Disappointing turn-out this year saw 10 men completing all 5 events in the allotted time. No females did all five but Margaret Forrest did complete two. The top three men consisted of Neil Burnett 3rd in a total-and-much-manipulated-time of 2:29:12; Graham Nash 2nd in 2:20:41 and the overall winner, Steven Fallon, in 2:17:11. Steven managed to displace the two previous winners by superb running; his age (52 as opposed to the other two at 46); and the fact that he did a 5:58 for the doonhill. The doonhill time being magnified by a factor of 6 in the so-called “results process”.
There were 5 juniors taking part and these were Andrew and Rachel Nash (maintaining their 100% turn-out for this event ever since its first year) and Rosie, Ronnie and Solly Jones. Fantastic effort by these five soon-to-be club champions. The distances and resulting times differed so much that no overall winner was declared and all five will receive prizes.
I would like to see changes for next year: I think that all five runs need to be very simple so that prospective competitors don’t feel stressed about what they should do and where they should go. The events will still be tough but very simple. A quick glance at a map should suffice in my opinion. I’d like to see a recognised junior course as well as a good bit harder senior course. I’d also like to see cycling introduced. That said the course designers over the years have been brilliant and the whole idea would have stalled many years ago without their brilliant support and enthusiasm. Many thanks therefore to the captains, Iain and Helen, Graham Nash, James Hardie and Matt Davies. Good on yer.
Many thanks to all those who took part in the week…. Hope you enjoyed the hard training and the resulting beer…
Bob Johnson