Nice Day For It

I'm writing this on the Saturday before Christmas and the sun is shining down from a clear sky. OK, it's quite cold but it's an excellent day for running and I wouldn't mind being back thirty or forty years ago and getting ready for the Christmas Handicap. At that time it was ALWAYS held on the Saturday before Christmas and many clubs still hold it on that day. It is a pity that the tradition fell away in the club - the rot started I think when the Committee of the day at some point in the late 80's or early 90's decided to have it very early on the Saturday so that they could get to another sporting event in the afternoon. The club event was taking second place for reasons that had nothing to do with the sport. Things gradually changed and it is now held in the dark, somewhere to the north of the town round roads that most of the children don't run round in daylight. The low point to me came a few years ago when the Committee discussed the event and decided to run it on the Saturday afternoon only for several of the Senior members to defy the Committee and say that they wouldn't run then - they wanted to do it on the Tuesday night. I can see the emails coming in already! Whether you agree with a Committee decision or not, any club member should abide by it.
There are lots of good memories of the race - Johnny B MacLachlan bringing home two lovely plaques from South Africa - I got the one for the handicap winner and the other Johnny B Maclachlan got the other for fastest time. Harry Fenion told the story of the time when he ran for Lochwinnoch and took a shaving brush down for his contribution, all nicely wrapped. The tradition at L'winnoch at the time was for the presents to be buried in a barrel of straw and the runners picked them out sight unseen after the race in order of finishing. Harry won the race and managed to pick out his own shaving brush!
However, whenever it is to be held I hope you all enjoy it and wish you all the best for Christmas. I'll start posting after the event again but I'll take this week off.