East District Cross Country – Stirling

There was a fair turnout for the purple and white at Saturday’s cross country.  We were in the beautiful grounds of Stirling University campus, it was dry and sunny thankfully as still minus a tent we set up camp under a tree.  The course was the same for the men and ladies, 3 laps and a total of 8.7km. The ladies set off first and it was a fast field and I was quickly passed by almost everyone but kept pushing on, Tracy and I had walked a bit of the course before the race so I knew a bit of what was coming – after a bit of an uphill start, we were round the edge of a golf course, some down hill then onto a short section of path by one of the campus lochs, then onto a grassy area that took a large loop round a building then a bit of a climb onto a grassy track that led into some woods, up through the woods and back to the start/finish area and then round again and again! On the second lap as we came away from the building towards the grassy track a deer was running wildly towards us and I remembered the cross country race in Dunbar a few years ago when there were rogue sheep spooked by the runners and as they panicked and ran across the course ran straight into Tracy and completely knocked her off her feet, I was hoping that was not going to be the case again and was keep a close eye on where it was going, it took off into the distance and managed to avoid the runners and spectators and dogs close by and I put my eyes back on the route.  As I came round into the woods I could hear someone hard on my heels and was desperately hoping not to be lapped by the front runners however luckily the lady who passed me was on her second lap too and I managed to get to the start/finish area without being lapped.  The 3rd lap was really hard, I have not done cross country of this length for a long time as most of the Borders XC are around the 4 mile mark so the extra mile and bit was taking its toll.  It was such a relief to see the finish line.  The mens race had already started before I finished so we stayed and cheered them as they completed their laps.  While standing chatting and cheering on the men we heard that the rogue deer that we had seen on the 2nd lap had been through the start and finish area too and had crashed into one of the spectators there as it kept changing direction not knowing where to go, poor thing must have been terrified – but just shows you always need to keep your wits about you – if it had hit a runner with them both moving at speed it could have been a double KO!

Results

Women

49th – Julie Hand – 41m10s SF

90th – Tracy Philp – 46m53s F40

96th – Gilly Marshall – 47m49s F50

Men

63rd – Adam Gray – 31m53s SM

172nd – David Waldie – 37m05s M45

205th – Duncan Ball – 39m06s M60

234th – Dan Calvert – 41m11s SM

255th Allan Dunbar – 43m25s M45

258th Ross Nicol -43m54s M40

Team 20th

Thanks also to Dave who as always is there in his officiating capacity but has a good set of lungs to bellow encouragement as we come round 🙂

Photo credit for the rogue deer – Neil Renton