An Honest Man in the Honest Toun - Musselburgh 10k Race Report

I woke up to glorious morning on Saturday and headed eastwards to Musselburgh for my 42nd race of the year. I had heard reports about the honest toun event but this would be my first time running it. After a detour for a pit stop at the local Tesco, I found a car park in close proximity to the Race Start at Loretto School’s Playing Fields. I had no sooner switched off the ignition, when Garscube Harriers, uncle and nephew pairing, John and Keiran McLaughlin pulled up beside me. We made our way over the pedestrian bridge, which forms part of the race, as well as the Edinburgh Half and full Marathon, to the Race HQ. The first person I saw was Cambuslang’s Robert Gilroy, closely followed by Edinburgh AC’s Colin McGill, who hails from Kilmarnock.

There’s a cut off of 400 for the popular 10k but for some reason my name hadn’t appeared on the entrant’s list published prior to the event, however I had emailed the organiser pointing this out and was confident that there would be no problem. I was right. The organisers apologised for the mix up as they gave me my race number, ‘402’!

Why is my head shining at the Start?

I chatted with, amongst others, Bellahouston Harriers Suzanne McMahon and Tom Keenan; Ferranti’s mother and daughter, Betty and Claire Gilchrist; the unattached Couper twins; Hamilton’s Jim Breen; Motherwell’s Graeme Kennedy, HBT’s Rosie Smith and Kirkintilloch’s Tom Ross before warming up on the grass field and making my way to the Start line. I knew that the playing field would form part of the route but I didn’t know if it would be at the Start or the Finish, however as we assembled behind the Start line facing the playing fields, I deduced that it would be at the Start.

The event incorporates the East District 10k Road Race Championship and I knew that there would be a strong field from the local clubs. I was well aware that I had faded in the second half of Monday’s race in Irvine and that I don’t cope well with running in the heat, I had also been informed that much of the course was off road, so I decided that I would adopt a conservative approach to the race. Furthermore to protect myself from the morning sunshine I donned my running cap and my Polaroid Series sun glasses.


Race Report
At 10:29am we were set off in an anti clockwise direction around the School’s playing fields before turning right, onto Mountjoy Terrace, A quick left and we were on a narrow path heading southwards towards the promenade, with the Firth of Forth on our right hand side. Garmin indicated that the 1st k had taken 4:14, a little quicker than what I was aiming for. We joined the promenade and it wasn’t long until I could see the lead runners, led by Inverclyde’s Andrew Douglas, making their way back, after the turn at 1.5k.

Over the Bridge at 3k

The race was still settling down as I reached the 2k marker in 8:40. Back towards Mountjoy Terrace and a sharp left and right took us along the external perimeter of the playing fields. We reached the mouth of the Esk and turned right, along its path, we ran past the backside of the Race HQ and turned left over the bridge. The 3rd k had taken me 4:33. A left turn took us on to Goose Green Crescent heading eastward. This was the first actual ‘road’ part of the race and I started to increase my pace. However this ‘grey ground’ didn’t last long and we were soon back on the ‘green stuff’ but not for long, as we then joined a dirt trail heading northwards along the coast. The sea was to our left and the local horse race course to our right, the trail was narrow and I had a runner gasping for breadth on my shoulder, I did think about moving over and letting him pass but decided to increase my pace instead. I was a little disappointed to see that my 5k time was 22:19 but hoped that I could have a negative split. We turned right, away from the coast, and I heard a marshal supporting a Dunbar runner just behind me. I didn’t take long for me to work out that their club colours were white with a green diagonal stripe, as I was overtaken approaching the water station.

I was so glad to see that the volunteers were handing out decent sized bottles of water as this meant that I could have a drink, before removing my cap and pouring the remainder of the cool water over my head. Suitably refreshed I continued along the trail, where a right turn took us onto a country road and heading towards the race course. A left and then a right turn and we were back on the ‘green stuff’, a little further on and the route took us onto the famous Musselburgh Race Course. The going was good to soft, there were no runners in racing silks, although I did have my peaked cap on, as I galloped along past the 7k marker. The race course veered to the left but we were steered to our right and back towards Goose Green and the 8k marker. As we approached the bridge over the Esk, I noticed a disheartened Rosie Smith making her way back along the course.

I had caught the Dunbar runner but he wasn’t for giving in easy and he returned the favour a couple of times. I’d have gladly sat on his shoulder and let him do the work but he seemed to overtake me and then slow down. I decided that enough was enough and went for it at about 8.5k, as we retraced our steps back towards the Start. The Playing Fields were now on our left and the sea on our right as I increased the gap on him and caught the yellow vested runner in front. With 1k to go the route turned left back onto Mountjoy Terrace. There were arrows painted on the road pointing towards the promenade but there were no runners to be seen anywhere! “Shit” I cried as I stopped at the junction “Which way?” “Straight ahead” said yellow vest and I headed back towards the Playing Fields. Once there I discovered that the route now took us clockwise across the grass towards the Start/Finish. Encouraged by Claire Couper I increased the pace along the final furlong. However just as I approached the line, the Dunbar runner (Neil Jones) appeared. Accompanied by a Shettleston Harrier they sprinted up the inside rail, showed a good turn of foot, and got their noses in front, close to home, to beat me by ¾ length.

Post Race
I was a bit disappointed with my time of 44:38 (chip 44:34) but it had been an enjoyable race. I exchanged congratulations with the Shettleston runner, Andrew Kirkhope, as I collected my Goody Bag and water. I then cheered home a few of the other runners before joining the queue for the post race ice cream.


Much after race chatting over, one of the finest, post race spreads ensued before the prize ceremony. As expected, Andrew Douglas had kept his lead to win in a time of 31:04, Ray Ward earned runner-up spot with 32:32 and Robert Gilroy took Bronze with 32:39. Colin McGill placed 5th overall and 3rd in the East District Race. Whilst in the women’s event Central’s Lyndsay Morrison placed first, in 37:44, ahead of Claire Couper, in 38:10 and Ayrshire lass Janet Roxburgh, who used to run for Irvine AC, in 38:19.

I placed 126th out of 358 finishers and although the mix up with registration resulted in me being recorded as runner-up in the MV60 race, honest I’m not that old.  Being born in Ayr though I may have been the first Honest Man in the Honest Toun's race.

Summary
An enjoyable race, in gorgeous sunshine with loads of food and friendly running buddies, what else could you ask for?

Once again, well done to all concerned with the event.  Maybe see you next year, when I'm younger.

Full Results

Photos and More

Thanks to Keith Sambrook for the horse racing report idea and, of course, the photographers.