6/4 Stage - Result!

It was the windiest, wettest and coldest day I can remember at the National 6-stage Championships but still the Harriers were out in force at Livingston. They were not alone as there was a record entry for the event. For the first time ever the club was in the medals as the Vets "A" team of Scot Hill, Martin Duthie, Eddie Reid, Alan Derrick, Alan Cullie and Davy Watt fought hard to take the Masters National Championship bronze medal (and an impressive overall 19th position) just one place and 27 seconds behind the silver medallists Shettleston Harriers. Gold medallists Fife AC were impressive over the second half of the race, taking the lead on the last leg and winning comfortably in the end.

Scot Hill got the team off to a solid start recording our fastest short leg (3.2 miles) time of 18:31 handing over to Martin Duthie in 32nd position. Martin recorded our best long leg time covering the 5.8 wind swept miles in a time of 32:50 and pulling us up to 24th position. Eddie maintained this position (and made it into the official results) with a time of 18:55 as the field became more spread out. By now we were lying 4th in the vets race, although we did not know this at the time as vets teams were difficult to identify. Alan Derrick found it hard going in the wind on the back section of the course but moved steadily through to 22nd position in 33:01, losing one vets place and making up another in the process. Alan Cullie showed that he is making a welcome return to good running form, maintaining 22nd position overall and 4th vet team in 18:40. It was then up to Davy Watt to bring us into the medals and we knew that Davy would not allow that opportunity to slip away (in fact we advised him that he was taking over in 2nd and going for the lead!). Davy passed 3rd place Carnegie Harriers and very nearly caught 2nd place Shettleston, finishing in 19th overall in a time of 33:12. The delight is plain to see in the photograph (Scot is seen in computer generated form, having had to leave straight after his leg).

Mary Goldsmith and Sandra Reid did well to motivate themselves in the conditions given that we had only a half team available. Mary recorded a first leg time of 23:12 handing over to Sandra for the long leg which she completed in 44:19. Sandra's pace on the long leg was actually considerably faster than the pace she ran the short leg in last year, confirming her rapid improvement in the past year.

The men's "B" team spanned the generations from Junior Stephen Reilly (18:43) to Super Vets Andy Henderson (22:31) and Benny Rooney (42:20). Benny had a particularly lonely time on the last leg until the finishing straight when he had the opportunity (and energy) to catch and sprint past an old lady in an electric wheel chair (just out for the messages, not racing). Also on long legs we had Gerry Mullen (39:44) and Jim Holmes (39:11). Colin Banks completed the team with a short leg time of 22:02.

Chas Steven led out the 6-stage "debutants" team in a time of 26:23 handing over to David Dickson (47:22) and then in his first official race for the club Don Kennedy (26:52). Both David and Don were running on their own and both had slight excursions off course but well done to both of them for sorting it out and completing in respectable times. Solo efforts on unfamiliar courses are not easy.

A big thanks to Frances and Malcolm for supporting us all in very poor spectating weather. More photos to follow, so watch this post.