Dave Moir has stayed up especially late tonight to type up and send in this report from todays Saltwell 10K

Saltwell 10K Centenary – 17-12-11

It’s nice to be together

Quote of the day from Horlicks

we trained together, travelled together, raced together, finished together

– then showered………… completely separately before any rumours start.

It seemed a bit touch and go as to whether the race was going ahead, as the Park run got cancelled due to frozen paths earlier in the morning, but the Saltwell lot were on the ball and gritted the race route. Despite much of the park being encased in ice, the race route was absolutely spotlessly clear. There’s a lesson to be learned there DD, next time it’s icy, get the Town Moor gritted. Shouldn’t take you that long to do 5K on your own!!

Penny Willmot

Anyhow, DD picked Horlicks then myself up at 11:00ish (me being late turning up at my own house??) and we set off. We met Paul H in the carpark (who came to cheer us on and take some snaps) and headed over to register. We spotted Jude and heard that Alex, Penny and Elspeth were around, but we didn’t really see them until a bit later.

Elspeth Lawson

We set off on the top road which is a bit of a bottle neck, and quickly settled into some sort of steady order – I can’t say pace as there are several sharp descents and long climbs on each of the 3½ laps, so the speed varied greatly. Mark, DD and I packed very (if I do say so myself) well and were still pretty much together at the final lap. Mark dropped off a little bit and DD pushed on and put a 10 yard gap between me & him. Several spectators shouted, go on you can catch your mate, and all I could think of was that “he’s no mate of mine until we are the other side of the finish line”, and since he got there first, not sure he is now either (only kidding DD).

We finished DD 14th, Me 15th (in 37:11) and Horlicks 16th. Not sure of any one else’s results as there is nothing out yet, but the ladies closed a team with a good strong effort, and we saw Alex having a good battle to the line.

Dave Daniels, Mark Hall & Dave Moir – 2nd Place Team Prize

Jude Smith

We then headed off to the race HQ to accept what we thought based on our club captains rough calculations, would be the first team prize. Paul’s phone call to the engravers was rudely interrupted by the news that despite all our efforts, we’d been pipped to the post by about 5 points by Gateshead whose third counter was just a couple of places behind us, and Paul had stopped watching as soon as we were in.

Alex Lockwood

I think Paul was more gutted than we were, but there’s always next year, when we’ll come back even stronger.

I was awarded 1st male V40 by the legendary Mike McLeod and we assume Horlicks will get 2nd in the post as he was next in after me, but they full results were still being worked out at that point. One very nice touch for the Centenary year was Mike’s son Ryan Macleod winning the race overall, and also setting a new course record, Mike having won this race for a staggering 16 years in a row. Ryan was awarded the trophy by his Dad, but I believe the prize money was retained against back rent of some sort.

For the Ladies, there was a new course record set too from Chester Le Street AC’s Alyson Dixon who took part in her first competitive race since her foot injury from the World Championships in Daegu earlier this Summer. Great to see Aly back in action.

Dave Moir receives his 1st place MV40 Prize from Mike McLeod

This is a very hilly 10K, the weekend before Christmas, but don’t let that put you off as it’s a great race, and one I think I’ve done half a dozen times now (probably more than any other 10K I’ve done). Let’s get a few more out next year, and set our sights high.

Off to bed now, can’t wait to see which Dave of Christmas it is tomorrow, and remember Dave’s, if you haven’t put pen to paper yet, there’s always someone else who may do it for you!!

Dave Moir

Results can be found here

Thanks to Paul Hilton for the photos