Duck Tales

A beautiful cold crisp morning for our “home race”. Linn Park is a just a few hundred metres from Acorn HQ, and Jim is well versed in every nook and cranny in the park. Means Alex can get out even earlier for the course marking. Disappointingly the mud was frozen as was the duck pond! But it had a few hours at that stage to defrost. And it did….

Interest

Race 2 at Linn Park has previously been billed as a tax refund. Kings Park has historically been slightly short of the advertised 5k, but trail running is always measured with an “ish”. Linn Park gives back what Kings Park steals…with interest!

The downside of early course marking allows more time for the fuds to tamper. A couple of misdirected arrows were spotted just prior to the off and corrected, however one was missed, and everyone was treated to a few hundred metres extra on lap 1! More interest on your savings!

Party

Regulars will know South By Five is one continuous party! Smiles and fun everywhere to be seen! 😜 Given the party atmosphere it’s always good to celebrate the birthday of one of the regular race team. Often at registration, designated event first aider and all round hi-viz hero, Cha, this year taking part in the racing as well. Linn Park race happened to fall on her birthday….so more partying!

Off to the start-line runners were led to the theme of Happy Birthday by Stevie Wonder…with Michelle at the front you could say it was the blind leading the blind!

Roots and routes

It’s a truly wonderful park. It would be hard to find a route here that isn’t good. We pride ourselves on our excellent routes, regularly running them ourselves as both of us love the trails and the mud. And that’s before Jim leads us astray down a wee side path of discovery!

A wee tweak was added to the Top Wood which we know you all enjoyed. It wasn’t Jim’s preference though…

Paparazzi galore! There’s no hiding at South By Five with lenses pointing at you all over the gaff, not to mention the hidden cams and drone! 😜 We’re looking forward to the Al-J video when it’s published… especially the flamboyant splashes at the “Duck Pond” and that cheer squad. Those gals were fabulous, they even had runners make a splash that wouldn’t usually! Well done them, a total credit to their parents. Thanks!

Results

It’s not all fun and smiles though… there’s actually a race on!

Those fast folk at the front end set some scary times!

Race podiums were:

🥇Finlay Murray (East Sutherland AC) & Kristina Glynn ( Bellahouston Harriers )

🥈Ethan Tyler ( Garscube Harriers ) & Karen McQuarrie ( Bellahouston Harriers )

🥉Callum Wallace (@bellahoustonharriers ) & Sarah Jeffreys ( Shropshire Shufflers )

Well done to them! And well done to all who took part on a glorious autumn day!

Full results to are available at southbyfive.run

Series standing at this point are still a bit meaningless…with only two races down all runners are still listed. With participants required to complete 5 of 6 events a few will drop off the standings after Rouken Glen and make for some interesting reading and individual battles ahead.

Prizes and awards

Don’t forget to start thinking about the prizes. It’s not just those fast folk. We come up with a host of various categories for runners, marshals and spectators to vote one. Best Dressed is a regular category with tail runner Colin and Jane’s duck outfit already topping the nominations.

A new category this year is looking like Bake Off! Karen McQuarrie’s two contributions so far are going to take some beating… but please feel welcome to bring cake along! We’re runners, we all love a bit of cake – fancy, tasty, both or neither…..just bring the home baking on down…😜

Potentially a dancing prize…tango and Walk Like an Egyptian leading that one!

Thanks….

Thanks for all the amazing foodbank donations which are going the FERN Foodbank (formerly known as East Ren Food Larder), based at Muirend. They’ll also be the recipients for the the Rouken Glen event.

Friends of Linn Park were around for the race marshalling and supplying refreshments at the finish line. They do amazing work within the park, including filling the pot holes on the meadow the day before the race! Thanks to them. If you wish to top up the Acorn donation, that can be done here:

Friends of Linn Park | Localgiving

Our hi-viz volunteer army make this event happen so you can enjoy your Sunday mornings…

Thanks to:

Lynn Connor, Cha Harris, Cedric Moreau, KMAC & Sophie, Paul Fletcher, Seoras Buchanan (FoLP), Dorothy Buchanan (FoLP), Councillor Catherine Vallis, Callum Roach, Garry Smith, Karis McDermott & Sky, Michael Devlin, Steven Gilligan, Sam Hampton Smith, Gordon Allan, June McLeod, Kirsty Milton-Moir, Fern (FoLP), Colin Gray and lastly Sandy the Scarecrow.

Photographers: Kevin Queenan, Ian Cochrane, Bill Oliver, Blythe Lindsay, Alan Jones.