Brampton 2008

Were it not for the strong head wind, Saturday would have been the perfect day for the Brampton to Carlisle 10-mile road race, with otherwise mild and sunny conditions. However, weather is not a factor that is given much consideration by distance runners and Calderglen Harriers sent their biggest ever contingent to the race, the 25th year in a row that the club has been present at this, the oldest 10-mile race in the UK. 38 Harriers competed, 14 of them experiencing their first Brampton and, at the other end of the time-line, Chas Steven and Gerry Mullen completing their 24th and 23rd Bramptons respectively.

There were many fine performances throughout the Harriers' team, whether first timers or old hands. From the times, it seems that the wind was worth around 1 or 2 minutes and so it is especially impressive that 7 Harriers achieved Brampton pb's: Stuart Gibson (11th overall in a time of 56:34 and improving by 33 seconds), Mary Goldsmith (5th L50 in 77:18 an improvement of 1:22 and more than 4 minutes faster than last year), David Herbertson (67:21, a 2:23 pb improvement and 5:16 faster than last year), Ian Hughes (61:29, an improvement of 1:01), Frances Maxwell (71:46, 5th L40, a pb improvement of 1:54, 3:06 faster than last year AND, the 3rd fastest time by a Calderglen lady ever!), Stephen Phimister (70:28, an improvement of 1:22, despite suffering from a cold) and Stephen Reilly (62:52, an improvement of 20 secs). There were many other Harriers who ran very close to pb's and, on a less windy day, these surely would have been pb's. Many of the Brampton first timers also achieved 10-mile pb's although these stats have yet to be analysed.

In terms of the official prize winning positions, we had Stuart Gibson in 11th overall, Charlie McDougall as 1st M60 and 3rd men's team (Stuart Gibson, Andy Buchanan and Jamie McMonagle). Just out of the prizes, our ladies were 4th Veteran team (Frances Maxwell, Sandra Reid and Mary Goldsmith).

All the Harriers' times can be viewed here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p_aBIInrxrvPMoUiVSs7TYQ

The full official results are here:
http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2008/brampton08.pdf

Watch this space for the Grand Prix update and also photos of (nearly) all the Calderglen runners.