On the
Road with the Jammy Little Francer's in
the Borders
We are a group of
University and NHS staff and students
from the University of Edinburgh's award
winning jogscotland group. We are taking
on ALL SIX of the
jogscotland organised CO-OP 5K (3 miles)
Challenges again this year after being
the only team last year to complete that
feat!
Why are we doing it?
Well partly to see if the new and bigger
team can again complete the six
Challenges. Fundraising is the most
important though, and we were surprised
and absolutely delighted by the
generosity shown last year as we raised
£750 for Simpson's Special Care Babies (SSCB).
This year our target is £1,000
Why the SSCB? Well,
John Smith works in the Neonatal unit
and last year brought to our attention
that the unit was trying to raise money
to buy new ventilator's. The
ventilator's are an essential part of
the lifesaving equipment for small and
premature babies, and that was a good
enough reason for us to start
fundraising!
We were a team of
three people last year (John, Andrew and
Moira, hence JAMmy). This year we have
cajoled a few more people to join us and
we are entered as a Community Team. The
Community Teams require a minimum of
four folk. Our Jammy Borders team are
pictured below. Caroline Duncan with our "core four"
doing all six Challenges, Moira
Nicol, Andrew Jeske, Sharron Ogle
and John Smith (All pictures by
Andrew Jeske unless stated).
Picture by Matt Redmayne
The six Challenges
are:
18th June
in the Borders, Dryburgh Abbey,
where we will be joined by Caroline
Duncan.
19th June:
Aberdeen, Hazlehead Park.
25 June:
Edinburgh Inverleith Park/Botanics Run 1,
where we will be joined by Elaine Smith.
25 June:
Edinburgh Inverleith Park/Botanics Run
2. Caroline Duncan runs again
for the Jammy's.
2 July:
Inverness, Bught Park.
9 July:
Glasgow, Glasgow Green, where
we will be joined by Joanne Topalian.
Diary
10 June:
(Andrew) We now have the printed
t-shirts. We're all fit and rarin' to
go. There's a slim chance of finishing
in the top 3 in the Borders if I run
well but I think we'll be chasing Gala
Harriers again for the team prize.
16 June:
(Andrew) With no expense spared we get
some fun models from Fun and Natural
modelling agency in to show them off.
Fun
and Natural
Fairly Fun and Natural
Not so Fun and Natural!
17 June:
(Andrew) With promotion in mind we
manage to get Ian Laing, Associate
Clinical Director of the Reproductive
Health
Unit, which includes the Simpsons
Special Care Unit, to join us for some
pics. Not only does he do this but he
takes some pics too! Thanks Ian.
Who are we running for
again? Oh yeah! Photo by Ian Laing
Ian and some of the
Jammy Little Francer's
17 June:
(Andrew) Somehow managed to
strain/injure my achilles during hill
reps. Aaaargggh! Looks like a walk/jog
for me tomorrow!
18 June:
(Andrew) Yipeeeeeeee! The day
has arrived and we look forward to
completing the first Challenge of six!
18 June:
(Andrew) It's beginners day for us here
at Little France and due to my injury I
am over the moon to be able to run for
16 minutes with Frankie Taylor (a
personal best for Frankie too - brill!).
When we finish we walk back and I don't
feel my injury. Maybe I'll be able to
run tonight if I have a good warm up?
18 June: (Andrew) Borders Challenge:
A fantastic team effort sees all five of
us complete the first Challenge.
Moira
took about a minute off last year’s time
to finish in 22:22, 12th
place overall and
First
Lady! Fantastic Moira,
well done. Moira was First Lady in one
of the Challenges last year so she
equals that achievement in the first
Challenge. Brilliant!
The rain came down
after the Challenge and it was obviously
cold as Moira gets her prize for being
First Female.
The
rest of us achieve too as
Sharron beats her fear of being
last! She was nowhere near last and
finished, looking in great shape, in
32:49 and that includes walking up one
of the hilly bits. Fantastic. Well done
Sharron. Sharron collected her goody bag
and ran straight into the massage tent.
Even before speaking to us! I think she
just fancied the guy myself.
Sharron
enjoys her massage.
Well
most of it!
Sharron’s good running brought her some
deserved luck (no not the massage guy!)
when she won a spot prize of a Run 4 It
goody bag. She was so surprised she took
a fit of the giggles!
Moira
and Sharron did particularly well when
you consider they both lost their heads
just before the run.
Moira
loses her head first
Then
Sharron loses hers. But at least she can
laugh about it!
Caroline
finished well too in 28:21. Caroline has
been out injured and is just getting
back into it now, so to complete the
toughest 5K course of the six in under
30 minutes was good going. Well done
Caroline.
John, who is driving us
to all the Challenges (thanks John),
finished in 21:53 taking about 30 seconds off
last years run to
finish in 11th place.
John has also had recent injuries that
have kept him from running at his best,
so that's another great run. Fantastic
John. Well done.
Andrew
(that's me!) Well I thank my lucky stars
that I was able to run at all today. I
warmed up and my achilles seemed to be
reasonably ok. I started in running mode
and after about 2K had no thoughts of my
leg. I followed the lead guy all the way
to the end and finished in second
place in 19:42. Amazing!! It
felt like being first!
Our
average chip time was 25 minutes and
point 004 of a second! (Not that we're
counting!)
Today's
Community Team Prize went to Jog Earlston
who also had a big turnout for this
Challenge. Well done to them. They
averaged 23:12.
A big
turnout from Jog Earlston
Team
Challenge Company, Team Corporate prize
went to a team from the Team
Challenge Company. Well done
guys!
There's
always tomorrow for the Team Prize
(literally). Roll on Aberdeen. Can we
beat today's great efforts? Find out
tomorrow, just after us!
18th
June
(John) We are stocked up with Wine Gums
for the journey north - Andrew credits
the warm-up for his amazing run but we
know better - it was down to the copious
numbers of wine gums devoured on the
journey south. Although it has to be
said that the E numbers appeared to have
some side affects "How will we recognise
Sharron? What's she wearing?" Could it
be the special edition Jammy Little
Francer’s T-shirt (see above) - only
guessing!
Follow
us to Aberdeen
here.
