Penicuik Junior Band were playing at the Scottish Youth Championships in Perth on Saturday and I was needed as a minder. On the same day the East District Cross Country was in Alloa – and Alloa is on the way to Perth, isn’t it? Well it was for me.
Met Dave to get my number and Rachel Campbell who was the entire women’s team; I was the entire men’s team. I had no idea how long the route was but was warned that it was a very hilly and muddy course. It certainly was – ankle-deep mud, steep slopes and sharp turns – and that was before we even left the grounds of the school. Once we got out of the school grounds things improved, if you like lots of mud, deep puddles, steep hills and tree root-strewn paths: it was great fun. About half way round the second lap I was wondering if it was a two or a three lap race and then the first of the front runners passed me on his third round. Lapped! Oh the shame! My target for the race had been not to be lapped and what zip I had in my legs (not a lot) went when that happened. So I set myself a new target of keeping the number of lappers in single figures. That target slipped pretty quickly to be replaced by target number three: to keep the number of lappers below 20 – made it! By virtue of a lung-bursting run down the treacherously slippery field, I started my third lap with only (!) 19 runners having passed me. Third lap passed without incident (other than me falling flat on my face in a puddle) and I managed to put in a storming last 100m, pity about the other 8,500. Hot showers afterwards and hot food as well: no bacon rolls, but very tasty cheese toasties.
Great run, great day out and Penicuik Junior Band got a Silver Award at the Scottish.
Sorted it Ian. Suspect you copy/pasted your text from Microsoft Word and it left some Word formatting gubbins behind?
Thanks – that’s exactly right: cut and past from Word.
Oops, don’t know what happend at the start!