Edinburgh Running Network
This is a lovely wee race, maximum 200 entrants, that takes place on the Island of Cumbrae which is a 10 minute ferry ride across the Firth of Clyde from Largs in Ayrshire. The 10 mile route takes you round the island starting and finishing in the town of Millport. The run is flat apart from a slope near the end and this year Fi Mackenzie and her pal Jen decided to take part. Unfortunately so did the remnants of hurricane what’s-her-pus and the race turned out to be a real trial of strength. Well done to both and you can read Fi’s report below:-
| Place (101) | Category | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fi Mackenzie | 73 | FV45 | 01:27:30 |
Journey to hell & back – Round Cumbrae 10 mile endurathon against the wind!
“I thought it could be good to have a shot of this quaint little island 10 miler & my trusty chum Jen thought it might be fun too – so we signed up for this race on the Isle of Cumbrae. I’m sure I’ve seen pictures of it looking tropical. That was in a whole different time & [fictional] place. We travelled from the bright and breezy east over Harthill where the weather always changes to Largs where a bunch of running types all had the same thought in their heads-why? The ferry had warnings about the extreme weather conditions perhaps changing the ‘timings’ of the ferry. Still – we boarded & landed & got on the steamy bus to Millport. All the locals were very sweet [obviously thinking that we were complete nutters]
Registration was straightforward & changing wasn’t crowded [!] We stayed in the town hall till about 1 55pm & went out to the gales & rain to look for the start. A man blew a whistle & we seemed to be off. First 3 miles were quite quick [7.32 for the first one] so I reckoned that we were wind assisted, after the first turn into the wind we were still going quite fast & managed to hit 5 miles in 40 minutes, when it got even windier as we headed down the west side of the island. A stitch struck at 7 miles & slowed my progress so I wasn’t able to catch Jen up to finish together, but still managed a respectable time considering the conditions. About 1.27 ish [forgot to start my watch until 11 minutes had passed.] Lovely tea, cakes & Mars bars after too. On the way back we saw loads of bikes on cars & figured that the Glasgow to Edinburgh cycle might have been hard too, but worse was seeing Arthur’s seat bathed in sunshine!
Well run race – might return one day but might not pre-book & assess weather conditions!
Pictures are the seafront which didn’t change much & the 3 of us-me, Jen & Alan[Stewart]”
