Thursday, 12 September 2013

TAG


Who is daft enough, in Scotland, in September, to host a barbeque at half past seven at night?
Welcome to Dunbar Running Club!!
Last night was out turn to host the last race of the 2014 2103 Summer Series. A 5k run round John Muir Country park followed by a BBQ in the “picnic area” later on.
The race itself seemed to go well. The route was a pretty straightforward double loop of a 2.5k circuit round the park.
Given that I was pushed for time to set out the course, the markings this year, rather than the traditional big arrows on poles, were a series of arrows spray painted onto the ground – NOTE: water based temporary road marking paint was used!! Got a few less than friendly scowls from some of the local dog walkers as I jogged round with my tin of bright yellow road marking paint spraying big arrows. What is more bio degradable? Water based paint or dog shit? And more importantly – which is least offensive?
Sadly none of the runners noticed my “tag” – a couple of big yellow smiley faces were sprayed along the route as well. Though to be fair it would be fairly difficult to associate a smiley with yours truly.
Finished marking the route out in just enough time to collect my stopwatch, whistle and clipboard and get the race started at 7:00.
From a timekeepers point of view a two loop race is quite nice – you get to watch everyone go by twice. Makes the time between the start and the finish go in so much quicker.

 
Luckily, Frank had turned up early and already had the barbeques smouldering away by the time we got down.  A small bonfire in the centre of the area not only provided a wee bit of warmth from the evening chill, but it also cast enough light (just about) for a late evening gathering. And, as luck would have it, the rain that had troubled us early on in the day was replaced by a nice dry warm evening.

The series has been pretty good this year after being “re-booted” [as I believe young trendy media types are want to say] by Sandy Wallace. The old idea of handicap races being replaced by straight ahead races that are then gender and age graded.

1 comment:

Anne said...

Well ahead of time if it was for the 2014 Summer Series!!!