The Last One – Queens Park Sx5

We finally closed out the 23/24 South By Series.

Here’s some numbers to crunch:

• 193 folk entered at least one event
• 171 different runners took part in a least one race
• 27 finished all 6 events and are Series completers
• An additional 35 are also Series completers having finished 5 of 6.
• Over 200 hours of volunteer time that helped the series be the success it is.
• 50 trees purchased to be planted in the Scottish Highlands rewilding project.
• Nearly 500kg of foodbank donations, enough to feed a family of 4 for the entire time Sx5 was on.
• £450 for Give A Dog A Bone

Final route

Another wee tweak from our route man, and a bit more elevation added to the race route. It’s slightly short of 5k, but the route flows much better, contains more trail. And with the race feeling more like a 5 miler rather than a 5k, there was no complaints of the missing 100m at the chequered flag.

There was some complaining about the missing downhill! 😝

Exhausted, wet and soggy. And that’s just the volunteers!

What a day to finish on. We’ve managed to dodge some weather during this series, but it caught up with us for the Queen’s Park finale.

The start/finish line exposed at the top of the hill left the timing team particularly at the mercy of the conditions. Even the piper had to stop to empty the rain out of his bagpipes!

As usual the volunteers endured, and all the course markings were dismantled. Arrows, tape, soaking flags and bunting was hastily packed into the car, and we retreated to the bowling club to warm and compile results.

The rain had also had it’s way with those, which left a bit of head scratching as the podium prizes were worked out.

It all came together quite easily for the series standing.

Individual Queens Park race results were a different matter! Some soggy bit of paper were retrieved from the debris in the car, and the trawling through Strava to find out who certain people were, began!

Once the laptop was removed from a bucket of rice nicely dried out, and runners all located, the final race results were compiled!

And here they are! Many apologies for the delay.

Qx5 Podiums

Male:

1st – Grant Jeans 19.59

2nd – Callum Wallace 20.15

3rd – Richard Cooper (Cambuslang Harriers) 20.21

Female:

1st – Lana Buchheim (Westerlands CCC) 22.42

2nd – Juliette Longford (Glasgow Tri) 23.50

3rd – Jennifer Conway (Bellahouston RR) 24.39

Series Results

Podium Prizes (supported by Migo Sports)

Top spots

Male 1st – Cameron Muir

Female 1st – Juliette Linford

Male 2nd – Grant Jeans

Female 2nd – Jennifer Conway

Male 3rd – Callum Wallace

Female 3rd – Julie Atkinson

Age Cats

Male 40 1st – John Murray

Female 40 1st – Sheila Murray

Male 50 1st – Richard Cooper

Female 50 1st – Sharon O’Leary

Male 60 1st – Robert Docherty

Female 60 1st – Pauline Henderson

Male 70 1st – Charles Gorrie

 

Pop-up prizes

South by Fives has a list of additional prizes.

The actual prizes included prizes donated by our ReGift scheme which encourages folk to pass on unwanted gifts.

Also some great donations from local businesses:

• The Old Smiddy
• Church on the Hill
• Beauty with a Conscious
• Migo Sports
• uConcept
• The Tartan Coo
• Trevi

Winners of the following prizes were given the chance to select from the above prizes.

Runners Marshal: – Laura Lennon

Runners Runners: – Jenny Wan

Marshals Runners: – Jenny Wan

Best Dressed: – Colin Grey and Michael Devlin

Dirt Dodger: – Lukasz Pudlo

Mud Magnet: – Callum Roach

Wonder in the Wet: – Gayle Owens

Wander around the wet: – Laura Wallace

Race to Registration: – Derek Miller

Most Improved: – Nathalie Smith

Bib that saw the most action: – Julie Atkinson

Couch to Sx5: – Anna Deboub

Best Newcomer: – Gareth Clark

 

Sprint Finisher: – Kristin Sauer

Spirit of South By Five: – Mairi Milmore

 

Klinsman Cup, sponsored by Ray Loughran, and named in ‘honour’ of Jamie Wieland’s 2022 dive through the puddle which no one caught on camera!

This years winners were Steph and Lukasz, who both received a ‘Klinsman’ cup depicting their contrasting methods of dealing with the Linn Park duck pond.

Our thanks

We’ll start with you guys. Without the runners there’s no point putting in the effort that we do. Thanks for turning out and traveling through some rubbish weather. Whilst the race weather has been mostly good, the commute weather hasn’t always been ideal!

Obviously our army of amazing hi-viz heroes are invaluable. Throughout the series they’ve been second to none. At Queens Park specifically we’d like to thank:

Lynn Connor, Cedric Moreau, Brian Hughes, Nick Dowley, Debbie Wright and Paige, Jenny Brown, Steven Gilligan, Paul Fletcher, David Gemmell, Deidre Hoyle, Angus Robinson, Liz Deans, Tina Kinsey, Dad, Charlene Harris, Callum Wallace, Ruth Harrison, Zuzana Rencova

The paparazzi!

All through the series this team have popped up all over the routes, hiding in hedges, shouting encouragement and taking fabulous photos for you all to takeaway for free!

Huge thanks to Blythe Lindsay, Laura Lennon, Bill Oliver, Iain Murray, George Wilson and Kevin Queenan.

 

We’ve loved it! We can’t wait to see you all again.

See you at Pollok Park Trail Races on 10th March or Linn Park Trail Race on 7th April

If you’ve not signed up, don’t leave it long before you enter!

www.entrycentral.com/acorntrails