You either love it or you hate it.  Nine Carnies were obviously lovin' it.

Luckily enough seven of those were men so at least we managed to keep the 100% record of having a men's team in all 8 GP races this year.

Fresh (well, almost) from his Classic Quarter team victory last weekend was Mark Dorrell.  Obviously the training for that and the race itself put Mark into excellent condition. His finishing time of 1:32:04 was well impressive over such a tough course. His 'Classic' team mates were a no-show this weekend most likely nursing sore legs.

Fear not!  A much welcome return of Barrie Cardew provided the much needed support. Having been out of racing for a while doesn't seem to hinder him though. All that cross-training must count for something as he came home in 1:35:54. A great effort.

The 'evergreen' Pete Kearney was next up. He's having a great year and with a superb 1:38:58, notched up another valuable GP performance.  

Another 'hardcore' Carn performer is Dave Mounter.  In fact, i do him a dis-service.  He must be 'THE' hardcore boy in yellow and blue.  When he turned 60 last year when we did the Malta Half, i wondered whether he'd take it easier. No way, Jose!  If you're up and on your way to work around 6am and driving 'downtown' Illogan, Pool, Gaza Strip, you'll most likely see Dave pounding the streets. Launceston was a piece of cake by comparison, no petrol bombs to dodge - just a few hills!  A time of 1:59:17 and job done.

Pete Drew was another 'Classic' legend.  Spurred on by last week's result, hills on tarmac were never gonna be a problem. Even the famous hills of Lan'son.  Just a few seconds behind Dave with 1:59:30, those two must have been 'breezin' round together.

Nigel Tomlinson's GP quest racked up another solid performance and despite this being a road race he must have relished those hills as someway to compensate for it being easier terrain than he trains on.  How will he cope with the Turkey Trot?

Endurance is Alex Findlay's thing.  Although normally in a race of over 2 hours he only has to endure the pain of running at the end, not all the way through!  Nevermind mate, it was good middle distance/ Ironman training.

The 'Culley Girls' were our female runners on the day.  You'll know from the last couple of GP reports that they've had a little bit of a family 'Ding-dong' and the competitive spirit is very much a family trait. Mum, Carol managed to pull off a shock win over daughter, Lizzy at Cubert when the latter went off too quickly.  Come Sticker and Lizzy got the pacing right and turned the tables.  Those races were only 5 milers though.  The Half Marathon would be different.  Carol held the aces as she had the experience of long distance races.  How would Lizzy cope?  Well, very well, thank you very much as she finished in a superb time of 2:18:28.  There wasn't much in it though as seasoned campaigner, Carol was a little over 2 minutes behind in 2:20:43.

The race was the 8th round of this year's GP and with 8 races to count keep an eye on the GP Table as now it begins to even itself out as more runners reach their '8'.