotherston once told me the best way to write a race report is to pour yourself a glass of red wine and stick on some Elbow in the background. however it is 9 o’clock in the morning on a bank holiday monday so I am going with a bowl of muesli and Radio 4 as an alternative. So the race: The fling always seems to be ran in amazing weather and despite the rest of the country being drowned in rain conditions in Milngavie for the start of the race were perfect- sunny and cool and aside from the runners, not much wind. Davie, Brendon and Tommy had kindly offered to join Elsie on support duties. They dropped me at Milngavie for registration and headed off to plan how many cake shops they could visit on route to Tyndrum. After a one line briefing from the race director we were off. The first section to Drymen is fairly flat and uneventful, these early miles flew by and before I knew it I was in Drymen to see the happy faces of the support crew. Brendon had them drilled like a well oiled F1 pit crew, water and unwrapped clif bars were thrust into my hand without me having to break my stride. As I left Drymen a fellow runner mournfully looked back at them and commented “my crew haven’t turned up today” I was about to feel sorry for him and offer him a bar when he sped off into the distance and I didn’t see him again. The next big obstacle in the race is Conic hill, given that I faceplanted 3 times coming of Conic Hill in a hill race a few weeks ago I was a bit nervous coming down in road shoes. However this time I stayed on my feet and made it down to the 20mile checkpoint at Balmaha in one piece. Here more food and water was thrust in my hand and I set of for Rowardennan. I had been keeping up a decent pace till this point however my stomach was starting to gurgle a bit and I had to slow the pace a bit over the next section to avoid a bottom explosion. Unfortunately on the descent into Rowardennan a runner had fallen and broken an arm, Davie Weatherhead had sprung into action and was diverting runners around the fallen runner while she was attended to. I continued on and pushed through the checkpoint grabbing some food from Elsie and Tommy without stopping. There is some lovely hilly but runnable forest track coming out of Rowardenan I tried to keep the pace up here knowing the dreaded rough section out of Inversnaid was still to come. The checkpoint at Inversnaid is […]
Beautiful spring weather welcomed 500 runners to Fort William for the Lochaber Marathon on Sunday, 15 April. An out and back course along the shore of Loch Linhe was the challenge and 6 runners from Bellahouston Roadruners were up for it. The course is fairly flat, undulating in places. Basically you run towards Corpach and continue on until you reach 13 miles, then turn round and run back. The snow capped mountains give a scenic backdrop and the fact there are only 500 runners and few cars means you get a clear run. Although there is a sneaky wee steep hill in the last mile. Bellahouston highlights included PBs for Greg Glendinning ( 2.41 and 1st MV40) and 2.59 for Nea Macinnes. Thanks to Danielle, Brendan, Susie and Peter for their excellent support around the course. Bellahouston Times Greg Glendinning 3.41 Nea Macinnes 2.59 John Gilhooley 3.09 Frans Roelefse 3.14 Tomoyo Fujiwara 3.33 David Boyle 3.39 Full results Above report from David And some additional reporting… from Tomoyo I enjoyed running this race, beautiful view and plenty of water station there. It was my 19th marathon and I had my first experience “I took a wrong turn” at 25 miles, as I did not see any runners in front of me. However the guy who was running behind me (actually he was walking when I passed), he shouted and rescued me!!! I wonder if this guy ignored me….am I still running now?? Lucky me, I guess! I will try hard again at the Edinburgh marathon next month to get sub 3:30!!! Thank you for all your support. And more from Nea ….. Phew, that was close! Ran 2:59:46, new PB by 10 mins. Perfect running weather on lovely flat course, until the last mile when little hills come out of nowhere and feel as if you are climbing Ben Nevis itself! I thought I had 90secs to spare and cruise to the finish until Brendan started running beside me in the last mile screaming at me and looking worriedly at the stop watch on his iphone. My garmin was showing that the finish must be round the corner, but alas it was round the corner, up the hill, round another corner and then the final straight (0.25miles longer than I thought!). In the final straight just as the legs wanted to fall off I had Brendan screaming behind me and Peter screaming in front of me – there was NO way I was not going to finish under 3 hrs!! Great support from Danielle, Suzie and the Sadistic Duo – Brendan & Peter! I know I could not have done it with out your support – BRILLIANT!!!! Well done to all Bella’s on the day and Greg getting 1st V40!
While everyone else was off running Lochaber or tapering for London a crowd of us ran the Balloch to Clydebank half marathon on Sunday, 15 April. The conditions were perfect with sunshine, cool temperatures and no wind, so there were quite a few PBs bagged. I think Chris Bell might be able to claim the biggest PB, knocking an impressive 10+ mins off his previous time! Debs Gray won 2nd Female, Rebecca was 3rd female, the ladies won 2nd team prize (although that might have been upgraded as they hadn’t counted it right….) and I scraped a prize for 5th male. Bella results below, full results attached. Position Race No Competitor Name Gender Category Cat Pos Finish Time Chip Time 6 272 Bruce Carse Male SNR 5 01:16:22 01:16:22 24 337 Tommy Oconnell Male SNR 14 01:22:45 01:22:45 38 338 Deborah Gray Female VET40 2 01:25:50 01:25:46 44 402 Jim Robinson Male VET50 4 01:26:07 01:26:05 48 195 Rebecca Johnson Female VET40 3 01:26:33 01:26:32 50 404 Robert Mcewan Male VET50 6 01:27:33 01:27:31 51 405 Neil Mcewan Male SNR 27 01:27:33 01:27:32 68 183 Chris Bell Male SNR 32 01:30:18 01:30:09 97 410 Grant Edmondson Male VET40 30 01:34:27 01:34:16 102 417 Tom Mcmillan Male VET50 13 01:35:08 01:35:02 110 285 Alex Lawther Male SNR 53 01:36:09 01:36:02 129 333 Norman Coyle Male VET50 14 01:38:34 01:38:25 131 373 Jane Wild Female VET40 8 01:38:47 01:38:38 173 140 John Sandbach Male VET40 46 01:42:29 01:42:10 184 346 David Lafferty Male SNR 78 01:43:24 01:43:18 217 305 Jane Galt Female SNR 24 01:46:54 01:46:45 221 242 Louise Gray Female VET40 19 01:48:01 01:47:53 Report from Bruce
Six Bella’s headed to Livingston on Saturday, 31 March, for the Scottish Road Relay championships. This is the most important of the road relay events in the running calendar and so it is important for our club to be taking part. Conditions although overcast at first turned into an afternoon of fine weather and excellent for running. The men’s event comprises 6 stages, 3 runners covering a short loop of approximately 3.2 miles and 3 runners covering a longer loop of 5.8 miles. For this sort of race you need a bit of self motivation as, beyond the first runner, you can be heading out on your own without anyone to keep pace. Our team put in a fine performance. We were 22nd out of 46 finishing teams, covering the course in a total time of 2:36:37 Brian O’Donnell 18:59 Bruce Carse 33:45 Rankin Lawther 20:01 Cieran Dougherty 32:55 Gerard Scullion 18:06 Craig Reid 32:51 It’s interesting to note that, last year our first team finished in a time of 2:34:14, just over 2 mins quicker than this year but finished in 8th position out of 43 teams. Entries from some clubs must have been a lot stronger this year. Results Report from Gerry
This is an off-road sprint distance triathlon, (distances are roughly 400m swim/20k bike/5k run) and is aimed at the novice and not-so-serious triathletes (the tone was set by Frazer the race director at the briefing: ‘anyone caught taking this too seriously will have penalty points added’ and ‘activities such as stretching will be frowned upon!’) It’s a very popular event, and with Saturday already full I turned up on a gorgeous sunny highland Sunday morning to race my first tri of the season. The swim took place in the newly refurbished and swanky Lochaber Leisure Centre, where competitors ranged from very accomplished freestylers to more leisurely breaststrokers; heats were run in lanes (none of the usual rough and tumble of open water swim starts) with a very civilised break between swim and bike. Times duly noted, (I finished 14th, 4mins30 behind the fastest swimmer) we got changed and cycled to the bottom of the Glen Nevis road, ready to set off according to our swim times. It is truly agonising to watch 13 cyclists get a head start on you and disappear off into the distance, but over the 20k mix of tarmac, fire road and single track (including a couple of climbs that had me reaching for the granny ring and one white knuckle descent) I managed to catch a few and by the time we got back to transition I was in 6th place. Using my signature move of overtaking one person who was changing her shoes, (I’m not proud of it but it all counts!) I set off back up the Glen, this time on foot. By this time the sun was out and the views were stunning across the Mamores, taking my mind off the akwardness of running straight off the bike. Some ‘interesting’ offroad climbs and a furious forestry descent later, I now found myself in 3rd place with number 2 in sight; with the gentle easterly wind at my back I managed to reel him in slowly and finished in 2nd place, 1st SVet. Congrats to Race leader Martin Steven who won by nearly 5 minutes, and to Saturday’s winner Ewan Thorburn who was over 7 minutes quicker still. Very glad not to have been in that race! Once again, No Fuss conjured up really nice atmosphere, a great course, big medals and bobbly hats. If anyone fancies it, they run another triathlon in September, although it’s slightly more challenging: a 1.9k swim in Loch Lhinne, a 90km offroad bike ride, finishing with a 21k run to the summit of Ben Nevis and back. Details. Go on, you know you want to Report from Hamish
Saturday saw the 1st race in the 2012 Scottish Ultra Marathon Series, the D33 in Aberdeen. The D33 is a friendly, low key, no frills, race described on the website as: “No entry conditions apply, if you think you can then enter and do it. If you get half way and find you can’t, phone registration with your race number, tell them you are a loser and take the bus home. Support, there is none required but if you want your mum to meet you half way with a jam sandwich then thats ok with us.” The course is a flat scenic route along the deeside way path from Duthie park to Banchory and back. It is an easy to follow path and there are plenty of flapjack wielding marshals on route so the perfect ultra for the hungry or navigationaly challenged. 4 Bellas made the trip up for the race. Jane Galt and Jane Wild running in their 1st and hopefully not last ultra posted excellent times of 5hrs47 and 5hrs24 respectively. However the ladies performance of the day came from Rebecca Johnson who set an eye watering early pace and managed to hold on to finish first lady in a course record of 3hrs59. I failed in my intention to treat the race as a training run for the Highland Fling, what with the incredible support on the course I got a bit excited and ran round in 3hrs53 finishing 4th. Hope I’m not too broken for the fling… The race also gets top marks for having Brewdog beers at the finish line and some classy medals “hand branded from wood reclaimed from Hurricane Bawbag”. If you are thinking of dipping your toe into the murky water of Ultras I would highly recommend this race. Do it. Results Report from Grant.
This afternoon saw the first running of a new addition to the Scottish marathon scene, the Meadows Marathon in Edinburgh. The idea of two Edinburgh students to raise funds for charitable causes, there has a been a fun run and a half marathon in previous years. However this year included the 26.2 miles for the first time. Organised by students from the University, the course ran alongside the half marathon, 7 laps of the Meadows park & Bistro Square for the 13.1 milers & 15 laps of the same route for the marathoners. Registration was held at the ‘Potterrow Dome’ in the southside of the city, & was well organised and efficient. At 1225, after a pre-race gentle aerobic workout, the races commenced. My first Scottish marathon was underway. I ran this event as a long training run prior to the Madrid Marathon next month. The 15 laps were easy to follow, with stewards from the Uni giving noisy encouragement to the participants as well as directing the runners. However there was a sting in the tail. The laps in the park were straightforward enough, but the cobblestones up to Bistro Square & back down again, 2 per lap, were a real shock to the system. And painful too. Throughout the course, a real effort was made to add to the atmosphere, with live music in the square, and the Uni blasting out songs from their PA system. Also, loads of encouragement from the crowds of spectators. There was also live music in the park, though the performers did a runner during a hailstorm. 15 laps sounds rather repetitive, but I quite enjoyed it! There was no hidden surprises (apart from the cobblestones) and you knew what to expect in the latter stages. The only other grumble was the distance of the race. 26.87 miles is the longest marathon I’ve ever ran. I was led to believe 26.2 miles was the norm. To be fair, the organisers did say this in an e-mail issued, due to the logistics of the course. I ran the event in 3:34:55/8 minutes per mile, so in summary a good workout. No medal to the finishers. Just a cerificate and an awful ‘goodie bag’ full of leaflets. I would recommend this event. It is excellent preparation for the London or Edinburgh marathons, and its good to run the distance psychologically prior to these events. However, it is essential the organisers sort out the distance aspect. Why not put the finish line in the park? On a lighter note, why not tarmac over those cobblestones? Report from Mark
7 ladies and 16 men from Bella took on the challenge of the longest cross country race on the race calendar – the National XC championships at Falkirk on Saturday, 18 Feb. As ever, this race attracted pretty much all of the best runners in the country, so competition was fierce throughout the pack. The ladies had the pleasure of a snow storm as they lined up for their start, but that was quickly forgotten one they got stuck into all the hills and mud. The race was won by defending champion Freya Murray and the Bella ladies came in 11th team overall out of 28 teams: 68 Romy Beard Bellahouston RR 36:03 70 Claire Wharton Bellahouston RR 36:10 83 Elsie Downham Bellahouston RR 36:53 98 Emma Bryson Bellahouston RR 37:08 101 Ciara Baxter Bellahouston RR 37:18 111 Julia Harris Bellahouston RR 37:51 141 Sarah Gillies Bellahouston RR 39:46 11th Bellahouston RR (319) 68,70,83,98 The men’s race was also won by a defending champion – Derek Hawkins. Bella men’s team managed 9th place overall out of 33 teams: 42 Kieran Docherty Bellahouston RR 43:34 70 Greig Glendinning Bellahouston RR 45:19 96 Russell Whittington Bellahouston RR 46:25 104 Craig Reid Bellahouston RR 46:37 115 Mark Johnston Bellahouston RR 47:02 142 Scott Kennedy Bellahouston RR 48:10 159 Gerard Scullion Bellahouston RR 48:48 165 Bruce Carse Bellahouston RR 49:02 179 Grant MacDonald Bellahouston RR 49:18 205 Thomas O’Connell Bellahouston RR 50:05 291 Gordon Clements Bellahouston RR 53:01 295 Andrew Hardman Bellahouston RR 53:05 305 Barry Edwards Bellahouston RR 53:35 364 John Newlands Bellahouston RR 56:04 393 Alex Lawther Bellahouston RR 57:24 443 Chris Brotherston Bellahouston RR 1:00:37 9th Bellahouston RR (569) 42,70,96,104,115,142 My personal favourite bit was the Trench of Doom(?) at the far end of the golf course, which was not unlike falling into a big hole and trying to scramble out the other side, times three. And to top it all off, our own Bryan Burnett provided the live commentary on the day, displaying his usual shameless bias to cheer on all the Bellas taking part – thanks Bryan! A great day out with some brilliant performances – well done everyone. Results Report from Bruce
Last Saturday saw the 42nd (I think) running of the classic wintry Carnethy 5 hill race over the scalloped Pentland hills south of Edinburgh. The popularity of the event (it fills up online before it opens) didn’t stop a large squad of nimble fingered southside road runners from entering the event. The race was notable for the quality of the field, the placidity of the weather (the week before we were battered off the hill during a recce) but also for the individual achievements. Whether it was Greig Glendinning dipping under an hour for the first time, Gordon Clements’s remarkable first timer bulldozing run, Grant and Elsie Macdonald’s continued excellent form, Barry ‘the jeggin’ Edwards daring to step on a hill, Sandy ‘hill-lover’ Brindley embracing the hills oncemore or David ’funny-man’ Stakes showing his darkhorseness [add to dictionary], the joy of running was all around us. Whether puffing up hills or charging along roads, running form and fitness are fickle and fleeting; it is on days like these with a tingle in your spine, you know truly that your running days are golden… Report from Chris Results
Six Bellas braved the brutal conditions in Kilmarnock to take part in the Scottish National Masters cross country event on Saturday 4 February. First things first, I have run in many cross country events over the years and conditions here were amongst the most challenging I have experienced. Rarely have I heard so many runners on the starting line question why they were taking part and rarely have I seen so many folk shivering so much half an hour after the race in the shelter of St Joseph’s Academy where hot food and drink were available. The soup and hot food were just what was required to provide some warmth. I hope this doesn’t deter folk from taking part in the future as rarely do you get such conditions, witness the following day at the Renfrew Road Race when we had fine spring conditions with the sun emerging for parts of the race. Back to the event itself, we had Julia Harris running in the ladies 6k event. She got around a muddy and slippy course and finished a creditable 19th position out of 58 finishers. We’re sorry that we couldn’t give Julia more support on her way round but the cold, sleet and windy conditions made you only want to take some shelter where you could. Unfortunately we didn’t have a full ladies team this time around so here’s hoping for next year. In the men’s event over 8km, our team was 7th position out of over 50 teams. Greig Glendinning had a fine run finishing in 14th position, with Russell Whittington in 34th, Gerry Scullion in 60th, Robert McEwan in 104th and Ewan McDonald in 167th positions of 178 finishers. Well done to all who took part, all deserve credit for bearing up to the conditions. If nothing else it is character building. What sort of character I am not sure! Results are on the Scottish Athletics website. Report from Gerry