Ronnie Cairns Running

Well that’s another race completed in my charity challenge to raise money for the Yorkhill Children’s Charity.

Last night I took part in the Polaroid Dumbarton 10k and my sponsored for this race by local company Tents and Events.

I was feeling pretty good about the race and was ready to give it a go to better last weeks time and get under that hour barrier. This race had it high points and low points, I started off well making sure not to dragged along with others runners and kept to my own pace and race plan. The course was reasonably flat with a few small rises and falls, so what you loose on the up’s you gain on the down’s, the opposite to real life I suppose! At the 5k mark I was ahead of schedule with my fastest 5k time so far and feeling that if I could just keep to a 6min kilometre pace on the next half of the race then I would be home and dry, little did I know what was ahead of me.

As I hit the 7k-mark the runner in front of me suddenly came to an abrupt halt, jerked back and fell to the ground. I managed to grab him before his head hit the tarmac but it was obvious he was in real trouble. With the help of another runner we managed to put him into the recovery position and as that is as far as my first aid skills go but luckily there was a nurse running who came to our aid. The man had stopped breathing so the nurse administered CPR, as we got someone to call for aid and an ambulance. Thankfully the runner came to and started to breath again and then a few minutes later the ambulance and paramedics arrived and took over.

As there was nothing else for me to do and although a bit shook up, I managed to resume the race with the others that had stopped to help. For some reason my personal best attempt now was of no significance thinking of that poor man. I finished with an official chip time of 66 minutes and 29 seconds so considering I had to stop for a while to help a fellow runner, I was happy with my performance and will just have to wait until another day to get my PB down.

I have learned a couple of things from this experience, firstly that I need to take a course on basic first aid as I did feel a bit helpless and it was fortunate that there were others who could assist and the need to get properly checked out by your doctor before taking up any form of regular strenuous exercise, which I had done before embarking on this challenge.

Sadly I will not be able to take part in the third of the Polaroid races at Clydebank next week due to other commitments but I am looking forward to the Edinburgh 10k on Saturday 30^th May.

If you would like to donate to my fundraising efforts, please visit my Just Giving page and give what you can afford. www.justgiving.com/ronniecairnsrunning