Lasswade 10 Mile Race 4/03/07Many thanks at Lasswade to all supporters taking photos and sending them in promptly!! Keith suggested reports for this event may be submitted in poetic form following on from Leo's Haiku. Limericks, sonnets, rhyming couplets and blank verse all accepted. Don't be shy. What rhymes with blister?
Alan's Report
It has been four months since I last had Shingles. As a build up to London Marathon this was a race I had set myself a target for to hopefully give me a boost after a disastrous 2006.
Training has been going well since New Year and I have been doing 50mws per week (miles without shingles). I have been training hard with Gordon on a Wednesday and with Graham ‘Braveheart’ Henry at weekends. Graham encouraged me to do Circuit Training so I am doing a few classes a week and am really feeling the benefit.
I was gutted when I woke on Thursday with the ‘Man Flu’ (ok a cold) but was determined to be ok for Sunday.
It was good to see so many Porty runners on a cold but dry day and my plan was to get into a decent rhythm for the first four miles then try and push the last six!
I knew it was a tough course with the first five miles being pretty hard. I have never managed under 75 minutes at Lasswade but I really wanted a sub 70.
Graham was in my ear at every hill ‘pushing’ me on. I was looking to go through seven miles in 49 minutes and I clocked 49:02, I knew sub 70 was in my grasp.
The last couple of miles were different this year so I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was feeling good (apart from the water I was losing from my nose).
The last mile and I got a stitch; this was not going to slow me down! There was a ‘400m to go’ marker and I knew I couldn’t look at my watch I just tried to push right through the finish. I turned the last corner and saw the clock and it was 69 something.
Maybe I get a bit carried away punching the air and shouting at the end but to run 69:49 was like winning it for me!!
The great thing about running is that you don’t need to be the fastest runner to feel like a winner. Portobello runners are getting good times at every race just now and that’s down to hard work and good coaches.
Bring on Alloa – sub 90? Let’s hope so…………Spiderman has returned!!
Report Alan Aitchison, who claims not to have known about poetry submissions until after his report was written.
Andrew Tom and Lynn are sending in some action photos - watch this space.
Here's some photos Lynn sent in...
Amanda's Report
I’ve been thinking recently that races are similar to holidays. It’s good to book them in advance and then you can look forward to it and more importantly prepare for it.
Unfortunately the Lasswade 10 miler didn’t quite make it onto my ‘to do’ list so to say I was little under-prepared would be an understatement. Besides, I’d heard on the rumour mill that this course takes no prisoners.
Nevertheless, come Saturday night I was overcome by a BIG desire to take part – it might have had something to do with marshalling at Bathgate or perhaps the guilts from consuming one too many hot chocolates and churros in Spain the week before. Anyhow, I decided to live life on the edge for once and turned up on the day to register. Very unlike me.
It’s quite a strange experience not knowing exactly what awaits you round the corner on a race. I might live just down the road but I’d no idea there were such hills in Midlothian. Bert had warned me that the first half was pretty hilly so I tried to take it easy. Hmm, 6:20 minute miles aren’t quite easy enough though – badly timed on my part. I was soon clocking 7+ minute miles and felt like I was going backwards. I’ve never felt like this in a race before and can categorically say, ‘I don’t like it!’
Miles six and seven were pretty lonely and tough. I’d expected things to ease up by this stage but still the hills came at me and then there was the wind to contend with. Somehow though I managed to hang in there. I caught a few people who had overtaken me but was duly overtaken by them again. There was nothing left in the tank for a hard push at the end.
I was surprised to get below 70 minutes – I really thought that the lack of preparation and focus in the last few weeks had pushed me way back. Maybe, just maybe, Alloa will deliver the coveted 1:30. I’m already registered for it, so fingers crossed!
Report Amanda Henderson
Ben Kemp 58.31
Willie Jarvie 60.31
Janet Dunbar 61.41 FIRST LADY
Peter Buchanan 61.49
Keith Mayfield 62.46
Bert Logan 66.38
Scott Ferguson 67.13
James Boyce 68.57
Amanda Henderson 69.07
Alan Aitchison 69.51
John Pickard 71.42
Paul Eunson 72.05
Paul Edwards 72.11
Shelagh McLeish 73.21
Mary Hunter 73.38
John Forker 73.43
Douglas Young 76.33
Andrew Fraser 79.31
Fiona Mayfield 84.12
Sandra Murray 88.11
Karen Munro 88.11
Janis Stirton 90.08
Louise Kay 91.22
Cath Webster 93.49Ladies Team won first prize - Janet, Amanda and Shelagh
Mens Team came second, just 2 places adrift - Ben, Willie and PeterTom's photos. (Tom sent in a covering note apologising for his photos, that he didn't manage to catch everyone - however they are much better than the ones from Musselburgh 6 which never even saw the light of day - so we are going in the right direction.... and big thanks Tom for standing around on a freezing cold day cheering us on.)
Ben's Report
"Hardly 'poetry', I am afraid, Peter, but just to offer my tuppence worth on Lasswade. Having never done this race before, I had been variously warned that it was a horror, the hills were awful, the weather was invariably atrocious….. With very little apparently to be said for it, I was left half-wondering how it was that half of Portobello were apparently ready and willing to pitch up at all. In any event, although the weather did seem to adhere to some extent to the script (although most people if not everybody managed to get home I think before the worst of the rain), I actually thought it was a good course. For an 'urban' road race, this was remarkably 'rural' in feel, and the hills were definitely not the horrors that had been claimed (mind you, compared to Carnethy….wouldn't you agree, Keith?). Anyway, what I really wanted to say was 'thank you' to the marshalls and the organisers for what I thought was a very well organised race, as well as 'well done' to the womens' team, and to Janet in particular, for a very impressive performance. Guys, I think we have some work to do, if we are going to match the exacting standards of our female team-mates!
So, that's it; short, not very lyrical, but hopefully relatively 'sweet'; and just to prove that I do get around to writing reports occasionally - and this time, without even too much of a prompt, Peter!
Ps If you don’t publish this, Peter, I shall never write anything for the website again….."
Report Ben Kemp
Litigation Division
