Edinburgh Athletic Club

Many of you may remember Darryl helping us to league titles and district medals a few years ago. You may be interested in a quick update on what Darryl is up to these days. He is still running very well as can be seen from the following write up from the Surrey Vet cross country championship:

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The forecast was wet, VERY wet. It was also wild, VERY wild – so, the ideal day to get runners from all over Scotland to converge on Cumbernauld to run around a muddy park then…

The conditions (coupled with non-existent signposting & closed access roads) made for a slightly more stressful than normal journey through and we certainly arrived at the course later than intended. Still, on a day like that, half an hour less standing around on an exposed field was probably no big hardship! The 4K lap is pretty classic cross country stuff – all on grass (what was left of it), with plenty of loops and undulations to break up your rhythm and make sure you concentrate hard all the way round.

Arrival at the course revealed that it was (unsuprisingly) very, very wet and muddy, with the area around the start/finish being a particularly attractive example of a mudbath. Despite the conditions, most people were suprisingly cheerful – one little lad of around 6, dressed in full waterproofs & wellies was having a lovely time stomping part way up a hill then sliding back down on whatever part of his body he fell on. It looked really good fun, I was sorry I didn’t have the time or the gear (or even my own car to be able to cover with mud afterwards) to try it for myself!

The ladies teams eventually found each other (and the welcome changing tent), pinned on numbers and started the serious business of warming up (or was that just trying to keep warm & not get blown away?)…

All too soon the starting hooter went and the first runners were away to fight their way around the course. Sue Ridley had a great first leg for the A team, handing over to me in a close 4th place. A back in-form Morag MacLarty had blown the entire competition away, to hand over the Central baton well over a minute ahead of everyone else – a huge lead which was gradually increased over the remaining two legs.

Having run a hard marathon 3 weeks ago, it was a long time since I’d done any ‘fast’ running, so I was unsure of how much speed was in my legs (especially after a full, soggy Meadows session on Bruntsfield Links on Thursday night), so my race plan was to go off steady and see how I felt. The competitive instinct soon kicked in to chase down the two runners ahead of me though, before I settled down to battle the elements (strong winds, occasional stingy rain, copious slippy mud and plenty of sections where your feet were liable to disappear who knows how deep into standing water), try to concentrate & stay on my feet. The Junior Elspeth Curran from Kilbarchan appeared at my shoulder half way round and did go ahead for a brief time, although it wasn’t a decisive move, so I tucked in behind to conserve energy & wait for my opportunity. Which came on one of the steeper downhill sections – I let go, let gravity take over and windmilled, whooping down the hill, whilst she more cautiously hung back. I wasn’t going to let that lead go in a hurry and even managed to pull out something resembling a sprint finish to hand over to Hayley Ovens in 2nd place for the final leg.

Despite a brave effort and an exciting 3-way sprint for 3rd place, we eventually finished out of the medals in 5th place – a really good team effort. Our ladies B team (Karen Dobbie, Lianne Logan & Joanne Thom) all had good runs to finish in 18th place with smiles all round.

By this point the rain was getting worse, we were wet, we were cold, we were VERY muddy, so – sorry guys (especially as so many of you were shouting encouragement around the course during our race), but we weren’t hanging around and just legged it back to waiting cars to whizz (as quickly as fast deteriorating conditions would allow) back to Edinburgh & awaiting hot showers!

Overall, the club had some decent results – 4th in the Young Females, 7th in the Young Males and 10th in the Senior Mens. Central were the in form club on the day, winning both Senior races and only being beaten to the Young Female title by an excellent Dundee Hawkhill team. I have to say a huge ‘THANK YOU’ to all the officials and supporters who stood around for hours in horrible conditions to make sure everything ran smoothly and still managed to stay smiling throughout. I also have to comment that we’re all stark, staring mad! But it is fun… in a kind of masochistic way – very satisfying once it’s all over.

See you soon on a field somewhere???

The latest EAC cross country results after the Scottish Relay’s can be found at:

eac-cross-country-results3

Best Team Results at Cumbernauld were: Young Females 4th, Senior Females 5th, Young Males 7th, Senior Males 10th 

Full official results at:

http://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/index.php?p=80&itemType=fixtures&itemId=7415

Latest Results at : eac-cross-country-results

 

For those of you who have read the September Endurance News Letter, you will be aware that this year there will be a club cross-country championship, where points will be awarded to the first six finishers in the three East District League races, East District Championship and National Championship, to establish the Edinburgh AC Club Cross Country Champion.

 

I have now put together a spreadsheet which will record the times of all EAC athletes at all cross country events this seasons, it will also keep track of the Club Championship.

 

This also led me to think that since the vast majority of us will never quite make the counting positions in the championship events, it might be a bit of fun to also record a more informal ‘Cross Country Grand Prix’, for all of our runners at all cross country events this year.

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Over the last couple of weeks a lot of new photos have been added to the site.  If any athlete wants their photo removed for whatever reason contact the site admin by choosing ‘website comments’ from the ‘Send to’ drop-down list on the contact form.

Photos of the Livingston race are here.

Once again thanks to Garry Robertson for the photos.

Congratulations to Freya Murray (Chester-Le-Street / Edinburgh AC.), following a brilliant run in the English Road Running Association (ERRA) National Road Relays (women’s four stage) in Birmingham last Saturday (18th October), has been named in the Norwich Union Great Britain and Northern Ireland team for the Chiba International Ekiden Relay in Japan on 24th November.(Scottish Athletics)

Livingston 18th October

Some of the notable performances from Edinburgh AC  athletes were:
U/11 Boys J. Kerr 1st
U/13 Boys J.Kerr 1st, G.Burns 4th.
U/15 Boys J.Wightman 3rd
U/17 Men A.Crichton 2nd, B.Smith 5th.
Senior Men O.Bristow 3rd
U/13 Girls A.Hunter 1st
U/15-17 Girls R.Dunn 6th, L.Goodson 7th.
Senior Women S.Hood 7th.

East District Cross Country League Livingston 18th Oct 2008
Senior Men/Vetran Men	1st  (V 1st)		Senior Women	5th
Owen Bristow	30.25		Sarah Hood	25.35
Adam Priestley	31.10		Joanne Thom	27.08
Ryan O’Hare	31.14		Lianne Logan	27.33
Roger Alsop V	31.16		Vicky Lomax	28.15
Keith Lyall V	32.45		Debra Murray	28.36
Owen Flage	32.50		Sharyn Ramage	30.04
Steve Wales	33.02		J Law	32.33
Garry Robertson V	33.59		A Little	33.25
Bill Rubie	35.00
Nigel Munro V	36.23		Under 17 Women	1st
John Graham	36.29		Laura Goodson	17.11
Scott Innes V	37.05		Samantha Blair	18.11
Brian Howie V	39.46		Claire Florence	18.38
Willie Gallagher V	40.17
Eric Stevenson V	41.10		Under 15 Girls	1st
Willie McCaskey V	41.21		Rachael Dunn	17.03
Scott Reed	43.22		Olivia O’Hare	17.20
			Olivia McKenzie	17.36
Under 17 Men	1st		Blair Wood	18.21
Andrew Crichton	21.38		Laura Robertson	19.29
B Smith	23.04
Fraser Mann	23.58		Under 13 Girls	1st
N Mair	24.46		Alexandra Hunter	10.45
Marc Robson	24.51		Anna Hyde	11.32
E Dudgeon	25.09		Emily Strathdee	11.39
P Logan	25.57		Hannah Cameron	12.06
			R Wilson	12.37
Under 15 Boys	3rd		C Prentice	12.59
Jake Wightman	15.13		J Prentice	13.02
Peter Cameron	16.17		G Lowden	13.07
Sam Wightman	16.47
M Grunday	17.05		Under 11 Girls
D Arnot	17.48		H Logan	8.25
Under 13 Boys	1st		Under 11 Boys	2nd
Jake Kerr	9.44		J Kerr	5.42
G Burns	10.09		C McLennan	6.50
Jack Harrison	10.14		J Louden	7.36
Dominic O’Hare	10.45
Michael Cameron	10.49
David Reed	12.17
?	12.49
?	13.15
?	20.51

Full results can be found on the East District league page:
http://www.eastleague.freeserve.co.uk/results/200809/1st.htm

 

 

 

 
Congratulations to Lynsey Sharp on winning Scotland’s first medal in the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India.

1st Semenya Mokgadl Caster (RSA) 2:04.23 GR
2nd Rachel Stringer  (ENG) 2:05.71
3rd Lynsey Sharp  (SCO)  2:06.77

 

 

Chris O’Hare finished 8th in the 1500m Final with a time of 3:53.89

In the 800m Lynsey Sharp qualified for the next round by winning her heat in a time of 2:12.38