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In late 1986 Corstorphine Athletics Club was founded. We are commonly referred to as CAAC. We have athletes of all ages and abilities taking part and competing in a wide range of athletic events.
Borders XC Stage 4 Berwick upon Tweed
Submitted by Jan-Bert on Sun, 31/01/2010 - 6:59pm
Luckily enough Grant was driving today. Normally this means two things 1. you get there early 2. you have time to run the course about twenty times before the actual race begins! You see Grant likes to get to races early and then thoroughly prepare. Me? I was already obsessing about our pits stop on the way back at the Cedar Cafe. You see us older athletes have different priorities. Mine is called double sausage, egg and chips!
Back to the race........
The warm up showed us (Chris P, Graham and I) that the tide sea was coming in and that the normal route on the beach towards the steps which take you onto the headland was not going to be useable. Having carefully picked our route we made our way back to the car to wait for Chris and Grant who were warming up by running the whole course and most probably nipped over to the Holy Isle in between. Still while we had been away a decent CAAC contingent had assembled Susan, Jo and Jillian had arrived with Nick who had decided not to run with his chest infection. I think the cold sea air would have cleared out his airways myself! Steve B arrived with a wipeable number he had obviously been studying the tide timetables before setting off. Derek, Matin H and Martin C had also arrived as had the whole family Henderson!
Rory H was the first to test the delights of the soft sand at the start, the beach, the headland and the all of it back in reverse! Did he enjoy it I asked. Kind of it was hard, was his answer. Enough said. It got me thinking about the sausage, egg and............ anyway once the junior race was over it was our turn.
Chris and Grant sped off leaving most of us to struggle through the soft sand. After a fair amount of pushing and shoving - its quite a tight course at the start - we moved onto the beach, which was my chance to catch up with Chris P who had shot off. As the tide had come in even further we had to take a much higher line over the beach then usual and ended up running over the rocks rather then the sand on the last quarter. After the rocks is the climb onto the headland and the an undulating course until the turning point. Its a good course to shout a good bit of Jan 'encouragement' to your team mates. At the turn my thoughts returned to the Cedar Cafe........ Anyway once onto the beach it was clear there was a good chance that our feet might get a wee bit wet! Still there is nothing better then hitting the soft sand with very cold wet feet. Once I had been encourage to the finish by the Henderson clan I found out that Grant and Chris had been beaten into 2nd and 3rd by a phantom vegan runner! Very good runs by them and the rest of the CAAC contingent and I hate to admit it I am starting to like the course and not only because we stop off for s...... well you will know the rest by now!
Of course we did make it to the Cedar Cafe and then survived Grant doing an intricate 21 point turn on a speed bum (don't ask!) after dropping Chris and upsetting a few of the locals! All in all a great day out!
10 August 2004
7 hours 1 min
Nice report Jan, have to admit it was an extremely scenic route. Good fun. ;]
Results now up at http://www.bordersxc.info/
22 September 2004
4 days 9 hours
Come on guys things are slipping : In the senior mens we didn't win either the indiviual or the team (shock horror we only 4th in the team and 2nd in the senior mens indiviual) (written tough in cheek). Well done everyone particularly Sue Johnston who has now can't be beaten in the F40 catergory and Martin Caldwell who like wise in the M55 catergory.With a number of other catergories still up for grabs and CAAC atheletes still in the mix, WE!!! should be looking for a strong finish with lots of CAAC athletes competing in both Gala and Peebles.
Why was I not in Berwick? I was mopping my wifes fevered brow as she was suffering from a rather nasty bout of food poisoning and trying to control/entertian the children. It was a pity as I was looking forward to the race and I am always trying to find an excuse to get to goo down to the land of me mams birth, y it would have been canny like. EE yu canny beat it like.
Mike M-S
PS Jan I am dissapointed in you thinking of nothing but a transport cafe food for an entire race. Come on think of a decent beer at the very least but transport cafe food! Come on!
22 September 2004
4 days 9 hours
I have just looked at the results again and I think Grant has probaldly won the M40 catergory! Well done!
Mike M-S
17 May 2006
13 hours 34 min
Photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/caac/sets/72157623206352319/detail/
10 August 2004
7 hours 1 min
nice photos Nick, cheers.
Some more at http://www.portobellorunners.co.uk/berwick.htm and http://www.carnethy.com/#February that ive found.
15 August 2004
2 weeks 14 hours
I would like to put in a good word for this race. No-one seemed to have a good word to say about it prior, with phrases like 'boring' or 'just an out and back beach run' bandied about. Sorry to differ. I thought it was great, varied and testing, with significant beach obstacles, plus the headland, and an absolutely stunning seascape. The tidal breakers were fantastic, and untamable nature is always an inspiration to me. I know I am an incurable scenery romantic, but I would rather race in a situation like this 1000 times over than pound urban streets. The photo sets from CAAC, Portobello and Carnethy say it all, a race well worth supporting in the Borders series, so lets have no more negativity about this perceived 'Cinderella' of the series and offer our sincere thanks to Berwick running club for offering a different challenge in an entirely coastal setting. I will be back for more next year if available and positive about it too!
10 August 2004
13 hours 35 min
Mike, I've had another look at the results too and, while Grant is in a strong position, he could easily be robbed of the M40 prize. Some runners appear way down the table because they have run only three events. There are a few who could overtake Grant IF they do well in the remaining races and IF Grant does not improve on his total.
This is unlikely, for none of them is in our Grant's class. Grant deserves to win and he will win if he just holds off those challengers. Good luck!
22 September 2004
4 days 9 hours
Two things :1) Technically Martin C you are right someone could beat Grant but Grants score for 4 events can you increase (you loose your lowest place), even if runners were to run the remaining 2 events and win at the worse Grants score will still be at worst what he has at the moment.
2) One of the things that appealed to me about the Borders Series was the variety of different courses, of the 2 races I have run so far I have enjoyed the different courses and I was looking forward to running in Berwick because of it being a different challenging course , so I agree with Martin H , none of a the course look the same so each are a different challenge so they can't be described as boring.
Mike M-S