Tuesday 8 May 2012

Balmoral 10k, April 28

A Monday-run inspired trip saw a bunch of us taking part in a big 10k round the royal grounds of Balmoral Castle. The 10k is part of a big weekend running festival, with races for primary and secondary school children, a 5k and the 10k on Saturday, and a big multi-terrain race on the Sunday. There's lots of sponsorship from oil companies, and the whole event attracts thousands of runners. The weather was chilly, but the rain/snow held off, and race conditions were pretty good.

The race is described as 'The race with the hill',  on account of a severe hill from 3.5k up to about the 5k mark. The first k of the hill is quite steep, so it's not a course for really fast times (although no-one seemed to tell the winner that). The flip-side of the ascent is the descents down the other side, which were nice and fast and good fun.

The start was a bit chaotic, with the timing banners being poorly organised and placed, so starting near the front, as John and I did, was a distinct advantage. Starting in the middle or towards the back did seem to entail lots of shuffling and jostling for some way. By contrast, the closing kilometre was great - lots of noisy support, particularly from the hundreds of children.

Results were:
Winner of the men's race: Andrew Douglas, 31.33
Winner of the women's race: Carolynn Milne, 40.22

1st Harrier: me, in 41.53 (3rd SuperVet, so I should have got a prize...)
2nd Harrier, John Davidson, in 43.43
3rd Harrier, Shirley, in 54.00
4th Harrier, Fi, in 54.26
5th Harrier, Julia, in 57.34
6th Harrier, Seonaid, in 59.57
7th Harrier, Edward, in 1.02.23
8th Harrier, Fiona D, in 1.03.01
9th Harrier, Elaine D, in 1.04.15

And a good time was had by all.

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