Running Potter Running: Making an A**e of myself at the Kids cross country!

The first runner in the P5 race appears over the hill.

Today was the third and final in the Garscube schools league.

I decided not to run up as it is just too cold to run, get hot and sweaty and then stand around outdoors for hours. I planned to run after the races were over.

I went up in the car with the kids and reported as a first aider.

It was a really cold morning and the roads were pretty treacherous. One of our club members was involved in an traffic accident on her way up..fortunately she was not injured but her car was a write off!

There was no salt down at Mugdock and the whole place was a sheet of ice!

Having squeezed the first aid pack into my rucksack I headed of to my allocated position. Striding across the fore court in front of the visitor centre, surrounded by parents, kids and fellow Garscubers, too late I realised I was also surrounded by ice! In cartoon style I fell right on my tail bone with a huge thud, trying to save my thermos cup full of tea and not breaking my fall. (I failed to save anything!) A few of the parents rushed over to my aid..while those who knew me made the observation that 'it was your kids skidding on the ice that made it such a deathtrap' Who needs sympathy anyway!

Slightly embarrassed and sore I hobbled off to my allocated spot about 1k from the visitor centre. This was by a wooden bridge and the marshiest boggiest bit of the course....we deduced that this was a possible high risk spot. The bridge, being wooden, was pretty slippy. Tony..fellow marshal and helper had the brain wave of using the soil from mole hills to reduce the slipperiness. It worked and he only got a few strange looks from dog-walkers!

Tony champion shoe finder with a mole hill!

Finally the lead runner in the P5 race appeared over the hill..charging down towards the BOG and us. The front runners careered through..no bog was going to slow them down. Made it over the bridge and away around the bend like a swarm of bees. Then the rest came hurtling towards us. Some getting stuck in the mud. Some loosing shoes! The messy work began. Pulling children out of the mud...and searching for lost trainers that the mud had swallowed up and engulfed. It was icy cold and clinging so that even when you pulled your hand out it continued to freeze! Eeeew.

Quite a few kids just ran on, not letting a lost trainer slow them down!

It was a similar story with the P6, P7 and S1-3 race...I had repositioned myself next to the bog to see if I could spot where the shoes were lost...increasing our chances of finding them. As a result as the kids threw themselves through the mud I was splattered from top to toe...but our shoe finding percentage went up:-)

Lucie made it through!
Tony turned out to be a champion shoe finder, digging deeper than I could bare! When one parent turned up looking his sons red and white shoe, Tonys' fast reply was, 'Sorry we've only got brown ones!

The older ones managed to keep their shoes on thanks goodness as I really wasn't wanting to plunge my hand into any more icy mud!

Rory, in yellow, searching for his shoe!

Kirstin making light work of the mud!

As the last race went through we gathered up the course markings and signs and headed back to the visitor centre and a bacon roll and coffee.

The kids did brilliantly again, the results aren't out yet so I can't post. Cody was convinced he came 11th which considering he is still a year younger is pretty great.

In the afternoon we had been given a day pass for Esporta. I did a few laps of the pool with the kids then spent a long while between the steam room, sauna and Jaccuzzi...in an attempt to ease the sore butt and thaw out my freezing hands and toes!