Edinburgh AC had a fantastic day out at the National 4K Cross Country Championships held in Bellahouston Park on Sunday 31st January. On a chilly, though stunningly sunny January day we were triumphant with Womens Team Gold, Womens Individual Silver & Mens Team Silver medals, with great performances from everyone involved.
With a solid bank of training under my belt I have been running well, but had yet to achieve a result to reflect this in the current cross country season, so went into the Bellahouston Race (short, flat, fast – not what I would normally describe as my strengths) without significant expectations. This relaxation gave way to competitive instinct once the womens race got underway. After the usual scramble for advantage in the first 500m we all settled down into a steady rhythm, with very little to choose between the front runners for the first lap of the two lap race. Feeling strong, I moved from 6th to 5th place just before passing the start line and concentrated hard on consolidating my position.
Along the starting straight I realised that I could improve my position & started to track down 
the opposition who were starting to come back towards me. Turning into the wind at the far end of the course I zipped past Hester Dix with little resistance to come onto the shoulder of Rosie Smith. Together we soon overhauled a tired looking Sarah Inglis. At this point I realised that a medal was there for the taking and that I decided to just go for it and give it everything, so started to put on a little extra speed. With around 400m to go I found another gear, felt Rosie drop back and even noticed that the leader, Elspeth Curran was starting to look closer.
The feeling of going hard for the line with so many good runners behind me was fantastic and crossing the line was even more amazing. Watching the others finishing & congratulating each other I realised what I’d done & briefly reduced myself to tears! Arriving back in the Sports Centre after our cooldown to find we’d got the Team Gold (& the guys Silver) was just the icing on the cake. I just love it when everything comes together. It really is just such a fantastic high.
Brilliant teamworking & a really enjoyable day out. Thanks to everyone for their support & participation
Womens Team
2 Jennifer MacLean 13:32
6 Sarah Hood 14:04
11 Niamh Devlin 14:31
13 Issy Menzies 14:39
for Gold with 19 points (3 to count) ahead of Kilbarchans 22
Mens Team
10 Matt Bell 12:00
15 Andrew Crichton 12:13
24 Adam Priestley 12:38
26 Ryan O’Hare 12:42
for Team Silver behind Shettleston, and beating Ron Hill Cambuslang by 2 points.
A great run by Andrew Crichton taking the Junior Bronze medal.
Other EAC results
Callum Reid 12.54
Tom Ryan 13.14
Kevin Graham 13.28
Dan Hale 14.00
Dan Clarkson 14.02
Alex MacEwen 16.31
Full Results at:
http://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/index.php?p=80&itemType=fixtures&itemId=11635
Brilliant well done Jenny and the rest of the guys and girls!
Last year adam was in a bronze medal winning team with juan, neil calder ( recovering from injury) and Ian Whittaker ( currently injured ). Adam comments
“I was checking through my previous 4K XC times and my performance of 12.38 is a massive PB (previously 13.21 at prestonpans this year). Clearly all XC courses are different, and underfoot conditions on the same course differ year to year, but I am still very encouraged by that. My previous best time at Bellahouston was 13.59 (in 2008) so I think even with the favourable underfoot conditions on Saturday an improvement of 1min 21 seconds represents an overall improvement!?
yound andrew crichton comments
“We had a good day yesterday I really enjoyed it, ”
From memory the women won a team medal last year too with Freya(1) , niamh( 6) and Jenny( 8) making the counters.
Well done and congratulations to all the medal winners. Also good performances from those who didn’t quite make the counting positions.
Guys, I found some photo’s on the internet, there’s a good one of Malcolm and Adam. Here’s the link…
http://chrisupson.blogspot.com/2010/01/bellahouston-4k-cross-country.html
Thanks for digging those out Dan, there are some great shots in there. Did anyone else notice the distinct difference in posture & running form between the leaders & everyone else? If you’re a sloucher with rounded shoulders & no core strength take note – it does make a real difference!