Musselburgh 10K 26/7/08
The transition from a 6-mile, two-loop race around Musselburgh Race course to a 10K with a new start and finish was not entirely successful at the technical level, although this enjoyable race was even moreso this year.
Start, finish and registration now take place on the playing fields of Loretto School. This means that access and parking nearby is just a bit easier and you don¹t have to walk ten minutes to the start at the main bridge over the Esk as before. The fields are enormous and offer plenty of warming-up space on mown grass and room for people to gather and chat before and after the race near the pavilion. A cool, almost windless, misty day promised ideal conditions for racing.
A good crowd of Porties gathered on Saturday in a field of nearly 200 and set off around the playing fields towards the Quayside before turning back along the coastal path across the Esk and towards the race course. Only once around this and then a direct return to the bridge to backtrack the first kilometre across the playing fields to the finish.
The route had a lot of jinks and turns and seemed to put people's garmins out either that or it was short a couple of hundred metres. This would be unfortunate as Musselburgh AC officials were seen earlier in the week marking out the course with a surveying wheel measure which should be more accurate.
I set off after a decent warm-up and unusually for me, managed a 7:05 minute/mile pace for my first mile and since the course is so flat, kept it within a few seconds of that throughout the race including two miles under 7:00. It's hard to find a flat race in Scotland so I like to make the best of it.
I didn't see much of the other Porty runners in the race but got close to Kathleen Bolt who normally runs a pretty fast race and new member Michael Nowicki from Poland whose wife Monika was ready with her camera catching club runners as they went by.
I run so few 10k's except Penicuik I can't remember what my pb is but two days short of my 61st birthday I think it unlikely to have cracked it. Even so at 42:26 I felt I was running well in particular since Paul Eunson, teetering on the edge of his 50th birthday, was less than a minute ahead. First in for the club in 6th place was Leo Zijerveld in a nippy 35:33 followed by Willie Jarvie at 36:07, easily the first over 50 in what is I think his first race in this category. Twin brother Scott was third for the club at 38:16 and in a sign of things to come first club lady and fourth female overall was Melanie Henderson a few seconds later at 38:35.
There was an unfortunate debacle at the front of the race as Adam Priestley of Ferranti was denied a win by a routing error having gone over the wrong bridge inside the last kilometre to end up behind Leo in seventh. Adam has a history of coming second or third and this would have been his first win as he was way ahead of everyone even before we cleared the playing fields. Across the wide expanse of the race course there were also opportunities for front runners to go astray so I reckon a few more marshals at critical points on this twisty route might have been in order. Offical SA policy is apparently that runners should acquaint themselves with the course. Mmmm.
The printed results here also seem to have an air of uncertainty about them. Produced more or less in real-time there are lots of typos including, for example, Micheal appearing 4 times. I¹m sure the aforementioned club member Michael Nowicki was no more than twenty metres ahead of me as I sprinted in vain to catch him and yet the results show fourteen people and a minute in between us. Of course this could merely be a delusion on my part.
The race was followed by coffee strong enough to fall foul of anti-doping legislation, cakes and sandwiches and at £5 for SA entry this represents excellent value these credit-crunched days.
Report Douglas Young
Many thanks to Monika Nowicki for managing to photograph so many of the Porty team despite this being her husbands first race with Portobello. Great job!Happy Birthdays Douglas and Paul.
