Pentland Mile - 2009

Fifty six young athletes recently took part in the annual Pentland Mile race, hosted by Caithness Amateur Athletic Club. Although the Caithness weather provided a dry day, the wind was particularly strong at the Thurso beach and Esplanade area making conditions tough for many of the runners.

Despite this there were a number of personal best times set by athletes - notably, Mark O'Brien who took 41 seconds off his previous best time in finishing in 7th place. In total 10 personal best times were set by the first 13 athletes which is a clear indication of the improving standard of endurance performance by these athletes.

Also, Erin Britton remarkably managed to run the course in exactly the same time as last year; now that takes a bit of doing. There were a lot of first time runners and as always plenty of support from parents and coaches which was very much appreciated by the runners as they made their way round the 1 mile course.

The race winner this year, Jake Anderson set his sights firmly on the gold medal position as he took the race out hard into a tough head wind. His strength showed as he pulled a considerable lead on the rest of the chasing pack. In that immediate pack was Rob Murdoch, Emma Dunnett and Oonagh Dunnett.

The three chasing athletes ran what is described in racing terms as a negative split which was ideal in the conditions for the slighter build athletes. They ran a more conservative first half to the race and then upped the pace as they turned with the wind behind them.

Although Rob had built up a lead on the girls, Emma showed her determination in closing the gap on Rob and eventually passing him with about 100 metres to go. The race winner however was never challenged and Jake showed a great deal of pace judgement in coming home 12 seconds clear of the second placed Emma, with Rob taking third place.

The overall placings are as follows:-

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