On Sunday 1st March 2020, 11 Carnegie Harrier women made the journey to Arbroath for the Smokies 10 ladies only race. We left behind a grey and snowy Dunfermline to arrive in a sunny Arbroath, albeit at 11am prompt the winter weather training kicked in as we spent the first half of the race running into a headwind with some rain thrown in for good measure. Despite the wild weather there was a lot of support throughout the race. This race is a great 10 mile distance which heads out of Arbroath into the countryside; the route consists of undulations and a nice downhill to get the final push in for the last two miles. Unfortunately a tail wind on the way back into Arbroath wasn’t to be!
Joy Gudgin was the first harrier across the line, in 35th place overall in a time of 1:19:06, very closely followed by Isobel Burnett in 37th in 1:19:17, both ladies winning first prize in their respective age categories. Gail Murdoch was the third harrier home followed by Lesley Reynolds, Alison Murray, Kerry Hunter, Gail Beveridge, Pauline Walker (in her 29th consecutive Smokies race), Fiona Rennie, Karen Forsyth and Karen Rennie.
Lucky Lesley won a spot prize of some Arbroath smokies during the prize giving too!
We all enjoyed a super buffet whilst drying off and warming up! As well as a t-shirt we all got a finisher bag which had the usual goodies and a wee bottle of wine!! Well done to everyone.
Thanks to Kerry Hunter for the race report.
Here are a selection of photos from the race, courtesy of Pete Bracegirdle.