Report from Bruce
Nine Bellas made the journey out to Gourock for the first running of the Frank Sinclair 10K race on its new route, which promised to be ‘flat and fast’ (don’t they all?).
Registration was at the newly opened Gourock outdoor swimming pool, which looks really good. Poor Jane got a fright at the registration desk when she asked, after being handed number 107, if there was only 100 people running. The answer was ‘no – there’s only 21 people entered so far!’…… Not a good sign!
They ended up with a total of 46 entrants, and before the start on the promenade runners were asked to remember their race numbers, as the rain was starting and the numbers were likely to disintegrate. The route was actually quite nice, out and back along the coast with a wee loop through the park at Lunderston Bay before heading back and was flat as promised. Some km markers might have been useful though! After running what felt like a really good race I was surprised to see my time at the finish was a bit slower than I was hoping for. All of those with Garmins soon confirmed that they had clocked it at 6.33 miles. Ooops! This mistake was acknowledged by the race organisers afterwards and they reckoned they’ll have it right for next year.
The race was won by a country mile by Stephen Trainer of Greenock Glenpark in 32.41, and the Bella results are below, complete with mis-spelt names and thanks to the wonders of excel I have calculated our actual 10k times, just to add to the sense of injustice! I think there’s a few could-have-been-PBs in there:
Pos Name Official Time Unofficial actual 10k time!
2 Bruce Carse 35:07 34:27
5 Craig Reid 35:51 35:10
12 Peter Callaghan 38:48 38:03
17 Alistair Maclachlan 39:49 39:03
18 John Gilhooly 40:01 39:15
32 Christopher Doak 44:59 44:07
34 Jane Wild 45:52 1st Lady 44:59
36 Keith Gibb 46:08 45:15
40 June Winter 47:51 46:56
This would have been a pretty good race if it weren’t so low-key, and a bit on the long side. Easily fixed in the future I’m sure. Still, big well done to Jane for winning the ladies race – you do realise this means you HAVE to go back next year to defend your title?
