West Relays

The West District Relay Championships were held at Stepps on Saturday on an ideal day for running. The Young athletes were well represented despite the absence from competition of some well kent faces such as Peter Bowman and Tony Dolan who wasn't well but came along nevertheless to lend his support. The girls had 2.6 teams out - the first team was composed of Kirsty Alexander, Roisin McShea and Claire Reid and the second team had only two runners forward in Caitlin Dick and Diane Nicholson. There was also a boys team forward which performed nobly and the results of these two races will be put up as soon as I have them. There were 2.25 Senior Men's teams starting the race and the first team got faster with every stage. Unofficial times gave John Foley 14:48, Iain Robertson 14:37, Gary Dick 14:28 and Paul Carroll a quite excellent 14:14. The second team also had some surprises with Brian Gallagher 15:05, Ryan Nelson 15:02, Ryan Savage 14:43 and Bobby Young 15:53. Peter Rudzinski ran the first stage for the third team and his time is not yet available. The women's team was a bit of a disappointment with only one runner forward - Marina ran a good first stage and it was a bit of a revelation for men! Last year she was a wee bit tentative at the start but this year saw a positive (but not silly) start which saw her in the middle of the field as they left the track and went off into the country. She held her position, maybe picking up a place or two, and the finishing time will be interesting when compared to some of the others.

The relays are the best time of the whole year to me - there are six relays in succession - the Kilbarchan, the McAndrew, the Districts, the County, The National and the Allan Scally relays. Responsibility is shared between three or four runners, the distances are non standard and nothing can be read into the times and it is good to run for one another rather than for yourself. The trail this week was a good one - mostly good grass, soft in places and with no obstacles. All the runners enjoyed it including the young athletes. Roll on the Dunbartonshires!