Last Race
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Qx5 race report
I can’t believe it’s all over. Queens Park was the last event in the South By Five series!
A few numbers
- 6 races
- 10 weeks
- 334 runners
- 43 series finishers
- 1670 Km run (over 1000 miles)
- 32 bags of rubbish collected
- 27 trees planted with Trees For Life
- 32 t-shirts
- 32 medals
- 2 Bellahouston Harriers memberships
- £226.54 donated to Give A Dog
- £50 defib
- 113 pairs of trainers donated to our ReShoes campaign
When you also add the Dunky which took place 2 weeks before Sx5, we’ve done 7 races in 12 weeks. With Christmas and Coronavirus to contend with.
No wonder we’re absolutely shattered!.
Qx5
Queens Park was the biggest of the lot for us. Not the most entrants but the most work. With goody bags, post race event, prizes, beer and soup all to be arranged. We spent a lot of the build up not knowing if we’d be allowed to proceed.
Race day came, and once again the weather proved fantastic. The Saturday litter picks have been mostly a damp affair. Almost like we paid a penance on Saturday for good race day weather. You’re welcome!
Give A Dog A Bone..
Michelle welcomed Kas and Diesel to the start line. Diesel was there to represent our chosen event charity, Give A Dog A Bone. He brought a human along to supervise, and it must be said Kas smiled in all the right places, and was a very polite gentleman. Diesel had trained Kas well, and Kas was delegated the duty of accepting a cheque for £226.54 donated by Acorn Trails, supported in the most part by the series runners. Well done to all and thank you for your support.
The start
Kas and Diesel were not the only start line guests. We invited Nick from South Side Six to come along.
Our series is inspired by Nick’s former event. He and his team devised the original South Side Six.
Offering a touch of nostalgia, we asked Nick to do the honours and set the runners of on their journey. A start line very familiar to Nick as it echoed the South Side Six start. Jim the Dog caught in the moment, cheering the runners off at the start.
Nick would once again have a touch of déjà vu as he welcomed runners up the hill to the finish line, where he attached the last coloured dot to runners race bibs. Full series completers proudly displaying a full rainbow on their chest!
The course
A downhill start.😊😊
Followed by a hill, a downhill, a flat bit, a hill, probably some more hills, a couple of inclines, a set of b@stard steps, and a total @#*& of an uphill finish!
We threw in a wee muddy section, just because we love it!
With all those hills and steps, surprisingly runner feedback was very positive!
“A varied and challenging but very enjoyable route” quipped one participant on Strava!
I was expecting more abuse and swear words at the finish. At least for this one I can blame Nick for THAT finish.
Podiums and prizes
Not here for his first Acorn Trails race but his first of the Sx5 series, Stuart Donnachie finally claimed one of our top steps, having ticked of the other podium spots in our summer races last year.
He and eventually second place finisher Colin Whitby (Garscube Harriers) had a great tussle throughout the race. And despite the difficulty of the uphills and steps both tipped the clock under 19 minutes in 18:12 and 18:28 respectively.
Chris Upson (Cambuslang) showed his hill racing pedigree to power up the final hill to take the final podium step in 19:31
The women’s race would prove, as it has throughout the series, a close battle.
Hannah Bayes holding Jenny Brown at bay (couldn’t resist!) to take the tape in 21.43. Brown pushing all the way, finished the hill finale in 21.56
Roberta Fletcher (Milburn Harriers) taking another series podium finish (23.31) to round off an excellent series.
Series
Second place at Qx5 was enough for Whitby to claim the over series win, becoming our 2021/22 South By Five Champion.
He was joined as series Champion by Jenny Brown, who held of a good challenge from Hannah Bayes who narrowly finished second in the series.
This is a correction from the result announced the day. Apologies for the error.
Roberta Fletcher taking third place in the series, completing a good battle between the ladies.
Whitby was joined on the steps by Cambuslang duo Chris Upson and Richard Cooper.
Men’s age category prizes were taken by Paul Hunter in the M40 category, and Iain Muirhead in the M50. Iain as first unattached male runner also won a free membership with Bellahouston Harriers.
A last minute battle led to a tie in the M60 category with David Munro and Robert Doherty sharing the plaudits.
The women’s age category awards went to Sheila Murray for F40. This is again a correction. Sheila was incorrectly given the third overall prize.
F50 was won by Lindsay Shields Waters who had a great consistent series.
The women’s F60 prize was taken by Alexis Oates, which will be a happy surprise as she missed the last race.
Thanks
As ever we can’t go ahead with our races without our volunteers.
We try to keep out entry fees as low as possible. Without our hi viz heroes this would not be possible, and incurred costs would be inevitably passed onto you as runners. Another reason to thank them as you run by!
Awards
We had a few additional awards to giveaway for the series… (Other nominees are in the brackets)
Best Dressed – Blythe Lindsay
Best mud dodger – Michael Devlin
Marshal’s Runners – Calum Roach
Runners Runner – Stephanie McNicol
Runners Marshal – Clare Taylor
We thought everyone was amazing. Glad we didn’t need to to pick!
For Qx5 we would like to thank:
Lynn Connor, Finola Ashe, Cedric Moreau, Rodger McEleney, Brian Hughes, Jim The Dog, Nick Vaughan (and kids), June McLeod, Clare Taylor, Finn HS, Ray Loughran, Nick Dowley, Simon Parkinson, David Powrie, Rachel Goslan, Liz Deans, Tracey Roach, Anna Robinson, and Wellcroft Bowling Club
Music: Sam Hampton-Smith and Finn
Catering: Rodger McEleney
We had photos from,
Also additional photos from:
You mean need to join the Acorn Trails Pinboard (Facebook group) to see some of these photos
For the overall series we would like to add specific additional thanks to Brian Hughes and Lynn Connor, without whose help the series would have been much more chaotic.
We look forward to seeing you all at a future Acorn Trails event – check out the Women’s 10 – a fully tarmac race under the leafy boughs of Pollok Park paths. Click her for more details…
