Congratulations to Sonya for finishing under the hour! Great achievement For those of you who didn’t already know, Sonya was running for BLISS and raised over £500 for this charity which supports families whose babies are born prematurely.

Hazel is also delighted with her time – even faster than the Troon 10k and this was despite starting at the back of her group (her friend hadn’t been well in the build up to the race) and having to weave through.
Guys – you’ll be saying “only in a women’s race” at this next bit. Seemingly she and her two running companions were having to shout “Blind runner coming through” since they were faster than those in front of them, and the runners around them were muttering “What? Why should we make way for a blond runner?” You couldn’t make it up, could you?
Well done, Hazel – you’ll break 1 hour at the next race.

Anita, Mhairi and Gillian – look forward to hearing your times. I know Anita was faster than last year.

As for me, I had never intended to run this year, but my neighbour’s daughter (an 800m runner) turned 15 and wanted to tackle her first 10k. For some reason her mother thought I should run with her. Anyway, despite not wanting to do a warm-up, she took off at great speed, with me suggesting she take it easy. She was still pulling ahead so I told her to go for it and leave me behind, and she was making great progress until her lace came undone at around 6-7k. I stopped with her and then she took off again. Of course, I assumed that I’d stay with her but no way… By 8k I was sure that I’d be catching her and encouraging her over the last stretch. No, Sarah was amazing and charged in with 195th place (out of 12,000) at 46:23. Not bad for a 15 year old on her first 10k, eh?
No PB for me, but I did move up from 274th place last year to 210th. Don’t say it – “not bad for an old woman on her umpteenth 10k…”