Race for Life, Inverness - 11/05/2008

The Inverness event took place on Sunday in near-perfect conditions. Twenty-nine of the 3000 women who participated were doing so as part of a North Highland College team comprising staff and families from the Thurso and Alness campuses.

The Race for Life attracts women of all abilities, from fun walkers through the joggers to the more serious runners. The atmosphere in the Highland capital was electric as the participants gathered, wearing quirky outfits from pink wigs to full pink costumes.

The North Highland College team were very visible in their bright pink T-shirts and a few of the younger members had loud stripy socks to make sure they stood out.

One of the team, Emma Dunnett - whose mum lectures at the Thurso campus - made a little bit of history by completing the 5K course in 19.53 min and crossing the line first.

Emma at the age of 13 shows a great deal of talent for endurance running and took on the challenge laid down by Jenny Bannerman, a senior runner from Inverness, as the race developed at the end of the first kilometre.

Emma paced her pursuit of Jenny well and caught and overtook her whilst running through the islands on the course around Bught Park. Emma got in front with a kilometre to go and had established a convincing lead by the time she was being cheered home by an enthusiastic crowd.

Emma is the first winner from Caithness and the youngest to have triumphed at the Inverness race.

All the money raised by the college and other participants will go towards funding support for cancer sufferers and research into cancer diagnosis and treatment. Anyone wishing to donate money can do so through the various college campuses. To date, 3.4 million women have raised over £200 million for Cancer Research UK.

• Report & Picture courtesy of Scottish Provincial Press / www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk

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