Edinburgh Athletic Club

In February 2008 the Edinburgh AC’s Womens Team (thanks to Freya, Catriona, Gillian & Sue) were triumphant at the Scottish National Cross Country Championships in Falkirk. This gave us the honour of sending a team down to Liverpool to take part in the trials for the European Clubs Championships in Istanbul in February 2009. So, as a ’slightly’ differently composed team off we headed on the train on Friday to mount our challenge.

The day dawned cold & murky, but still & dry which made for good running conditions. The race was part of the UK Cross Challenge Series (& also the Mid Lancs championships), so there were runners in Sefton Park from all over the UK which made for an exciting and busy atmosphere. Race organisation was very straightforward - you went to the caravan to collect your number, you lined up at the start on the whistle, stepped forward to the line and BANG, you were off into the fog wondering if you’d find your way back again!

Although mainly flat, with just a few undulations (plus plenty of twists & turns) to break up your rhythm, by the time of the Womens race there were a fair number of heavy, muddy patches to make things interesting. Sadly, due to the fog we didn’t get much of a view of Sefton Park (which I think is actually very attractive), but this made it easier to concentrate on where you were going & your next target for overtaking. Our team all had good races against high quality opposition. Steph Twell won convincingly in 27:09 - amazing as she’s still actually an U23! Our first runner was newly acquired Niamh Devlin in 29:50 (32nd), with Jenny MacLean next in 30:40 (43rd), closely followed by a fast finishing Sarah Hood in 30:42 (45th) and then Kim Threadgall in 33:17 (75th), giving us a team total of 195 points.

Sadly, Winchester (our opposition in the selection competition) put out a very strong team (their top runner, Louise Damon was 3rd) to beat us with 165 points - so no trip to Istanbul this time! However, all our runners had a good race and had good results from a large field of 144 finishers. It was great to be mixing with runners from the whole UK and it helped having no expectations of the likely performance of the runners around us - we just went out there & got on with it. All in all a great trip, though why there’s no-where to get cleaned up at these events with runners coming from half a day or mores trip away is scandalous in my opinion - it was 10 at night by the time I actually got a shower! Thanks again to the club for sending us down.

It is time for another club social outing. Speaking with Martin Little last week, a Beer and Curry evening was mentioned and it sounded such a good idea I volunteered to organise it.  

To try and avoid the really busy period the week before Christmas, this is planned for Friday 12^th December and will be in a central location. We will meet in a pub 5.30-6.00pm and head for the Curry 7.00-7.30pm, you never know, we may even head back to the pub after the food! I’ll list the venue next weekend when I have a better idea of numbers and have managed to book a restaurant.

Everyone is very welcome, so if you want to come along, let myself or Martin know by the end of this week, either e-mail, leave a comment on the website or see us at training. The more the merrier.

Garry Robertson

Is it just me that thinks its strange that we don’t have our club name on the new vests? Our colours are certainly well known among club runners/athletes however many of us, especially on the endurance side, compete at large events where people do not know who we are.

I know this subject has been brought up before but I think its worth raising again for discussion because it seem to be something of an anomaly.

Enid Johnstone has Long Sleeved club vests for sale, in sizes 26″ to 34″ @ £15 each

Enid can be contacted at Meadowbank on Tuesdays or Thursdays,  at the Cross Country meetings, or via the contacts page on this web site.

Thursday 15th January 2009 7:30-9pm - email for further details

Back by popular demand..

Jenny MacLean & Caroline Toshack are running another “Core Running Inspiration” workshop on Saturday 24th January 2009 (9am-1pm)

This will be an interactive morning combining our expertise on Running & Pilates to allow you to:

• Discover the importance of balance, stability and co-ordination
• Learn what good posture is and how this can benefit your running
• Practice drills and techniques to reinforce a more efficient running style
• Find out how to stretch properly and effectively
• Mix with like-minded fellow runners to broaden your contacts and be inspired
• Get individual feedback on your own running style & posture

Freya Murray (Chester le Street & District), helped the Norwich Union GB & NI team to seventh place in the team standings at this year’s International Chiba Ekiden Relay in Japan, clocking 16:08 in  the fourth leg.

 The Norwich Union GB & NI team finished with an overall time of 2:10:12, helped particularly by Scott Overall (Blackheath & Bromley Harriers AC) who clocked the fastest lap of the team with 13.44.

 Team members were Ian Boneham (Notts AC), who completed his 10k in 29:44, Charlotte Purdue (AFD) 15.32 for her 5k leg of the race, Ian Hudspith (Morpeth Harriers), clocking 30:29 as he crossed the line and anchor leg Caroline Hoyte (Arena 80 AC) who finished the 7.195k distance in 24:55, returning to the international fold after last representing GB & NI at this event in 2001 made the trip a successful individual and team affair.

 For the second year running Ethiopian men’s and women’s teams took both victories, once again confirming their international dominance of endurance running.

 Team results were:
1st - ETH 2:05.27
2nd - JPN 2:06:39
3rd - RUS 2:08:04
4th - JUT 2:08:47
5th - AUS 2:09:6
6th - CHIBA 2:10:00
7th - GBR 2:10:12
8th - USA 2:11:54
9th - CAN 2:11:56
10th - CHN 2:12:11
11th - SWE 2:12:16
12th - BRA 2:14:15
13th - ROU 2:15:37

 For full results visit the Chiba Ekiden Event website :

Congratulations to all our members who received an award at the Scottish Athletics Annual Awards Dinner.

 Lifetime Achievement: Barry Craighead (Club President)

 Athletes achieving UK Power of 10 targets Lisa Glover and Lynsey Sharp.

 Disability Athlete of the Year: Libby Clegg

 Bank of Scotland under-20 Athlete of the Year: Lynsey Sharp
 
 Club Volunteer: Enid Johnston

 Tom Stillie Award Marjory Cook

 Track and Field Club of the Year Edinburgh AC

 The full list of awards can be seen at :
http://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/index.php?p=17&itemType=news&itemId=3886

Details of this event have now been finalised.  Its taking place on 21st December at 1pm.  Entry is on the day only and this year the race is for over 15’s only.

Registration takes place from 11.30am at the Royal Commonwealth Pool. Parking, changing and the prizegiving are also at the Royal Commonwealth Pool.

The club needs volunteers to help make this happen particularly in relation to marshalling.  For more details see Alex McEwan.

Course Map

A Flyer for the race can be downloaded here.

Despite the temperature barely crossing freezing point, the EAC Womens Team managed a great turnout (9) for this, the 2nd East District League cross country meeting of the 2008/09 season. Fortunately, the expected strong winds and snow hadn’t made an appearance so we had dry, clear & fairly still conditions for this fast & furious race.

The Broxburn course is on a lovely, exposed hillside above the town with great views in all directions, which you can take your time to look at whilst warming up or cooling down. During the race you have to concentrate… ‘Cause it’s almost all pretty narrow with a fair number of twists & turns which make overtaking difficult and frustration at getting trapped an ever present danger.

Due to the recent lack of rain, the underfoot conditions were very dry with barely a muddy patch to be found anywhere, which made for quick racing conditions and some good times on the day. The womens team of the day were definitely HBT, who amazingly had runners in 1st, 3rd, 5th & 8th (3 to count for the womens teams) - very impressive. Despite lack of their big guns, Central’s women put in a solid performance (7th, 10th & 11th) to beat the EAC team (2nd, 13th & 15th) into 3rd place by a frustrating 2 points! Great performances for us from up & coming Jo Thom & a returning to racing Vicky Frew. I was chuffed to bits with my 2nd place, which was a hard fought 3-way battle to the finish with Megan Wright & Rosie Smith of HBT.

EAC’s men had a more testing time with our first counter coming in 10th. The rest of the team counters finished in 22nd, 24th & 27th place. The Central mens team were totally dominant on the day, with 6 runners inside the top 10 - very impressive! Good results for EAC in the junior races - U11 Boys were 1st, 11th & 15th, U11 Girls 9th. U13 Boys had a clean sweep 1,2,3, with the Girls managing 1st, 7th & 15th. The U15 Boys finished in 2nd, 8th, 13th, 14th & 15th (good team spirit there), with the U15/U17 Girls in 4th, 6th & 12th. Finally, in the U17 Boys we had a 1st, 4th, 6th & 9th place finish. So, good results across the board.

Well done to all those who braved & beat the cold. If you weren’t running, why not?

 Gateshead International Stadium, Riverside Bowl Saturday 15 November 2008

 
Under 15 Girls
Rachael Dunn 8th
Under 17 Girls
Emily Dudgeon 6th
Laura Goodson 11th
Junior Men
Chris O’Hare 5th

Full results can be found at:
http://www.gateshead.gov.uk/Leisure%20and%20Culture/sports/crosscountry/home.aspx