Disclaimer moved from bottom to top to  make this totally clear and transparent: This is all tongue in cheek and I have had (for me) a brilliant and enjoyable season. Well done to all who took part in all the championships this season, and especially those who, like me, exceeded their expectations.

For all of us “athletes” there is someone that haunts us.Not someone that you have a yo-yo rivalry with but someone that always beats you. And although they don’t give you a second thought they manage to affect you. They don’t realise it, nor do you until one day when the crushing realisation comes down that sub consciously they want to destroy you, and your family, and everyone that they have ever known. They are smiling assassins, likeable and friendly but probably hacking into your blog behind your back, buying guitars from your ebay account and sending your wife flowers.

Since  I joined Motherwell AC there have been 3 championships. The first was the Club X Country championships. I finished in 4th place. I was very happy with that. The top 3 were always expected to be the top three, Craig “don’t call me Mc” Mackenzie, Chris “is this Port Glasgow?” Macdonald and Nick Hughes.  Nick took the bronze at the last race of the season as he was expected to do, and well done to him. Next up was the Road Runner’s league and Championship and I was utterly delighted to get a bronze here. Chris won it, and Nick Hughes took silver with a tremendous run in the last race of the season at Strathaven. On Tuesday it was the final time trial of the season. I was still in second despite having run only 1 of the last 3, and that was 1 minute off my best. The title already belonged to Tommy “the body” Sneddon and I needed a bit of luck to stay in the medals. As I am in running rehab I couldn’t run. After shining a torch for the runners to help their visibility at the tunnel I made my way to the finish to see how it played out. Dougie O’h was 3rd overall going into it and I was dismayed to see him come round the corner in 1st place, wrapping up second place whilst running 2 minutes faster than he has run in the last 7 months. If there was one race to rip up the form book then this was the one, and well done to him. I was down now to third, I knew who had to finish where in my sad accountant head. Marcus came round in second, great run and PB, that was OK. As long as a certain person didn’t finish third I was getting at least a share of the bronze. More runners came round. Sadly on a marker and not counting.  So, of course, streaking up like a bullet through the night sky came Nick Hughes, sprinting into third while shouting “got your medal ya baldy has-been!” (disclaimer: part of this is made up, I think you can guess which bit).

You have guessed. Nick took the overall bronze, by a point, knocking me down to 4th. The smiling assassin. Mr Nice Guy. And there is nothing I can do about it. I don’t expect to ever beat him in a race as he is a lot faster than me at everything, but I will aim to get closer to him next season when I come back from injury. Maybe by gunning for that back of his at training and racing I can succeed at #projectsub18. So the moral of the story is trust no one. They are all out to get you. Except Jim Proffitt (unless Nick gave him biscuits to give me….). Later blogpeeps.