The penultimate race in our Grand Prix series was a hot and sweaty slog over a challenging but very scenic woodland and park course in the Deans area of Livingston. Although the first 100m is uphill, the remainder of the first half of the course is overall downhill and it therefore follows that the second half of the course is predominantly up hill. Ouch! Fortunately there were many stretches in the woods in which it was tempting to slow down and enjoy the cool of the shade. Dechmont is renowned for its UFO sightings and aliens and it was indeed a strange sight to see an oval headed and cloaked alien marshall deep in the woods (we would be happy if we could just get some more of the Harriers to marshall our trail race in a few weeks, never mind aliens).
First Harrier to finish was the returning to form Alan Derrick in 4th place overall (1st Vet) in a time of
35:04. Eddie Reid ended a tough week of racing and running with a time of 38:50. A close, race long Harriers' battle came from Jim Holmes (40:47), David Herbertson (41:06) and Stuart Waugh (41:07). Stuart did very well to chase David back down having stopped to tie his shoe lace after around 2k. Stuart finished as first M60.
Ian McKenzie ran a strong 46:15 and is clearly benefiting from an intensive program of Summer racing. Colin Jarvie (47:34) and Richard Lawton
(48:59) were both looking for good 10k times which indeed both these times are. Unfortunately my Garmin GPS (and my time!) confirmed that the course was about a half mile short (thankfully) and so their joy was short lived. Finally, Russell Couper was revelling (not) in the hot and hilly conditions and has now done his injured achilles in good and proper. He did however resist the tempatation to drop out and finished in 58:21.
Well done to all! It's a nice change to get off the roads and run a good, hard trail race (at least once its over). More photos from Lothian Running Club here.
Alan
No comments:
Post a Comment