Stornoway Running and Athletics Club

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SRAC Gazette

North District XC League

Inverness - 4th February 2006

At last! After the threat of hurricane force winds and snow storms cancelled previous attempts we finally got the club to a North District XC race.

30 Junior and 3 Senior athletes from Lewis and Harris met at the Calmac ferry terminal together with 7 parents. This included a healthy contingent from south of the border - the Isle of Harris. Coinneach's jogging club is already producing a fine crop of young athletes who are choosing to run in Stornoway Running and Athletic club vests!

After a calm crossing on the "MV Clansman", a combination of Ewan's Coaches and Daley's Deals vehicles transported us over to Inverness. Just as we arrived at the Youth Hostel, another coach drew up in front of us - it turned out to be runners from the North Uist Athletic Club. They had 40 competitors with them - 73 runners from the Outer Hebrides for a mainland race is simply astonishing! A round of applause for the clubs, parents and athletes is surely in order!

While the rest of us found our rooms and sorted our beds, Agnes and Adrienne went into Inverness to buy food for the masses - but by the time they returned North Uist AC had beaten us to the kitchen. Thankfully, they eat as fast as they run and it was soon our turn to slave over hot stoves. Giant Pizza's, garlic bread and some of North Uist's leftover curry managed to satisfy even our hungry hoards.

Despite the hostel having 70 athletic youngsters within its walls, we had a remarkably peaceful evening and night! Adrienne was given a rude awakening when a race ready Rebecca woke her up at 7.30 - well Rebecca's idea of 7.30! It was actually 3.30am - Rebecca had looked at her watch, saw 7.30. got dressed, made her bed and woke Adrienne. Adrienne soon sussed out that Rebecca had looked at her stopwatch and that 7.30 was her last race time not the actual time! The good news was it was back to bed for another four hours!

After a breakfast of cereal, toast and orange juice, we headed for the bus and drove to the Golf Course where the race started. Only trouble was no-one in the Golf Club new anything about the race! Eventually, one of the organisers came and said there was no registration and pointed us in the direction of the start. Somewhere along the way, Gavin decided that a nature ramble would be less strenuous than racing! Taking pictures of a Red Kite and a Pony may not be everybodies idea of a warm up but each to their own!

Just before the start, Coinneach gave the Under 11s a warm-up session, while some of the older girls did their own thing - isn't it wonderful to see all these SRAC vests at a mainland race!

FIrst up were our Under 11 Girls, we had 10 runners in the race! A you can see Catriona Mackay got boxed in at the start but once again showed fine form to finish in fourth place - only 11 seconds behind the winner. Her usual sprint finish was good enough to split the Dunnett twins, who are currently first and second in the series! Rebecca Munro also ran on well to finish in 7th place. Gillian Johnstone and Beth Gilbert managed to stay ahead of the leading North Uist runners, while Christina, Sarah, Shona, Madeline, Sadie and Lorna all gained valuable experience on what was a hilly course.

Next up were our four U11 Boys - Campbell Macdonald sprinted into the lead at the start but this proved to be his downfall - with no marshal to guide him he took a wrong turn and lost his lead. Despite this setback, he stormed back into the race and finished in fourth place - just 10 seconds behing the winner. A mere 9 seconds later Michael Payton came in with a fine 7th place. Jamie Martin and Duncan McKellar also had strong runs to finish within a minute of the winner and leave many others trailing behind them.

Our Under 13 Girls excelled themselves - five SRAC vests out of the first eight places is a magnificent performance by any standard. Jane Maciver ran strongly round the tough hilly course to take second place, Tyler Maclean just pipped Ailis Murray for fourth place. While the clock couldn't separate Holly Maciver and Ceit Stewart in 7th and 8th place. Samantha Martin ran well and, in the inter island battle, finished ahead of four of the Norh Uist contingent.

Olan Speirs, of North Uist, showed the field a clean pair of heals (if truth be told, it was a pretty mucky pair of heals as his course had some pretty muddy sections!). Just half a minute behind, the SRAC contingent were lead home by Robert Jones, with William and Calum Lawson, Calum Robertson and Josh Sinclair in close proximity - five runners in the top twelve shows serious strength in depth! Sean Macleod and Jake Gilbert gained valuable experience at this level and will no doubt benefit from the experience in future races.

Kirsty Munro was our only runner in the Under 15 Girls race. Despite being in against some really strong competition, she ran on very well to finish in 7th place - a fine performance which bodes well for next season.

Calum Smith showed fine form in the Under 15 Boys, he ran on strongly to finish in 6th place. Ruairidh Stewart gave us one of the closest finishes of the day; He thought he had done enough when he sprinted clear of his Moray RR rival with only 100 yards to go. However, when he looked round 10 yards from the line he got a shock to discover that the Moray athlete was about to overtake him again! Ruaraidh showed real grit to put in one last effort to hold on to his lead.

SRAC's Chirsty Macled flew over on the day to take part in the race. She was the series leader before the event and another fine run saw her finish in second place to retain her lead in the overall competition. Doleen Galbraith drove up from the deep south on the day and her excellent run made it two SRAC athletes in the top four!

The final race of the day saw 56 senior men start a 10K race over a hilly and muddy course. Coinneach Morrison and Iain Gilbert had a great SRAC duel - with Coinneach showing that his Lewis and Harris XC series win was no fluke by staying just ahead of Iain. We won't mention the fact that Doleen's husband Jim Galbraith had a good run because he ran for Giffnock as a guest rather than for SRAC like his wife! Gavin Earons was well pleased with his new lifetime best of 30.00 minutes for a 10K - an unbelievable performance for an old man over such a hilly and muddy course. Yeah, totally unbelievable! The course couldn't have been much over 4 miles despite it being billed as a 10K!

The trip can only be labelled as a great success and I am sure that all those who took part will benefit from the experience. Our thirty young athletes competed well, behaved well and were a credit to SRAC and the islands. The fact that North Uist AC took another 40 athletes across to the race is quite amazing - 70 youngsters from the Outer Hebrides! Adrienne and Agnes deserve special mention for the way they quietly and efficiently kept the trip in order. Many thanks to Marsaili, Kayanna, Lesley, Tim and Calum - without such parental support these trips would not be possible.

Is this what CalMac arrange for those who miss the boat?