Fling Bling

A year on from our debut 5^th place in the Highland Fling relay we returned, this year with 2 teams. Killie Highlanders (Male team) and Killie Crocks (mixed Team).

But first the real heroes – the solo runners from the Club in the event – Jim Connelly (143^rd in 10.31), Mark Hamilton (188^th in 10.56) and Mike Corson (276^th in 11.46). Other than seeing them early on in the race and coming through the finish line I don’t know much about how their race went, but see Mike’s facebook for his story.

Only John Cairns survived from last year’s event – Mike took on the full race, whilst Stephen Gilmour and I were injured and became team drivers. Of the rest only Roddy had real experience of trail running, but hey each leg is only about half marathon distance.

Highlanders – John Cairns(81.09), Connell Drummond (119.08), John Parker (130.16), Davy Mcleod (102.46).

Crocks – Paula Wilson (104.19), Roddy Pugh (132.44), Willie Duffy (139.28), Mark Alexander (104.27).

(support – me, Stephen Gilmour and Tommy Ingram)

John had a great 1^st leg, a couple of minutes better than last year, but up against Irvine’s David Millar who was running in a composite team, it was tough to be anything other than 2^nd. John handed over to Connell who had perhaps the toughest leg taking in the ascent of Conic Hill. We saw Connell halfway through his leg, having descended Conic Hill, still in his unmistakable strong running style. When we next saw him at the end of his leg it was a near unrecognisable Connell as the undulating 2^nd half took its toll and he fought through cramp over the last few miles.

John Parker took on the 3^rd leg which has the most challenging underfoot conditions, causing stop / start running along the loch side. Handing over to Davy for the final leg, we were still in 2^nd place but 18 mins down on the leaders it was a great effort from him to close the gap by 12 mins (including a couple of minutes lost to a wrong turning – the same one also taken later by Mark Alexander).

The Highlanders finished 2^nd overall – but 1^st male team – in a time of 7.13.19

The Crocks finished 6^th overall and 3^rd mixed team in 8.00.55.

(The winning solo race runner finished in 7hrs 29!!)

The above commentary largely covers the Highlanders, the team I was driving around, but I think the experience of the Crocks was pretty similar.

By the end everyone appeared to have enjoyed the day, but there was no sign of any of the Relay runners signing up for the solo event next year.

More pictures from the day are on the Harriers Flickr site.