Ronnie Cairns Running

I thought I would give you an update on where I am to date with things. This Saturday I will be taking part in the Glasgow Men’s 10k and this will be my last race for eight weeks to get down to some training. My training has been going well with the assistance of my coach Derek Hawkins at Hawkins Running. I am doing about four training sessions a week. This week on Sunday I did an easy nine miles and then on Tuesday it was down to Dunoon Stadium for some interval training on the track, which consisted of a 12 min run at easy pace with three 6 min intervals with a minute recovery jog between them and then finishing off with another easy 12 min run. Tonight, Thursday it was another 9 miles in the rain and tomorrow I have a nice easy 35min jog (I like this one best) then a rest-day on Saturday getting ready for the race on Sunday. When I started running late last summer, I never thought I would manage this sort of weekly routine but it has just been amazing what a bit of dedication and good coaching can do and better still, I am really enjoying it all.

Enough of all this, I had cause for some celebration today. I took an hour off work this morning to go down to see my granddaughter, Abigail at the Kirn School Nursery sports. She did really well with three firsts, two seconds and a third and I was very proud of her although we have identified that we will have to do some work on her beanbag race technique over the winter season but we will get it sorted for next year. As the sports came to an end it was time for the fathers race and as the numbers were low, grandfathers were invited to join in. Now not to be one who ducks a challenge the bold Ronnie lined up for the race. This was my chance to make my granddaughter proud of me, even although I was the oldest person in the race. I eagerly waited on the start and then we were off, I had a slight slip but soon gained my footing and headed for the tape as if there was an Olympic gold medal at stake. As I came to the tape, I was still at maximum speed and nearly took-out a few mums and kids as I crossed the line. Photo Finnish! My supporters on the left said I had won but the supporters on the right said this man half my age had won, he was probably an older brother and not a father anyway and should have been disqualified. What can you do, not that I am competitive but you can clearly see from the photograph here there was no way I was losing this one. Look at the race face, look at the drive from the right leg, look at the arms as they power through my body, look at that 50+ guy making an absolute fool of himself! If the truth be known I think the guy did pip me at the post but hey! a silver medal is still an achievement at such a prestigus event. It was great fun and the kids had a good laugh at our expense.