Saturday 2nd September saw the return of the Westerton Gala Day and with it the Fun Run.
We’ve been staging the Fun Run with the Gala Day Committee for a while now and always enjoy the day – it’s a lovely traditional village gala day and the fun run attracts villagers of all ages from toddlers up to 16 year-olds (plus the odd parent thrown in – allegedly to ‘help’ the younger runners round but we think it was just an excuse to dig out those trainers for a blast around the local streets 😊).
One other reason could have been the ‘new for this year’ edible medals at the end for all finishers. The Gala Day this year was focusing on a sustainable ethos hence we thought that edible medals would be a good idea – with that in mind our ‘harrier baker’ (as Amy became known) got to work and trialled a few options before settling on shortbread rounds with gold-coloured icing (to resemble gold medals). She also had a custom icing stamp made-up to finish them off. They came out brilliantly and tasted delicious – seconds might have been had by a few volunteers at the end once all runners had received one!
On to the running – we had an awesome 81 runners toe the line for the 1-mile route around the local streets and through the village green where most of the Gala Day activities were happening. After a pre-run briefing we handed over to our starter Satty Singh – Satty runs the village Keystore and is well known to all villagers. On the whistle blast they were off. And off they were! Charging full gas out onto the route – brilliant to see!
At the front of the run it was a very close finish and came down to the last bend into the finish funnel. Daniel McKenna took the overall first place by a tiny margin from Skye Dick. There was speedy running behind them with the following runners finishing in the top places in their categories. These guys were then presented with awards on the stage in the village green as part of the awards ceremony. Well done all!
8 and under:
1st Angus Williamson
2nd Lyle Ross
3rd Ellie Mathieson
1st boy Ramsey Smith
1st girl Rachel Hill
2nd boy James Huang
2nd girl Maisie McClatchy
3rd boy Charlie Sherry
3rd girl Annabel Grech-Munro
Age 12-16:
1st boy Daniel McKenna
1st girl Skye Dick
2nd boy Ethan Donaldson
2nd girl Abigail Gourley
3rd boy Rory Deany
3rd girl Elliot Sweet
A massive shout-out to our harrier volunteers and Gala Day & parent volunteers for helping with course set-up, registration, marshalling etc. Also huge thanks to Amy our ‘harrier baker’ for those 110 edible gold medals. A special thanks also to Polly on the Gala Day Committee for organising the fun run with us.
We all had a blast staging the run, then followed the Gala Day parade round to the village green for burgers and entertainment 😊
Loads of pics are available on the Westerton Gala Day Facebook page at Westerton Gala Day Facebook