Great Edinburgh Cross Country

Caprica

This has just finished on BBC1, pretty decent racing.

Mo Farah only came second beaten by Garrett Heath from the US. This was his first defeat on UK soil in years, Steve and Brendan held it together well on the Beeb. I though he looked a bit uncomfortable from the off, said in the interview it was slippy and tough out there. I doubt this will be happening to him in Rio.

In the Ladies Fionnuala McCormack came second for the 3rd year in a row. She was bet by Kate Avery but looked strong all the way and was closing on her in the home stretch. Lizzie Lee ran well to come 9th.

Some Kind of Wizard

Great to see Heath winning this. He's taken some major scalps in Edinburgh the past few years. I don't recall him ever making an Olympics or Worlds USA team, always on the fringes, so hopefully he can follow this up and make the Olympics.

hillsiderunner

I was watching this in the park.

Ireland also had a relay team for the 4x1k mixed relay and did well to come 3rd out of about 8 teams. In fact the team was in 2nd place (and only a couple of metres behind) at the final changeover from third to fourth leg. Great running especially by the two men on the Ireland team (Travers and someone else). But there were some great runners for the fourth leg (incl Laura Muir) and we dropped a place.

Good to see Fionnuala take second plus the good performance by LL ... Kate Avery had a good lead from just after the halfway point and was able to extend it. But on the other hand Fionnuala kept Gemma Steel to third, and there was an even bigger gap between those two. It was clear what the placing was going to be even with a lap to go, they were really spread out, and another big gap from Gemma to the rest.

Great to see these strong national performances but am most proud of the *incredible* Garrett Heath. He ran the shorter 4k xc course in Edinburgh in 2014 and 2015, and won it both times. I was hoping he'd be able to use his xc experience to beat Mo on the 8k course this year ... and he did . Had the lead from around halfway and then Mo overtook him, but he regained a lead of 4-5metres for the last lap and was able to hold it all the way to the finish. Very exciting finish.

Bought my first pair of trail runners this afternoon!

rom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9pw3piLRvY

pconn062

Heath is an absolute animal on the muck. He's a big guy, very much like Andy Vernon in that regard but seems to glide over (or bull through) the muck. Also won the USA club XC last year so has form on the grass.