Stornoway half marathon

I've written all about this for the prc website already so will keep it brief. It was enjoyable going in a totty wee airplane. I love the roar of the engines when they start up. Pity it was cloudy nearly all the way. Raining in Storno so bad weather for photos but not bad conditions for running in. Not too windy. The second half is much nicer than the first being in the castle grounds and on gravelly paths. I made a good effort for the first 2 miles and then slowed greatly being tired just beneath the excitement of flying and racing. Enjoyed it though. And for my efforts I was rewarded with an enormous f. off. trophy for 1st lv35 even though I was only 4th lv35 - the first three ladies were all lv35s so I got first vet.

I had a bit of an inner debate about my deservingness for such a prize over the 3 senior ladies who also beat me given that a vet prize is rather a compensatory prize and yet there's less and less proof that runners need much compensation for being over 35, especially over longer distances, especially if they're women. I managed to settle my hash eventually by reminding myself that I'm not just over 35 I'm 42 and fast approaching super-vet status and hey those younger ones probably have more time left for winning prizes.

Is it a trophy or is it a shield? Its one of these one's with wee plates on it for putting your name on for posterity. Last held by Julia Henderson of Helensburgh so presumably Andrew had brought it back that very day. He was there but Julia was away doing something else. I'm thinking of putting a little photo of myself on it!

Came home via land and sea with the rest of the Porty possie. Ben was 3rd, Peter was 5th and 1st mv40, and I was 1st lv35 so Richard was a bit crestfallen because he had nothing but a black-pudding and a sore pair of legs to show for his fine 1.29 effort trying to keep up with Lucy Colquhoun.

Lucy is just coming back from injury and is in fine form. She took the race easy but still came out 1st lady so we had a shield/trophy fest.

Lovely race. Lovely organisers.

Arrived home 11pm extraordinarily tired.

Other highlights were finally getting Jim Davies to do a road race although he did it pushing Rosie in a baby buggy. He strolled past me at about 3 miles and just pipped Richard to the post meaning Richard was not only beaten by a girl (Lucy) but by a baby. Jane ran too, not liking the course as much as a hill run but being a good sport about it none the less. We'll get them converted yet - if not to roads, to trails...

Thanks to Gavin of SRAC for photo of Jim and Rosie...