Ayrshire XC Relay 20/10/12

     Thanks to my wonderful employers for the 8 hour warm up before this one!!...Legs felt awful jogging round the course when i arrived but eased off a bit by the time the race started.With so many guys from the club injured or ill we had no chance of winning this year but had a wee chance of a medal.Stevie Stirrat had a fine run on the opening leg to finish 6th ,i ran the 2nd this year,didnt feel great but had an ok run getting us up to 3rd.Havnt seen results so don't know how times compared to others.Colin Miller 3rd leg and Mark Livingston 4th,held onto 3rd place with Mark running 30 seconds faster than last year....All in all not a bad result.

Aviemore 10k 14/10/12

Yes,bit of race form at last!.....having injured my foot the previous weekend while doing a 10 miler i was forced to take 6 days off training and didnt think i would be able to run this race up until the Friday night.Thankfully the heel responded to a lot of stretching,ice and rest and was no problem come the race day. We arrived on Saturday 2 hours before the Family Fun Run Mile race.Lesley ,james and i all ran it although it was harder work than i had imagined due to James hitting the Wall after half a mile and me having to run the rest of the way with him on my shoulders!Great fun though! So the next morning,buses took the runners from the Aviemore Highland Resort out to the start of the 10k in Glenmore and the Half marathon at Badaguish.With nearly 500 in the 10k and 1000 in the Half the place was mobbed at 8 o'clock in the morning.Got a really good warm up for an hour up at Glenmore which was needed just to keep warm!It was freezing but no wind at all so ideal for racing. So,at 10 o'clock we set of back down the Ski rd to Aviemore with Grant Wilkie of Costorphine taking the lead from the off.I managed to catch him early on and hung on to what was a decent pace.A few times i ended up at the front but Wilkie started to get a slight gap again heading down towards the town.When we turned to run past the Old Bridge Inn i had closed the gap and was on his shoulder.So entering the field at the finish i managed to muster a bit of a sprint to win by 2 seconds in 32.50,which is my best time since the ormidale 10k in 2006! Well chuffed with my run and best of all no aches or pains injury wise.Great weekend,will try and make it up for the Half marathon next year...

George Cummings Road Relay 29/09/12

Now when Football match reports talk about a team being "decimated by injuries " i know what they mean!With Davy going to miss the first few relays due to his recent illness ,Alex out with his foot injury and then George and Jamie both injuring their calves in the run up to this race,it was down to myself ,Pat,Mark and new recruit Stevie to put in a decent showing.....

Pat found it hard going on leg 1,finishing 38th in 15.57.I ran leg and felt heavy legged but strong bringing us through to 16th in 14.14. Steve had a fine run on leg 3 clocking 15.54 handing over to Mark ,who had a solid run in 16.01 to keep us in 16th place...all in all it was as good as we could expect on the day.The B team all had solid runs with Jim White making a welcome return on the last leg.Looks like theres only a few from Irvine going to the McAndrews on Sat....Next up for me the Aviemore 10k next week then the Ayrshire xc relay

Around Cumbrae 10.25 mile Race 09/09/12

A total slog! Been going over this race since yesterday trying to pinpoint exactly what the problem was .Had a cold during the week leading up to sunday but,to be honest ,it was just one of those days and there was nothing in the legs after 4 miles.First mile in 5.10 felt ok but i was already feeling that i was overheating and was looking forward to running into the wind on the other side of the island...Not a good sign! Was sitting 4th till about 7 miles when a pack of 3 runners overtook me.The wind was pretty strong by this point and i should have been able to tuck in for a bit but felt really heavy legged and tired.It was just a case of getting to the finish from there on in.Miles 8 and 9 were really tough into the wind before a bit of relief on the last mile when the wind was behind.Finishing time was 58.44...a minute 20 slower than last year.George Irving was 15th in 61.38 and felt it tough going as well.Jim Sneddon was 31st in 69.09 just shading John Surgenor who was 35th in 69.30 .George,Jim and i won the Ayrshire 10 mile Championship team prize which was incorporated into the open race.I was 2nd in the Ayrshire Champs behind Steven Reid of Ayr Seaforth and 1st vet. All in all a bad day at the office after training had been going so well the last few weeks.Nothing else for it but to keep pushing the training and wait for some form to kick in!

Marymass 10k 26/08/12

 

Good run,still very one paced but felt a lot better than Dundonald.The status of West District 10k did nt attract a big turnout for this one.Pity cos its a pretty fast course and unlike years gone by is now acurate.Ran most of the race myself with Jamie Finlay not far behind.Jamie had the misfortune of slipping  on the path about 4k and did well to pick himself up and finish 5th.In a reverse of position from last year i finished in front of Jamie this year in 4th clocking 34.41. Together with Gordon and Jim Sneddon we got the team prize.Managed to pick up a bronze medal for 3rd vet in the West District Champs as well.All in all its heading in the right direction with the relays only a month away..

Dundonald 10K 01/08/12

Tired.....only way to describe this one.Been back training everyday for about 6 weeks and still finding it a struggle .Strength is good but no speedwork yet .Knew when i was warming up that it was going to be tough and legs were still a bit sore from the 13 miler on sunday with Geo,Alex and Scott...not a good sign.Anyway got a steady start but by the first hill was detached from the leaders and knew i'd have to grind this one out.Rallied a wee bit at the end but 12 hills on the course took its toll and times were slow,i finished 4th in 36.20.....vets 10k in Glasgow next up

Round Arran Relay 21/07/12



The magnificent 7

Back racing at last!After months of hobbling on with my achillies getting worse and worse i finally went for physio.It turned out to be the best thing i could have done.Within a few weeks the regular stretching,icing,ultrasound and acupunture had the problem under control and it feels great to be running pain free for the first time in ages.Cycling everyday had kept a level of fitness to build on so with a months good training it was time to race again.Been running up some serious hills in Wales and the Lake District over the last 2 weeks so wasnt too worried about doing South 2 at the relay.
So South1 Alex came in 2nd despite being injured and not having raced since the Troon 10k..Alex had a good solid run to finish 2nd by only 4 seconds .
South 2 is a leg i havnt run for about 10 years but   icould remember it being really tough, 5 mins in to this leg i remembered just how tough!.I took the lead from the off knowing there was a few miles climbing from the start and have been feeling good during hill training. Managed to get a wee lead from the Central AC runner in 2nd which i held till about 7 miles after which he sat on my shoulder before getting away as we entered Whiting Bay.All in all a decent return race,everything considered.
South 3 - George in form and race-fit finished 2nd behind another central runner.Big mans going well .
North 1- Jamie running in his 1st race for a while had a battle with Kilmarnocks Ian Connell finishing 3rd to his 2nd with Central Ac again winning this leg.
North 2 -The Bouglie! Pat kinda voluntered to do it and found out just how tough it is finishing 7th.
North 3 -Mark has been going well andhad run this leg 2 years ago.Sadly Mark started felling unwell with a mile to go and collapsed.Thankfully he was ok later and although the team DNF the race the main thing was that he was ok. Jim Sneddon also ran this leg for Killie as we didnt hav enough for another team.Jim had a fine run on the only leg he hadnt run before.

Scottish Masters XC Championship 04/02/12

What a day! Amongst the worst conditions i've raced in (i even kept a hat on the whole race!) with at least one runner getting treatment for hypothermia afterwards but worth it to get my 1st Scottish medal ,bronze for 3rd M40.Felt strong all the way ,was in 5th position until the last lap where i managed to get away from Bog trotters Stevie Cairns.M4o winner and race winner Kerry Wilson finished just in front of Bobby Quinn (who won 1st M45) with 2nd M40 Kenny Richmond finishing 3rd.Knew id done enough to get bronze M40 by time i got to final straight and was pleased to finish 4th ,25 secs behind the overall leader.....i'ts starting to pay off after some serious training.No Davy Millar meant no chance of a team medal for Irvine but Alex Allardyce had a great run to finish 10th (7th M40).

Cross Country Season over for me....great way to finish

Scottish Masters Road Relay 29/01/12

As defending champs we had high hopes going into this race but things never go quite to plan! With David Millar pulling out at the last we were really up against it ,especially with Cambuslang fielding a very strong line up .After a last minute re-jigg Mark Livingstone stepped into the A team just weeks after his 40th birthday. On the first leg for Irvine Alex Allardyce got us off to a great start finishing 4th .Mark had a fine run on leg 2 to finish 5th before handing over to Tony McKnight, who had been nursing injuries in the weeks leading up to the race but still had a great run to keep us in 5th.I had a pretty good run clocking a time of 19.09 which was over a minute quicker than the year before and 6th fastest of the day.Out of the 5 faster than me 4 were 35+ with only one over 40 .Gave me a boost for the Scottish Masters the next week.....