Whilst most sensible folk tend to take it easy on January 1st, a small group of ‘hardy quines and loons’ (including a few hungover/slightly drunk MRR’s) gathered in Buckie at 11am to take part in the annual Sair Heedie race. The race is a very informal affair – there are no entry numbers or results recorded – and all entrants make a donation to charity. This year £220 was raised for Marie Curie and the Aila Coull Foundation.
About 30 of us lined up at the start in the main street of Buckie, including fellow Yella’s Christopher Smith, Kirsty Weir, Bill Murray and Debs Main. Kerry Main (Christopher and Kirsty’s sister) joined us, so it was the first time the Smith/Main/Weir clan had competed in a race altogether – who would be the first one home?!
I had been at a ceilidh the night before and had polished off a bottle of prosecco and several gin and tonics, so I was working up a cold sweat before the run even started. Debs had been out partying till 4am so she did well to even make it to the start line, especially as she only woke up 10 minutes before Kirsty collected her!
Nevertheless, we all set off at a brisk pace, running down towards the harbour then following the Buckie 10k route in reverse. John Goodall from Keith & District was out in the lead followed by a couple of local lads and Christopher Smith. After a shaky start I pulled myself together and overtook Christopher and another guy on the Strathlene hill, and then passed another guy who was having a quick spew at the side of the road! This put me into 2nd place overall and I held on for a while but started to feel a bit dodgy myself and slowed a bit, which allowed Mr Spewer to overtake me! We battled it out for a bit but he got away from me coming back into Buckie so I hung on to finish as first lady and 3rd overall. The race is 4.5 miles long and I ran it in 32.11.
Christopher finished not long after me, followed by Kerry, Bill, Kirsty and Debs. My prize was a giant bottle of vodka – just what I needed after the night before!
Paul Wojick has been organising this race since 1999 and has raised over £4,500 for charity. The 2016 race was his last one so Kerry, myself and a couple of other local folk have agreed to take it on and organize it. It would be good to get a few more runners at it so hopefully we’ll see some more Yella’s taking part next year.
Report by: Michelle Donaldson-Slater