Record turn-out for a Cross Country

Before yesterday's East District XC race at Broxburn the Harriers had never even managed to get a full team of 6 men out for a cross country race. Yesterday we had eight and also Cathy Tilbrook running in the women's race!

The Broxburn course is a loop of about 3km which the women run twice and the men three times. For spectators it is a great course as the runners pass the starting area 4 times during each lap. (See photos)

Cathy's race was first and after setting off at a cracking pace, she settled into a good position ahead of some arch-rivals from her orienteering activities. Although the fast start took its toll on lap 2 she hung in well and finished in an impressive time of 28.10 in 72nd out of 107 finishers.

In the men's race, after the obligatory cavalry charge down the hill followed by some elbowing and jostling as the path narrowed towards the bottom of the hill, the 228 runners settled down into a single file for most of the circuit with only a few open sections where overtaking was easy.

By the end of the first lap Phil M was leading the Harrier team with Ian Beattie and Ben Wake neck-and-neck. Next Harrier was Adrian Wake and then Gordon Morrison not far behind. Then came James Bussey while Doug Flint, worse for wear from his work leaving do on Friday night, was begining to lose his grey-green pallor and taking on a more human appearance and Peter Gaylor was also looking strong at this point.

This was pretty much the Harrier order to the end of the race although Ian pulled away from Ben and Gordon overtook Adrian with half a lap to go. Doug, meanwhile, demonstrated the restorative powers of running by finishing strongly and overhauling James in the later stages.

95. Phil Mestecky 35.49
101. Ian Beattie 35.59
134. Ben Wake 37.32
163. Gordon Morrison 39.16
168. Adrian Wake 39.38
179. Doug Flint 40.30
187. James Bussey 41.02
204. Peter Gaylor 42.16

Full results are now on the East District League site.

Well done to the whole team for turning out and running hard for the club.

Next race is Sunday 25th November at Kirkcaldy when maybe we can get double figures showing up!

P.S. Club Championship Points have now been worked out and can be found here.