Crieff 10k, 10 July

The Crieff 10k is a highlight of the club season, and this year was no exception. We had nearly 300 runners, including some of Scotland's finest, a man dressed as a grouse, and Rhian's Dad coming all the way from South Wales just to run in our race (seeing his daughter was incidental, of course). Could you imagine a better way to spend a Saturday?

In amongst all the huge efforts that go into organising and catering the event, it's almost possible to overlook the results, but for those interested, the men's race was run by Prasad Prasad, one of Scotland’s finest hill runners, in a very fast time of 33:37, just 5 seconds outside the course record, and therefore saving us having to pay out extra prize money for breaking the record. First woman home was Edel Mooney in 39:05. First local man was Patrick O’Kane, still running as an HBT runner, and Angela was first local woman, in a time of 44:02.

For the first time, a Juniors race was run, over a distance of 1 mile. This was won by Dominic in an outstanding time of 5:45, followed by Matthew in 5:59, with Matthew’s younger brother James finishing 3rd (and 1st in the under-11s race) in 6:29. Daniel du Pon and Andrew McInnes were second and third in the under-11s race. First under-13 girl was Abigail, and first under-11 (and second girl overall) was Catriona Roberts, I find these times from the juniors a bit disturbing - under 6 minutes for a 13-year-old is some going!

As always, massive thanks to everyone who helps with the organisation of the event, from AliB as Race Director to the kids who helped served the juice and tea at the end. Gordon was his usual unflustered self with the results, despite a bit of glitch with some of the times coming n from the finish - it all came good in the end. And thanks to The Famous Grouse Experience for their very generous sponsorship, and their contributions to the goodie-bags for all runners, and thanks to Rob for organising the Comrie Pipe Band who sent the runners on their way at the start and met them home at the finish.

And then we went for a curry, which was nice.