The National Cross Country Championships took place at Callendar Park, Falkirk this weekend.
It turned out to be a good day with lots of great performances by Lasswade athletes. Please click National Cross Country 2014 for report of the days events. For full results of all the races click here
This is the last club Cross Country event for the season so thanks to all the athletes and parents for their support over the winter. Thanks also to Andy Sobik, David Hand, Stuart and Elaine Tait for getting to Falkirk early and erecting the club tents for everyone else arriving.
Congratulations to all the athletes on their performances yesterday.
We desperately need helpers to help make up food for the Road Race so far there are only two people signed up to help this is not enough we need about 8 people to do this it is a massive job to feed around 4oo runners plus Officials, Marshals.
The Road Race is on Sunday 2nd /March /2014 at whitehill Welfare Football Ground Rosewell. it is only a few hours we need you for don’t forget this is a event that makes money for the Club to keep it going, Please try and help. if you can please contact Ruth Szymanski on Email: elkasaruma@hotmail.co.uk or at training Monday & Thursday at Dalkeith
Once again I’m on the plane back to America. The last time I was flying to albuquerque I was unsure what to expect when competing in he NCAA and how I would enjoy New Mexico. After the first semester I now know the standard of athletes here and realise there is still a lot of work to do.
Unfortunately my Christmas break was full of niggles and illness meaning I could not compete and not fully follow the training schedule I had been set. I had picked up a chest infection a few days before I left for Scotland. I managed to get antibiotics which shifted the infection pretty quickly however it meant I had to have a week of easy runs and no sessions. After the easy week I managed a good hill session followed by a good track session a few days later. I was starting to get fit again and went 10miles on Christmas Day but picked up a knee pain on the last mile. The pain came and went daily but resulted in a few days of pool training or complete rest. Thankfully the pain left and didn’t come back meaning I could get a few more runs around the local trails before I left again.
The biggest disappointment was not being able to compete in the portobello promathon (4miles) on New Year’s Day. I have ran the race every year for 6 years and I’ve always found its a good way of revealing form before going into the indoor season. Having ran 10 mile tempos at 5:16 pace at 5000ft altitude I was looking forward to racing flat out over 4 miles and running quick. The knee pain meant this wasn’t possible and I ended up resting instead. Overall the Christmas break might not have been great for training but it was great getting to see friends and family again.
Once I’m back in albuquerque I will have roughly 3-4 weeks to get fully ready for the indoor season. Last January I ran a pb of 3:46 indoors so the main aim this indoors is to get that time down more and get closer to the commonwealth games 1500m qualifying time (3:42.2)
I just ran the NCAA division 1 cross country championships in terrethaut, Indiana. The race was 10k with all of the country’s best teams and runners competing. This was the 5th and final race of the short cross country season.
We arrived in Indiana a few days early to prepare for the race. On our first day we ran 8 miles along a canal at the butler university campus, a university where a few of my friends attend. I felt great throughout the run and was excited to race. The day of the race was bitterly cold with temperatures below freezing plus wind chill. To add to the cold, it had been raining all week in Indiana meaning the course was wet and muddy. All familiar conditions having ran 5 cross country seasons in Scotland!
The race set of hard as expected. The start was an 800m straight with 250 runners all fighting for positions before the first turn. From then on the race was a bit of a blur. I was constantly passing or getting passed for the first 5k until the field began to spread out. From then on I was able to get into a rhythm and focus on runners ahead. Before long I was moving up the field and beginning to pass team mates. From 5k to 8k I’d managed to pass 2 of my team mates placing me 4th in the team. This was a bit of a shock but gave me a boost for the last section. My final position was 132nd. I was pretty disappointed with the overall position. Before the season started I had hoped for top 75. Overall the team finished 11th, again a little disappointing considering we were ranked 6th going into the race.
I was able to take some positives from the race. At the start of the season I was worried about not even making the team for nationals and now I had just finished 4th. It was also only my first season and the end of a pretty inconsistent year. The main focus is now moving on from cross country and focussing on indoors.
Good luck to club athletes Guy Learmonth and Greg Louden who will be representing Scotland in the Sainsbury’s Glasgow International Match at the Emirates Arena on Saturday.
Guy will run in the 600m, and Greg in the Men’s 4 x 400m Relay team.
The final East District Cross Country League match of this winter season took place at Broxburn on Saturday 18 January 2014.
The league covers all age groups from Under 11 boys and girls through to senior men and women and Lasswade had athletes competing in all age groups with the exception of under 11 girls.
In the under 11 boys race we had seven athletes competing with Kurt Robertson leading the team home in 6th place overall. The others competing were Lois Grahame (20th) Cameron Dickson (35th), Eoin Morton (38th), Christopher Statham (44th), Ethan Gordon (59th) and Clark Lennie (64th).
The next race was the under 13 girls and with our Inter District winner Sarah Tait unwell it was left to Caroline McKinlay to represent the Lasswade girls. Caroline ran a strong race to finish 19th overall. Lasswade’s Magnus Tait led the way in the under 13 boys race with another fine win. It completed a clean sweep of three league wins this season for Magnus. He was followed by team mates Rory Ferguson (17th) and Lawrie Wilson (46th).
The under 15/17 girls was the next race and we had two runners, Lauren Dickson with another fine performance in 5th place followed by team mate Lauren Wilkie who finished strongly in 35th. In the under 15 boys race we had three runners led home by Matthew Smith (26th) followed closely by team mate Jamie Darling (28th) and Thomas Snodgrass (38th).
Kyle McKenzie was the sole Lasswade runner in the under 17 men, he had a solid run to finish in 21st place.
In the women’s race we had three athletes competing and Keira Murray with a strong run in 5th pace led the team home, next in was Amy Frankland with a fine run finishing 15th overall and 2nd under 20, Cathy Dickson ran well to bring the team home, finishing in 71st place.
The final race of the day was the men with the biggest field and 255 finishers. There were seven Lasswade athletes competing with Peter Avent the first Lasswade runner home (28th), next in with a strong run was Martin Gore (42nd) followed by John Murray back from a recent injury (74th), Scott Dickson running with a sore knee was next to finish (164th) then came Doug McDonald (179th) closely followed by Phil Parr-Burnham (196th) with Derek Wilkie the final Lasswade athlete (232nd).
Well done to everyone who turned out and competed for the club on Saturday. Thanks to you all and also to the parents/supporters that came along on the day.
Final Team Finishing Positions in the League were as follows:
Under 13 Boys – 4th Team
Women – 7th Team
Men – 8th Team
The Inter District Cross Country Championships took place on Saturday 11 January 2014 as part of the Bupa Great Winter Run 2014.
Lasswade Athletics Club had five athletes selected for the East District Team Sarah Tait (Under 13 Girls), Magnus Tait and Rory Ferguson (Under 13 Boys), Lauren Dickson (Under 15 Girls) and Keira Murray (Women).
It was a beautiful dry and sunny morning although a cold windy day with little protection from the wind for the athletes on an open and flat course. The first race of the day was the under 13 boys which proved to be a close race with Magnus Tait in amongst the leaders from the start and fighting it out for the medals at the end. Only four seconds separated the first four runners with Magnus just missing out in 4th place. It’s always difficult to finish just outside the medals and Magnus was a bit disappointed but it was a great run by him! Team mate Rory Ferguson one of our newer members who has only ran a couple of cross country races ran very well to finish in 30th place.
The next race was the under 13 girls and this was another close race with Lasswade’s Sarah Tait up amongst the leaders from the start. In the final lap there was still a group of four or five runners in contention, including Sarah who showed her strength pushing on into a headwind to move clear of the field and win by four seconds at the finish!
Our next athlete was Lauren Dickson in the under 15 girls and it was another good performance with Lauren working hard throughout the four lap race. Lauren finished just outside the top 10 in 11th place. Another fine run.
The final Lasswade Athlete competing was Keira Murray in the Women’s race. The senior course was slightly different to that used for the younger athletes in that they crossed the road and used ‘haggis knoll’ as part of the course, a little hill although I am sure it felt pretty hard after a few laps. Keira worked hard throughout the race and was working in a group of three of four athletes just outside the top 10 for part of the race. Keira finished well in 14th place.
It is fantastic for Lasswade AC to have athletes selected for these events and even better when they all do so well.
Congratulations to you all on your performances yesterday.
The Club Committee would like to wish all members, parents, volunteers and friends a very Merry Xmas and a happy New Year. We also welcome Danny Burnett to LAC. Danny commences work as our Club Development Officer on 6th january. Much more on the CDO role after the holidays when Danny will be out and about to meet Club members.
