British Masters Cross Country Relay 2009 Mansfield

We now have confirmation that the BMAF Cross Country Relays will take place on Saturday 3rd October 2009 in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. We sent an M40 and F35 team down to the event last year and really enjoyed it and did pretty well. There is already interest within the club to send teams down this year. We have so many Harriers really performing well this year in all the age groups and the idea would be again to make this an event where the teams are selected on the basis of a trial race or races to provide that little bit extra motivation. I await further details of the event to confirm how many are to be in each team and what the age groups are. Watch this space for further details of trial events and the age groups we will enter teams for.

Alan

25th Anniversary Archive

Thanks to all who have contributed copies of old photos, documents and newspaper articles tracing the activities of the club and its members over the past 25 years. David Herbertson has been actively scanning away and uploading these to the web. You can see what we have so far here. The documents appear in the order in which they were uploaded but you can do all sorts of fancy searches to look for specific tags or key words. If anyone has any further documents or photos to upload then please scan them in and provide them on a CD or memory stick to David. Alternatively, David can provide you with instructions that allow you to upload photos one at a time directly to the photo album. For site security reasons we will not publish these instructions directly on the web. You can also access the album directly from the menu on the left.

Alan

Donkey Brae 7 mile Run (2nd August)

There are currently at least 2 seats still available on the bus going to Aberdour. If interested contact Scot Hill or Eddie Reid.

Cost for the bus is £10

Please see the link below for more details and entry form for the race.

http://www.aberdour-festival.org/

Race in Jersey (and Vest)

Prior to going on holiday to Jersey I had said that I wasn't even taking my running shoes but that soon changed as Sandra wanted some company for a few runs. Before setting off I thought I would do a search to see if I could find some routes that we could run - not realising that this would lead me to the Jersey Spartans website. They were having a 4 mile race on the Friday night (The Mike Romeril Trophy race) so I took a note of a club contact and packed my club vest.

On the Monday night I phoned to see if I could participate in the race. I was made most welcome and invited to join the club training the following night (meeting at 6pm on the sea front).

So much for me wanting a rest and not taking my shoes! I didn't know what I was letting myself in for - a good hard session of 16 x 80 secs efforts with 10 secs recovery between each. On the Friday night I felt most
welcome once again. The race was 4 miles ( 2 laps )of Queens Valley Reservoir.

The winning time was 22 mins and I finished third in 23mins 37 secs (16 secs behind the 2nd runner) and 1st vet. It was great to meet another great bunch of guys and girls from a running club similar in many ways to our own.

Eddie

Well done to Eddie and thanks for the report and inspiration for a future training session! If anyone else has holiday running reports and photos, please pass them on. It's always good to hear about the Harriers out and about.

Calderglen 25th Anniversary 10 Mile Road Race

On Thursday after training Scot hosted a very fruitful meeting to discuss further arrangements for the Club's 10 mile road race to be held on 12 September, starting 10am. Everything is ticking along nicely with entries already coming in (the race is pre-entry only).

The key point concerned many hands making light work, so once again we are calling on the Harriers to volunteer to assist on the day of the race. There are 18 marshall positions around the 10-mile course to be filled. As this is a special, one-off event, we would wish as many Harriers as possible to participate in the race itself. However, the condition is that each Harrier entering the race (£2 entry fee, engraved, crystal glass to all finishers) must provide a substitute, adult marshall. Furthermore, if the marshall does not turn up, the Harrier must withdraw from the race and marshall. This is a race on public roads around Auldhouse with many junctions, so we really must marshall it well. Please leave a comment on the blog to nominate yourself or a friend or relative to marshall or alternatively speak to Scot directly. Further details of the race can be found on our web site.

Alan

Grand Prix - The Result!

Finally, the suspense is over! The winners of the 2008-09 Grand Prix are confirmed as Mary Goldsmith and Jim Holmes. Well done to both for maintaining the consistency of form to string together a series of races over a very long Grand Prix season and to maintain high points scoring positions throughout. Not only that, both Mary and Jim achieved several pb's throughout the season, exhibiting quality as well as quantity in their racing. Full results are available using the usual Grand Prix links to the left.

Frances Maxwell and Sandra Reid placed second and third respectively after a close competition throughout the season.

Eddie Reid claimed a clear second place in the men's event and David Herbertson pipped Russell Couper for third place by a single point.

Well done to all for entering into the spirit of the Grand Prix again and supporting the contributing events so enthusiastically.

Alan

AULDHOUSE 5K TIME TRIAL

Times are now on the link to Auldhouse Time Trial Times
PBs for Kenny Leinster Jim Holmes, David Wardrope and a huge 2.30 improvement for Graham Allan

well done to all who ran

XI Carrera Popular Costa Teguise

I was on holiday in Costa Teguise, Lanzarote during the Fiestas De Costa Teguise which is an annual event consisting of a 10 day festival. Each day is for a particular theme. I was enticed by the Athletes and Dancers day as I consider myself to qualify for both. Saturday 4th July had the Carrera Popular, loosely translated as a Race for All. To set the scene the temperatures on the preceding days ranged from 32 to 38 deg C. Also being held in the town was the PWA World Windsurfing Championships and towards the end of the week the winds picked up to an incredible 45k/hr. This meant that when exposed to the sun it was baking hot and when the wind got you it nearly blew you off your feet ! I turned up to register at 4pm but being Spain everything ran late and the registrations didn't actually start until 5. As the numbers at registration grew it became clear that most were serious runners and I felt a bit overawed. There were hardly any tourists and many runners sported the Lanzarote Ironman T-shirts. I was genuinely worried that I would come last especially when I heard that the women's race was run separately. Like the registration, although the race was supposed to be at 6pm by the time the various children's races (500m & 1km) and women's 3k it was after 7pm before the men's race. The main race was 6km along one of the main roads in the town, the Avda de las Islas Canarias. It was 3 laps of the course and included a short but fairly steep hill. By the start there were about 40 or so runners and an initial pack of 5 or so broke away within the first k. I was very cautious at the start as although the temperature had dropped it was still 30+ and 3 hours of hanging around had taken its toll. Each of the first 3km was about the 4min/km pace although one section was uphill against the wind. As I neared the 5km mark the leaders finished. One of the local runners kindly decided to tuck in behind and leave all the running to me. The pace dropped slightly but over the last 400m I dropped the guy that was with me and if I had another 10m would have caught the guy in front. Finished in what I think was a credible 24m17s which I think was probably mid-table. I didn't get the official results due to language difficulties but managed to speak to the French guy who was third in 21 mins. The winners were probably sub 20. After the race there was a lucky dip with your race number, prize giving and a paella buffet. All very enjoyable. I would have liked to include a photo of me racing but the wife and kids got fed up waiting and went in for their dinner - missing my 24 minutes of effort in its entirety. A photo of my race number and medal is included as alternative proof! All very enjoyable but the 10 days All Inclusive wasn't the best preparation. I decided to give the 20km bike race the following day a miss. HASTA LUEGO - Stephen

Well done to Phimi in these extreme conditions.

Kilmarnock 10k

A small field of runners turned out to brave the gruelling heat to do the annual Kilmarnock Harriers 10K on 1st July this year and Richard was the solo Calderglen Harrier who travelled the short distance do this race on one of the hottest nights of the summer so far.

It was a long uphill start of 3K into the open Ayrshire country roads and after short time I wondered if I lost my marbles running in this weather but the water station after the 5K mark was a welcome sight. After this weather became cooler allowing me to settle into my stride and luckily the last 2K is down hill but it felt like someone was moving the finish line as it never seemed in sight. As always I was targeting for under 50 mins however I recorded a time of (50:41).

A good race with a very welcome cup(s) of water & juice at the end with a free mug as a souvenir.

Well done to Richard and thanks for the report.

Vertical Mile Results

On a warm and humid evening 16 harriers turned up for the vertical mile
1st up the hill was Andrew Buchanan 6.15 followed closely by Martin Duthie 6.29.
Eddie reid keeping up his good form of late was 6.46 managing to pip Colin Freeman 6.51
Jim Holmes 7.10 has probably done enough to secure the grand prix
David Herbertson 7.49 is now threatening 3rd place in the grand prix but will have to wait and see what score comes off. David Wardrope in his 1st vertical mile started well but eventually succumbed to the hill 7.59 . Andy Henderson 8.09, Graham Allan 8.15, Ian McKenzie 8,34, John McBride 8.49, Don Kennedy 8.56 and Russell Couper 9.59 all made it up
In the ladies event 1st up the hill was Genevieve Freeman 8.14 followed closely by this years grand prix winner Mary Goldsmith 8.29 and in 3rd place with an impressive 8.49 was Alison crooks
Well done to all who turned up

Vertical Mile

Just a reminder that the Vertical Mile takes place tomorrow as part of the normal club training night. This is the final race in the Grand Prix and there are still places to be decided. Could last year's winners remember to bring the trophies up for presentation after the race (Ian Hughes and Frances).

Thanks

Alan