On Friday evening, the Harriers made the long drive south to Mansfield for their first "away" foray into a British Masters championship event. By Saturday, the biting cold and windy conditions made it seem like a home event but thankfully the forecasts of heavy rain came to nothing.
The women's W35 team were in action first, each runner completing 2 x 2km laps of the compact park and woodland course. Frances Maxwell took the first leg (17:44), battling not only with the other W35 competitors but also the W45, W55, M60 and M70 teams. The battle continued all the way to the line (photo top right) where Sandra Reid took up the challenge on leg 2. Sandra had a tussle with the runner from Wolds Vetarans (B24) for much of her leg, finishing in 18:47. Mary Goldsmith was on the anchor leg, having to make more of a 4km solo effort to consolidate the team's postion. Mary's time of 19:28 kept the team in an excellent 7th position out of the 14 teams competing in the W35 category, a fantastic result given that they were competing at the top end of their age group. Next year, they move up an age group and can surely be in the medals. The top three teams were Ilkley Harriers (47:52), Redhill Road Runners (48:08) and Dulwich Runners "A" (48:18) with Calderglen 7th (55:59).
Race 2 included the men's M40 event, a 6-stage relay, with each runner again completing 2 x 2km laps. Few people can handle a fast start as well as Davy Watt but even
Davy struggled with the depth of talent on that first leg. On his first lap Davy (photo right) maintained a strong top 6 position, with a time well below 7 minutes but had to give in to the relentless pace on lap 2, finishing in 14:07 in 9th position. This was to be the team's highest position, although it was only a gradual slide backwards as the race progressed. Scot Hill was next up running strongly to finish in 15:21 before handing over to an under pressure George Stewart. George did well to hold his place for the first lap but slipped back a bit on the second lap, finishing in 16:46. By now the field was quite spread out, so Eddie Reid had a more or less solo run around in 15:29 on the 4th leg. Alan Cullie took on the 5th leg but by now the leading team from Herne Hill Harriers had made up a full 2km lap on the Harriers and it became very difficult to work out places. Alan finished in 16:14, handing over to Alan Derrick, who once again, after only one race back after a 6 month lay off from racing had picked up the office throat infection and was far from energetic. Alan staggered round in 15:08, seeing only one other runner on the same lap towards the end of his stint but all the same making up that one place to give the club a finishing position of 15th out of 22 M40 teams. The top three teams were Herne Hill Harriers (1:23:28), Sunderland Harriers (1:25:10) and Tipton Harriers "A" (1:25:37) with Calderglen 15th (1:33:05).
Davy struggled with the depth of talent on that first leg. On his first lap Davy (photo right) maintained a strong top 6 position, with a time well below 7 minutes but had to give in to the relentless pace on lap 2, finishing in 14:07 in 9th position. This was to be the team's highest position, although it was only a gradual slide backwards as the race progressed. Scot Hill was next up running strongly to finish in 15:21 before handing over to an under pressure George Stewart. George did well to hold his place for the first lap but slipped back a bit on the second lap, finishing in 16:46. By now the field was quite spread out, so Eddie Reid had a more or less solo run around in 15:29 on the 4th leg. Alan Cullie took on the 5th leg but by now the leading team from Herne Hill Harriers had made up a full 2km lap on the Harriers and it became very difficult to work out places. Alan finished in 16:14, handing over to Alan Derrick, who once again, after only one race back after a 6 month lay off from racing had picked up the office throat infection and was far from energetic. Alan staggered round in 15:08, seeing only one other runner on the same lap towards the end of his stint but all the same making up that one place to give the club a finishing position of 15th out of 22 M40 teams. The top three teams were Herne Hill Harriers (1:23:28), Sunderland Harriers (1:25:10) and Tipton Harriers "A" (1:25:37) with Calderglen 15th (1:33:05).In both events, Calderglen were the only Scottish club participating and their presence was greatly appreciated by the organising club, Mansfield AC. Thanks to all the Harriers who gave up their time to take part so enthusiastically in both the event and the preceding team trial and to the club and the club sponsor, EKGTA Ltd, who made it financially viable for the teams to participate.
Full provisional results are here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p_aBIInrxrvPLx4_tRM6PbQ&hl=en_GB
Some more photos here (more to come): http://www.calderglenharriers.org.uk/gallery/Mansfield08/Mansfield08.html
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