Saturday 28 May 2010

REPORT

On Saturday 29th May the island hosted the 5th annual Tiree 10km Fun Run. Over 200 people took part with ages ranging from the youngest babies pushed in prams to the eldest runners in their seventies! The day was a fantastic success with plenty of visiting runners commenting on how beautiful the island was and how friendly they were received. There was strong representation from local residents across all the events, especially in the kids fun run.

The winning time for the 10km event was 36:31 by George Miller from Oxfordshire.

“That has got to be the best start for a race I’ve ever seen; on the beach with the band playing. The course was great and I thought the event was really good” – George Miller

The band of course were the Tiree Pipe Band. They marched the 10km’s in great style providing much needed encouragement to other runners and walkers. So a big thank you to them for their hard work and perseverance.

“The course was harder this year with the ups and downs on the road to Hynish. It’s not easy to go uphill carrying a drum but we made it round.” – Gordon Connell.

Top Finishers include:
1st - George Miller 36:31
2nd - Owain Williams 39:16
6th - Peter West (1st Veteran) 41:12
10th - Christine Milne (1st Lady) 43:28
21st - Stephen Tanner 48:46
23rd - Andrew Findlater 49:10
37th - Sarah Holliday 52:17
44th - Anne Kavanagh 53:33

The competitors found the new course to Hynish more challenging than previous years, with the ups and downs and twisty roads. Despite this most people wanted to keep it the same for next year, commenting on the fantastic views and the start with everyone together on the beach. Thank you to everyone who lives and works along this route, for your cooperation and help in staging an event like this on public roads.

The evening played host to a dance with Trail West which proved to be the perfect end to a successful day. Proceeds from the dance went to Tiree Windsurf Club.

“I was very pleased to see the level of support shown in such an enjoyable way, helping to raise much needed funds” - Morag McManus, Club Chairperson

As ever the whole event was sponsored by local businesses. Thanks in particular to John and his team at Tiree Medical Practice, Steve at Concise Aerospace and Becci at Chocolates and Charms. Also big thanks to Andy at the Coop for donating loads of goodies for the goodie bags.

Thank you to all the people who volunteered to help out on the day; the marshalls, timekeepers, event crew and everybody else who contributed to make this such a positive day. If anyone has any comments or suggestions I would love to hear them.

The Tiree 10k is organized by Will Wright of Tiree Fitness in partnership with Active Schools. Will can be contacted at:
will@tireefitness.co.uk or call 220 421.

Results will be posted at www.tireefitness.co.uk