Valley Dash Results

A lovely spring evening saw 48 athletes take on the the first club handicap of the year – The Valley Dash – a challenging 7.3 kilometre  circuit, featuring a combination of road, hill and trail racing.

This year the race moved from the traditional start in Newmilns, to Galston, which meant that the runners started on the ascent pretty much right from the start, without the benefit of the flatter riverside section to warm up. The change obviously suited this years winner Kenny Wales, who out performed the handicappers projection by nearly 3.5 minutes and improved on last years time by 1 minute 10 seconds.

Second and third home were Kimberly Todd and  Fiona Merry, enjoying the experience of their first ever handicap race.

As per usual, the handicaps caused a great deal of banter, a fair spattering of light-hearted moaning and one or two smirks.

However, whilst no one ran exactly to handicap, Colin Crosbie (2 seconds), Jackie McCulloch (3 secs), Kate Todd (4 secs) and Dan McConnell (6 secs) all came close.

Fastest man on the night, slightly belying his Troon 10k form, was James Wales. First woman home and 6th overall was Kara Tait.

Final reflection of the night goes to Roddy Pugh, who went from being last year’s winner to 47th place.  Does reflect a serious injury or a shocking loss of form? Or might it just be that the handicapper has invested in a new new calculator! Full results are here :-

Valley Dash 2014 Race results