Glorious day as 59 runners tackle road race challenge
Paul Woods reports on the Simmer Dim Half Marathon, run in glorious sunshine on Sunday.
The weather was superb and the scene was definitely set for a great race as 59 runners, finely honed from weeks of training, lined up at the start at Cunningsburgh.
It has been a pleasure writing the Marathon Matters column and hopefully people have enjoyed reading it and following the bits of advice. It certainly showed as the field wound its way round Cunningsburgh before the haul back to Lerwick.
Each runner had their own reasons for taking part and hopefully everyone achieved their goal. They certainly all did in my eyes.
I have done a quick comparison with last year and just about everybody has improved their time, regardless of the weather. Special mention must go to Morag Williamson who took almost 12 minutes off her time, with the average improvement between three and four minutes.
First over the line was Karl Simpson followed by Russell Gair and Bill Adams. In the women’s race, Arlene Bristow was first and fourth overall, with Julie Mackay and Karen Fraser following her home. Good luck to the three guys and Julie and Karen as they set off to represent Shetland in Åland.
I was delighted to see the looks on every runner’s face as they crossed the finish line and received their medals. Relief, delight, exhaustion, it was all there.
Results – senior men: 1 Karl Simpson (1.18.40); 2 Russell Gair (1.23.29); 3 Balazs Anhausz (1.27.16).
Veteran men: 1 Bill Adams (1.23.50); 2 Sandy Legget (1.26.36); 3 Mark Sandison (1.29.05).
Senior women: 1 Catherine Williamson (1.43.59); 2 Rebecca Sim (1.58.41); 3 Heidi Magnussen (2.07.24).
Veteran women: 1 Arlene Bristow (1.26.06); 2 Julie Mackay (1.30.33); 3 Karen Fraser (1.34.38).
Men’s team: 1 Karl Simpson, Russell Gair and Sandy Legget; 2 Maurice Arthur and Neil Arthur; 3 Shetland Triathlon Club (Andrew Grant, John Anderson and Robin Atkinson).
Womens team: 1 Julie Mackay, Karen Fraser and Catherine Williamson; 2 Hazel Leask, Morag Williamson and Sally Spence; 3 Shona Manson and Rebecca Sim.
For a full set of results log on to shetlandaac.co.uk or the scottishathletics website.
Next year is the 2010 Hamefarin and this will hopefully increase the interest in the half marathon. I actually have one entrant already.
Good luck with your running and if you are interested there are a few of us going to Amsterdam in October.
