The day started very early with MDAC helping set out the course at 10am, after hundreds of stakes and miles of tape the course was done.

The course was pretty much the same as last year with a back and forth through the playing fields with a few little hill before heading out into the field at the back of Bankton House (unploughed) which was a bonus! before heading back in to the playing fields with once round the astro turf pitch and back down the hill to the finish line.

Races started at 12:30pm with the young females off first, MDAC had 1 team entered consisting of Beth up first followed by Kerry and Linzi with the glory leg. Beth got the team off to a great start with a lap time of 14:17mins, after crossing the finishing line Kerry shot out the starters pen and started making up ground on the leaders with a great lap of 12:28mins. Linzi set off to bring the team home. Linzi was flying round the course, picking off as many runners as possible but had to stop for a breather in the second half of the lap due to a pain in her hip, even with this little stop Linzi manage to complete the lap in 13:21mins great running! hope the hip is better now.

MDAC girls finished in 22nd places with a time of 40:26min. Well done girls hope you enjoyed it and you are all looking forward to the next one. The girls are defo showing the boys up in the XC. :)

After what felt like a week had past since we arrived at Meadowmill the senior men's race got under way at 2:30pm. The line up was Alex off first, followed my myself (Craig), then Tony and all the glory going to Gordon to bring us home.

Alex was off, tucking himself in behind Sandy from HELP in the early stages of the race before passing him before the climb up the first banking. Alex was looking comfortable (sure he wasn't feeling it) as he headed out into the back field. Last year Alex ran a great time of just over 17mins so we all knew there would be a good minute or two to come off that time this year. No sooner had he entered the field he was back into sight coming up the finish straight, crossing the line in a time of 15:39mins.

I was off on my lap, after testing the course on Thursday night i started nice and steady, knowing the small hills and field were still to come. After leaving the lovely grass pitches I headed into the field where the ground was hard and very uneven, I tucked myself in behind a couple of Edinburgh AC runners and knuckled down. Once up the steps to the playing field I could hear Alex & Rachel encouraging me on for the last part of the lap. I was down the hill and up the finish straight to set Tony off for his lap in 16:39mins.

Tony was off. by this time the field of runners was well spread out, Tony was looking relaxed and was settling in for a good lap. After some fancy arm work coming the hill (10 out of 10 for style by the way) he was off chasing down the guys in front. Tony was chased up the finishing straight by the young Sean Reilly from Central AC who was the last runner for their team and was coming home in first place, Tony held him off with a last push to the finish line with a time of 17:44mins,

Only a week had past since Gordon had destroyed the Lock Ness Marathon in 3:35:00mins. After the first 50m down the start straight we could all tell that Gordon had took it easy at the marathon last week and left some in the tank for the XC season. :-) He was looking nice and relaxed and was flying along with a smile on his face. Once down the last banking from the top half of the course and still smiling Gordon brought us home in glory with a time of 18:06mins.

Massive well done guys, we finished 44th in a time of 1:08:08mins.

Looking forward to the next one already.