On a not un-typical Ayrshire summer evening eight Tortoises made the short trip to sister village Dundonald to run this years 10k which is part of the village’s summer Highland Games event, this was the third time I have run this race and the third time I have ran it in the rain !

To be honest the rain is pretty welcome as this course is pretty tough especially at 10k pace, after starting at the war memorial it’s a brisk pace to the mini roundabout and a right then left turn to start the climbing all the way to Symington, luckily this part of Dundonald we have ran quite a few times as part of our Sunday runs so the false summits were no surprise, the first mile is pretty much all uphill with a downhill at mile 1.5 but then another slow climb to half way, at 3 miles Strava shows the max elevation at 328ft, this last push from the start of Symington up into the centre of the village always takes a bit out of me and tonight was no exception, the group I was in pulled away and I could not catch them the rest of the race, luckily the worst of the route was now over and I knew it was all downhill, so head down to make sure the fast improving Gerry could not catch me I posted a mile 5 sub 7min mile back towards Dundonald in the rain to post a gun time of 45.12 a two minute course best for me, with Matt, Fraser, Gerry and Jamie all posting course PB’s we waited for the rest of the team to finish with Bruce, Anne and Moira all finishing strongly in worsening conditions, after a quick team photo it was home to dry off and as usual off to work for Matt for his night shift – next 10k is in Irvine August 17th still time to enter via Entry Central with the Glasgow Marathon the following week

Race results will be posted when available from the event website

Darrell