What it looks like from the WRONG end of a starting line.... eventual winner Ken Chapman "makes some final adjustments"...
Yesterday saw me at the wrong end of the starting line as I helped out with the clubs annual 10k.
"Helped out" may be a slight misnomer to be honest, as running about in a panic while everyone else calmly gets on with things is probably more of a hindrance.
Always a bit fraught when your club's organising a race, but even more so when its a new route (as it was yesterday). But everything seemed to go OK and some pretty respectable times were posted despite the "little" hill that we threw in at the 5k mark.
The day always seems to pass in a blur at these events. I'm conscious of lots of people I know round about me... but I never really get a chance to stop and talk to anyone, other than a few quick words.
The only real disappointment in the day? I couldn't find my gun!! The storage area that we have at Hallhill is a tad on the untidy side and despite my best efforts I couldn't find my starters pistol. Boo-hiss... I enjoy walking about with a gun twice a year (the 10k and 10 mile races).
Instead I found this evil looking spring-loaded-rat-trap-"clapper"-type-snappy-thing.
Jesus. It's lethal. I was terrified that I was going to loose a finger! If I can't find my gun by the next race I might have to resort to a whistle.
Anyway, a few quick words to the runners (and here tradition dictates that no one listens anyway.... you could stand there with a megaphone and recite poetry to be honest) a quick "snap" of the lethal finger terror and they were off...
From a race organisers point of view the 35 minutes or so after the start of a race is probably a bit like watching and episode of "One Man And His Dog"... pretty boring really, and when the first runner does come home "through the gate" your pretty certain that the rest will follow safely and sheep like anyway. Sadly, yesterday I didn't even see the first runner come home. I was in Hallhill helping to look for some misplaced car keys, came outside and was astonished to see that a few dozen runners were back already. The course record of 47 minutes that was set on our "dry" run on Tuesday had been toppled.
Once the runners started to come back I scuttered off to get on with the results. You'd think that with about 20% of the runners coming from Portobello the team prize would be easy to figure out - but I still got that wrong (well..I got the right team, just the wrong team members - sorry Mr Jarvie).
Still managed to get home and get the results posted before the new Dr Who started.
Want to get back to the right side of the starting line next week. I fancy the Heaven and Hell half in Perth, but Anne quite fancies the Gala 10k....
Gala' here we come then.
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