2018 Scottish Club Novice Cup, Galashiels Trophy & Cole Land Cup Muritai School Eastbourne Sat 23 Jun

The Harry Potter Magic Portal. This takes you through to the enchanted track which winds its way to the road where there is a plate of cream buns. Okay there were no cream buns.  

Results and Race Report

The main event on today's menu was the open handicap Novice Cup which is basically unchanged from 40 years ago.

The Novice Cup is for someone who has not won a club handicap race before and the Galashiels is for somebody who has previously won a club trophy.

The start and finish are in the same place and the course identical to the one that Dave Hatfield ran when he picked up the race record of 15.26 in 1981.  

But there is a change which perhaps indicates how impressive Dave’s record is. In the old days, once you came out of the bush at the top of the track and headed down the sealed road toward the water. 

Instead of turning hard left onto the footpath and heading for home, runners had to cross the road and run on the beach for a way before getting back up on to the  seaside footpath/road and then heading back to the finish. 

And that involved more intersection crossings.

Clearly with today's traffic this is a bit more dangerous for competitors, hence the course change. 

The change probably doesn't alter the distance much but running in loose sand slows you down. 

Coming off the seal onto the beach and then running under the jetty was like running on sponge rubber and easily broke the rhythm. Tall people like Alan Wallis would have had trouble with the jetty. 

The line you took along the beach depended on whether the tide was in or out, but as I recall you didn't get your feet wet.

Also as part of the day the the Cole Land Walking Cup was contested and the kids raced for something as well.

I have posted some photos below. They are technically imperfect with some not quite in focus and some with the highlights blown. 

I also missed some shots mostly when Lord Voldemort stole through the portal disguised as a woman walking her dog.