Blast From The Past- Saltcoats Round The Houses Road Race, July 2001

My recent spate of race reports has left me only with the recent BMC 5000m in Stretford to catch up on. A few words on that to come soon.

For now, I noticed I've done a few "Blast From The Past" features but not produced one for a while.

A flick through some running photos provided a suitable topic.

At one time, every year on the traditional Glasgow Fair Holiday Monday in July, a road race was held in the North Ayrshire town of Saltcoats. Measuring approximately 4.25 miles (it was always billed as 4.5 miles but wasn't as far as that), it started on the seafront beside some public toilets, no doubt for convenience (pun intended). The route then took in a small loop, eventually going past Vincents Chip Shop (now called the Eglinton Diner & Fish Fry) back to the seafront before taking in two larger laps, each one heading down the streets off the back of the seafront to Ardrossan then back along the coast to the start/finish. Flat as a pancake and a very fast course if the weather held up. In the late 2000s, the race moved to an inland venue in Saltcoats, keeping a similar set up, this time a 2 lap course of similar distance. Nowadays there is still a road race in North Ayrshire on "Fair Monday" but it's now a 5 miler held in Irvine and hosted by the local club. I've run the new version though haven't been to it since 2009 because I always seem to be on holiday at the same time but never say never.

I first raced at Saltcoats in 2000 as a 16 year old slowly getting to grips with longer distances, struggling round, very badly from memory, in a time of 28:14. The following year, while still a first claim member of Whitemoss AAC, I had just begun training with Calderglen Harriers. The benefits showed very quickly as I improved my time by almost 4 minutes. The photo below (blurred because I've scanned in a hard copy) shows me at the front of a group (not the leading one) on the small lap after passing the chip shop. Hanging on to my shoulder is none other than Cambuslang Harriers chairman David Cooney. We were strangers at the time and did not become acquainted for another 8 years. I cannot recall who got the better of who on the night.