Allan Scally Road Relay 2009

A very heavy pre-race shower put the frightners on us in Baillieston today but thankfully that was the only worry of the day as the new course (still 4.8 miles) was a complete contrast to the old, intimidating (in many different ways) Edinburgh Road course. Certainly a much more complex course but with marshalls on each of the many corners there was never a concern of getting lost in the quiet, leafy residential streets of Mount Vernon. The first mile was downhill followed by a very flat second mile. The first noticeable climb came between miles 2 and 3 before dropping to another flat half mile or so and then the final, tough mile up hill to the finish.

The Harriers were out in force for this, the last relay race of this year. Somewhat worryingly, every Calderglen Harrier was a veteran (35+) today but that is a sign of the times and a very large contingent of university teams contesting the Scottish University championships re-dressed the age balance. The A team comprised Alan Cullie (29:57) on the first leg in 33rd position, handing over to Charlie McDougall (28:40), easily the fastest M60 of the day in 23rd position. Eddie Reid (29:23) extended his Grand Prix and scratch championship lead in pulling us up to 21st position. Finally, Alan Derrick (28:15) was in a bit of trouble throughout with heel and hamstring problems but gained another two places bringing us up to 19th overall and in the process passing the Shettleston Harriers veterans team to give us the pleasant surprise of being 1st veteran team.

Our veteran depth was confirmed by our B team finishing as 3rd veteran team. Jim Holmes, without the pressure of having to synchronise his run with the absent Andy Henderson, ran an unrestricted 31:33, handing over to season debutant Scot Hill (30:45). Brian McDougall continues to impress with a solid 31:40 and then Colin Freeman, loosening up with every week, ran a fantastic 29:03 to give the team 27th position overall.

David Herbertson got the C team off to a good start with a time of 32:51 (confirmed by his own watch this week!), handing over to another hamstring sufferer, James Carrigan, who ran with a restricted stride length to finish in 35:26. David Wardrope kept himself in a very strong Grand Prix position with a time of 34:49 and the final leg was left to Ian Rae who ran the fastest time in his team (32:33). Frances Maxwell ran an excellent 34:08 to get the incomplete D team off to a flyer whilst Russell Couper completed our contribution to the race with a time of 43:06.

Well done to all. The general impression within the Harriers was that Shettleston should stick with this excellent new course for the future. Next week sees the first head to head race of the Grand Prix season with the Glasgow University Road Race......

Scally Teams

The Scally Teams can be viewed using this link. We will declare the teams to the race organisers just before 1:30pm for a 2pm race start, so if you have to cancel or change leg, please let me or Russell know well before 1:30. Thanks for the enthusiastic support. This is a great turnout from the Harriers. See the earlier post for a link to a map to the venue.

Alan

NOVEMBER SPORTS MASSAGE PROMOTION

Something that a number of the Harriers have tried over the past year or so and particularly relevant during this intensive racing period.

In need of a sports massage after a hard season? legs feeling tight or tired?

2 x 1/2 Hour sports massages for £25!

Call Grant McLullich on 07967 543 083 to book your appointment,

Grant is based at ATHelite's Sports Injury Clinic in Hamilton.

Alan

Christmas Night Out

It's that time again with Christmas just around the corner & it's time to organise a gathering.

We are offering the recession busting option of no meal this year & maybe just drinking instead.

Please vote on the poll to the left to give us an idea of what would be most popular.

Pub night out

Restaurant

Bowling

Other (please leave comment on this post)

We'll do an poll on location once we have whittled down the options. This first poll will close at 16:30 on Tuesday 3rd November.

Genevieve

Alan Scally Road Relays - Important Notice

Please note on the Scottish Athletics web site today there is a full explanation of the route changes to Saturday's relay and why the host club had to implement them. Anyone taking part should refer to the web site. Fortunately registration and start times are not affected.

Young Athletes 1 k interval session

It has been a while since I posted any news about our young athletes but this important section of the club is thriving although a bit short in the Under 17 age category making our involvement in the recent cross country relays impossible this year. However with the head to head races imminent ( Lanarkshire and West District Cross Country) it was appropriate for the coaches and helpers to step up training for the youngsters. The times of the 1 k interval session are as follows:

Richard Campbell u17 4.34, 4.39, 4.32
Paul Mullen u13 5.14,5.08,4.52
Craig Ferguson u13 4.51,5.08,4.52
Emma Campbell u15 5.47,5.49,5.46
Ewan Murray u17 4.06,4.14,4.11
Amy Mulholland u13 5.56,5.57,6.07
Greig Mulholland u13 5.52,5.56,5.56
Andrew McGurk u13 5.30,5.22,5.32
Alistair Crawford u13 5.35,5.34,5.32
Grant Brennan u13 6.50,6.58,6.45
Connor White u13 6.50,6.58,6.50
Drew Gordon u13 6.18,6.16,6.08
Megan Brady u13 6.50,7.07,8.58
Michael McAllister u13 7.37,7.07,8.58
Lewis Easton u13 6.04,6.04, n/a
Lewis Miller u13 5.39,5.40,5.39
Erin Reidy u15 8.25,8.25,9.11
Stuart Hill u15 6.14,6.42,7.22
Ross Paterson u15 5.22,5.30,5.50
Pierce Hough u15 7.16,6.53,6.35

Well done to all the young athletes many of whom were experiencing this type of training for the first time.

Allan Scally Road Relay

Race 6 in the Grand Prix series is the last of the relays for this year and the longest one. Each leg is around 4.8 miles long, 4 legs for men, 3 for ladies. The race starts at 2pm, and each leg usually takes between 25 and 35 mintues if you wish to turn up after the start for a later leg. Please indicate your availability and any special requirements (e.g. early/late leg, need a lift, etc) using this form. The registration and race start is at Bannerman High School, Baillieston. Click here for a map.

The next two Grand Prix races are the final two before Brampton and are excellent sharpeners, being somewhat longer than the relays so far but still under Brampton distance. So let's have a good turn out as usual. Note also that the Brampton bus is only just over half full, so please let Russell or Chas know as soon as possible if you or your friends/family wish to attend in a spectating/social or racing capacity. It would be a shame to have one of our lowest attendances in this our 25th anniversary year.

National Cross-Country Relay Results

Despite the showery start to the day by the time the senior races started the sun was out and conditions were actually quite pleasant (at least compared to last years wet and windy torture). Frances Maxwell was glad to be joined by Mary Goldsmith in the senior ladies team. Still not a complete team but getting there. The better conditions were partly responsible for everyone improving their times this year but even so, Mary is just getting back from her recent marathon and so her improved time of 21:27 was an impressive result. Frances took the second leg in a time of 19:12, well over a minute faster than last year.

In the senior men's race we fielded 3 and a quarter teams, our best turnout so far this season. Alan Cullie took the first leg for the A team this week and confirmed his strength in the "country" with a time of 16:19, more than 3 minutes faster than last year, handing over in 69th position to Eddie Reid. Eddie pulled back 6 places finishing in 16:26, exactly 2 minutes faster than last year. Martin Duthie made his first appearance on this course for a few years and pulled back a stack of places bringing us up to 51st in 15:18, our fastest time of the day. Finally Alan Derrick clawed a few more places back to bring us into the top half of the field of 100 complete teams, finishing in 46th position in a time of 15:34, almost 2 minutes faster than last year. This put the club 10th in the masters' championship.

There was the expected cliff hanger in the B team as Jim Holmes and Andy Henderson were on 1st and 3rd leg duties and yet still managed to record identical times on their own watches for the second week in a row. This time the official results fell in Jim's favour, giving him a time of 17:39 (exactly 2 minutes faster than last year) versus Andy's 17:43. David Wardrope ran the second leg, his first cross country for the club and this was a tough introduction, finishing in 19:28. The last leg saw the welcome return of Colin Freeman to the short, sharp stuff. Colin had a smooth run through, pulling back 9 positions and finishing in the excellent time of 16:37, some ten and a half hours quicker than his last race!

The C team was a trial for all concerned! David Herbertson was first up, still not particularly well but there anyway. Despite this, David ran his best ever time on this course, finishing in a time of 18:06. A crisis ensued while Chas Steven was out on the second leg as we somehow lost 3rd leg runner Ian Rae's race number, the 3rd leg number being the only specially coloured one in each team. The day's first visit to the very accommodating race referee gave us dispensation to field Ian with the wrong colour of number. With this crisis over and Ian still smiling we relaxed for a minute only to see a distraught Chas walking off the course, calf muscle injured. Chas was devastated to let his team down but could not continue. Fortunately trip two to the referee, this time by Russell Couper, was also fruitful and Ian and Colin Banks were allowed to set off on a lap together to record their own times for the purpose of our Grand Prix. Ian finished in 18:25 (2 and a half minutes faster than last year) and Colin recorded a time of 19:27 (1 and a half minutes faster than last year).

Russell Couper was the quarter team, all on his own this week. However, Russell had a solid run, finishing in 23:50, just over a minute faster than last year, so encouraging progress there.

Well done to all. This result gives Eddie a slim lead in both the Grand Prix and Scratch Championship, closely followed by Alan Cullie in both cases but with David Wardrope and Russell Couper still in strong positions holding multiple jokers. Frances has a substantial lead in both women's competitions but now Mary is back in action and starting the chase.

Alan

National XC Relay Teams

Hot off the press, the teams are listed here. There is still room for a complete team of men and one lady, so please let me know if you want a run (or have to pull out) either via this blog today or by txt or phone tomorrow morning (note that James has already advised he is no longer able to run earlier today).

Alan

National Cross-Country Relays - Cumbernauld

Next up is the potential mud bath at Cumbernauld next Saturday 24th October. This is a proper cross-country! Russell has entered 4 men's teams and 1 team of ladies for this championship. The following men have previously indicated their availability:

A Derrick, R Couper, E Reid, D Wardrope, I Rae, C Steven, D Herbertson, G Stewart, A Henderson, J Holmes, A Cullie, M Duthie, J Carrigan

and the following women:

M Goldsmith, F Maxwell, D Buchanan

Could all please re-confirm your availability using this form (or let Russell know at the club) and anyone not on the above list let us know by Thursday evening so the running order can be decided (note that there are still 3 places available for men to give us 4 complete teams. If anyone of the above drops out then there will of course be more places available).

Alan

Lanarkshire Road Relay Results

More Photos and official times Added....

Perfect conditions greeted the enthusiastic contingent of Lanarkshire clubs contesting the annual Road Relay Championship in Drumpellier Park today. It is a few years since the Harriers' men got amongst the medals here but this year the veteran team of Eddie Reid (14:05), Alan Cullie (14:21), Martin Duthie (13:17) and Alan Derrick (13:21) placed 3rd overall behind

Cambuslang and Shettleston Harriers. Eddie improved by 58 seconds on last year to put the team in a strong position early on, handing over to the flying Alan Cullie who improved by an impressive one and a half minutes on last year and handing over to Martin Duthie in 7th position.

Martin had not run this particular course before but that was no problem to someone of Martin's experience and he cruised through to hand over in 4th place 150m or so behind Cambuslang's B team. Finally, Alan D kept it under control and gradually closed the gap to take 3rd place just before

the half way turn, consolidating that position to finish well clear and around 16 seconds faster than last year.

Andy Henderson took the first leg for the B team, finishing in 15:21 to hand over to James Carrigan in only his second relay outing for the club in the excellent time of 16:32. There is certainly a lot more to come from James. Then Jim Holmes did his usual remarkable job of producing a result that required inspection of the official results to decide, finishing in 15:21, 1 exactly the same time as Andy. "Fresh" off a plane from Florida last night, the very hoarse David Herbertson took the last leg in a time of 16:23, clearly not 100% well.

David Wardrope headed the third team and demonstrated that he is getting to grips with the short relays (and the Grand Prix), finishing in 16:18, a position that takes him to the joint lead of the club Grand Prix. Frances Maxwell did a sterling job stewarding the earlier kids' races and then ran the second leg for the C team, finishing in 16:59, 4 seconds faster than last year when she was part of Calderglen's silver medal winning ladies team. Finally, Russell Couper ran an encouraging 20:45 on the 3rd leg, within sight of the time he ran last year before injuries took over.

A big thanks to Malcolm and Frances for volunteering to help with the race organisation. Without that we would not have been permitted to enter teams. In fact, Malcolm performed lead bike duties for all the races on the day and covered something like 50 miles by the time he had cycled to and from the event. Finally, thanks to Sandra for recording the event in pictures.

Brancumhall Sessions

Monday 19th October is the first of our fortnightly cross country training sessions around Brancumhall football pitches. Bring your usual road shoes and favoured off-road shoes to the club. For those who have not experienced these sessions before, the surface is short grass and given the recent weather, it should be fairly firm under foot.

Alan

Lanarkshire Road Relay Teams

Click here to see the teams and running order. Still room for late additions, so let me know anytime before about 1:30 on race day at which time I will enter the teams. Likewise if you have to call off please let me know in advance. If you need a lift, then meet at the club at 12:45. For those going direct, here's a map. You are heading for the Drumpellier Park Visitor Centre accessed from the Townhead Road entrance beside Lochend Loch.

Lanarkshire Road Relays

Further details of this Saturday's relay are now available. The race programme is as follows:

12.00 u/11 girls

12.20 u/11 boys

12.40 u/13 u/15 u/17 girls

13.10 u13 boys

13.40 u/15 boys

14.15 u/17 boys, senior ladies, senior men

The names received so far are here. See me at the club on Thursday or leave your name here if you are available to run. The more marshalls we can provide the better too, so don't be shy.

I'll pick the running order after training on Thursday and post on the blog along with any arrangements for meeting at the club. The race start is at the visitor centre on the far side of Drumpellier Park, Coatbridge.

Alan

A farewell get together

As most of the club knows, we are off on our travels at the end of the month. I would love to meet up with as many as possible on Saturday 24th October to share a drink and a joke or two. The Monty seems as good a place as any, so hopefully I'll see you all at 8 in the Monty.

Malcolm

President's Trophy

Inaugurated last year, the President's Trophy is awarded each year by the committee to a member who has made an outstanding contribution to the Harriers. This year the award went to a member who has represented the club as a runner, as a former president and secretary and as a major motivator over a period of more than 20 years, Malcolm Buchanan. Malcolm was presented with the annual trophy at the recent Trossachs Training Camp where he was left unusually speechless!

Alan

Race 3 Grand Prix Update and Lanarkshire Road Relays

The men's and women's Grand Prix and scratch championships (men and women) have now been updated following the West District XC Relays. Russell is charging ahead in the men's Grand Prix and Frances is stretching away unchallenged in the women's Grand Prix and scratch championship. Eddie has a slim lead in the men's scratch championship. Thanks to those who are supporting these events.

However, worryingly for the general profile of the club, we are only fielding around half the participants we have had in the previous two years in the opening relays of the season, so come on, let's support the Grand Prix. The GP championships are designed to provide a fair competition for all members but they only work if you do the races. The provisional calendar for the next batch of Grand Prix races is here.

The next Grand Prix race is the Lanarkshire Road Relay at Drumpellier Park Coatbridge this coming Saturday. As previously announced by Malcolm on this blog, the Lanarkshire AAA who host the relay series will require each club to field at least two marshalls for the duration of all the events (children's and senior races), see Malcolm's previous post for details. Please record your availability to race or marshall using this form (or see me, Malcolm or Russell at the club).

Alan

WEST DISTRICT XC RELAY RESULTS

Full results should be available on scottish athletics website by tomorrow
In the meantime first out for the harriers was F Maxwell running 17.18 on a course that had some muddy patches and slippy corners but generally not too bad. unfortunatly Frances had nobody to hand over to so come on girls lets get you out racing and making a team up, we can do well in these events but need to be there.
For the gents Martin Duthie led the 1st team off in 13.36 followed by E Reid 14.36 A Cullie 14.30 and J Holmes 15.29. The 2nd team comprised A Henderson 15.27 I Rae 16.34 J Carrigan 16.29 and C Banks 17.41. Our 3rd team only had 2 runners R Couper 20.18 and C Steven 19.19
Well done to all who ran and thanks to everyone who came along to cheer us on

The next club race is next week the Lanarkshire Road Relays so lets try and get more runners and anyone who cant run can come along and cheer us on or marshall for the race as we need to provide 2 marshalls

TEAMS FOR WEST DISTRICT XC RELAYS

THE TEAMS FOR SATURDAY ARE AS FOLLOWS
Ladies
F Maxwell start time 12.40pm

Men
1st M Duthie ...............1st.A Henderson ....................1st.C Banks
2ndE Reid ....................2ndI Rae..................................2nd R Couper
3rdA Cullie....................3rd J Carrigan.........................3rd C Steven
4thJ Holmes .................4thG Stewart
start time 1.30pm

Be there in plenty of time and contact someone if you cant make it

Russell

Challenge Barcelona Ironman

As many of you know, myself & Genevieve took on the Barcelona Ironman on Sunday.
We were both very near our predicted times & absolutely loved it - it was a huge & quite emotional event & I found it amazing what you can get out of your own body if you break it down & dig deep enough.
A few people have been asking for a race report, which I have now written. Needless to say it is fairly extensive so rather than dumping it on this Blog I have put a link below to our ATHelite Blog where you can read it if you are so inclined & have time to spare!
Thanks to everyone who popped in, called & texted to give us support & encouragement both before & after the event.
We have a couple of weeks of essential rest now then we shall make a return to the Harriers to train at a normal level again for a while!

Colin

http://www.athelite.blogspot.com/

Young Athletes Training

Due to school holidays there will be no training next Wednesday 14 October. We will start back on Wednesday 21 October at 6.30 pm .

Loch Ness Marathon

Update!!
Thanks to Mary for letting us know that her time was actually 4:15, not too shabby at all! See Mary's comment for her full reaction and other news on runners we know.

Also, Andy Buchannan was competing in the Loch Ness 10k and finished a very creditable 4th out of 2500 in a new pb of 34:42, missing out on 3rd place by only 12secs. Thanks to Dawn for the report and all the best to Andy with his studies at college in Inverness; his talent will be missed.

Well done to Mary Goldsmith on her time of 4:17 on the Bonnie Banks of Loch Ness (am I getting my songs mixed up here?). I'm sure this will qualify for a performance standard (will check when I get back to the UK). I've a feeling there may have been more than one Harrier competing in that race series, so as is traditional, if anyone who was there running or spectating would like to submit a race report for the blog and a photograph or two it would be much appreciated.

The bigger the race the more inpenetrable the on-line results seem to be so I cannot actually even check Mary's time at the moment let alone search for any other Harriers!

Congratulations again Mary on a fine time and now put your feet up for a few weeks and recover.

Alan

Lanarkshire AAA Road Relays

Please note that the above races will take place on Saturday 17th October at Drumpellier Park Coatbridge. Times of the various races will be announced at the club. It has been agreed at the LAAA AGM that only those clubs who provide a minimum of 2 helpers/marshalls will be alowed to enter teams. Please let me know the names of those willing to help on the day prior to arranging any teams.

Malcolm

Physiotherapy Service

Please note that from the 31st October 2009, the physio partnership with Accies Fitness will cease. Hopefully this has been of benefit to the club, but after a review of the service, it was decided that we would terminate this arrangement. Can I remind all Harriers who have used the service this year to contact Russell (russell4@sky.com) to update the club records. Our thanks to our club partner EKGTA for facilitating this venture. Any feedback on your experience with the service would be appreciated.

Malcolm

Hard as Nails!

A triple congratulations to Genevieve and Colin on completing the Barcelona Ironman on Sunday. They've been conspicious by their absence for the last 6 months or so due to the extreme training they have been subjecting themselves to but it has all paid off.

Genevieve completed the race in the fantastic debut time of 11:40:32, finishing 746th overall and 9th F35, comfortably beating her target of sub-12 hours. That's a 3.8km swim in the sea, 180km on the bike and a marathon to finish it. Her vital statistics were something like 1:18:03/5:56:49/4:25:40 (can't get them to add up but there must be some unaccounted transition time in there too). If I'm not mistaken, that marathon split is only about 20 minutes outside Genevieve's marathon pb. Just goes to highlight the importance of a warm-up, even before a marathon!

Colin's total time was 10:52:43, comfortably inside his target too and finishing 404th overall and 99th M35. Colin's approximate splits were 1:11:07/5:50:33/3:51:03.

Alan

Calderglen Clean Up

The Rotary Club and Calderglen rangers are organising a clean up of part of the glen on Saturday 10th October. This is an ideal opportunity to help maintain one of our training routes and help keep it up to standard. Any volunteers from any of the sections should meet at Calderwood Gardens which is off Alloway Road at 10am on Saturday morning.

Malcolm

SVHC Half Marathon - Clydebank

Contrary to the previous day, perfect running conditions met the participants of the SVHC Half Marathon Championships at Clydebank. The route was a straight forward out and back along the canal path towards Maryhill. Several locks meant an incline of 150 ft on the way out but the same locks provided some welcome downhill portions on the way back.In a sprint finish, the race was won by C. Upson in 1:19:34. First lady was J.MacLean in 1:21:58.The only Calderglen Harriers representative was Jim Holmes who finished 9th in a time of 1:30:46 and was first M40.

Thanks to Jim for the race report and well done on finishing in exactly the same time as he did one month previously at the Glasgow Half. Mr Consistency!

Alan

WEST DISTRICT XC RELAY

This Saturday is the West District XC Relays
I have entered just about everyone from the club so you can still get a run if you let me know by thursday at training after which the teams will be selected
the following names have already said they will run but i need further confirmation they can still make it so let me know
R Couper, A Derrick, C Steven, A Cullie, J Holmes, C Banks, E Reid, M Duthie,
A Henderson, D Watt, I Rae, G Stewart, J Carrigan
F Maxwell

These are names the teams will be made from unless i hear differently

Russell

McANDREW RESULTS

Well done to everyone who turned up on Saturday on what turned out to be a very windy day
We had 2 full teams out and leading off the first team was E Reid with a time of 19.50 followed by C McDougall with our fastest time of the day 19.09 3rd and 4th were A Cullie and B McDougall running 20.32 and 21.32 respectfully to finish in 18th place
The 2nd team was G Allan 22.57, D Wardrope 23.43, R Lawton 24.58 and R Couper 28.27 to finish 38th

McANDREW TEAMS

Teams for the McAndrew road relay are listed below
Please be there for 2pm approx for warm up and numbers

A TEAM
E REID
C McDOUGALL
A CULLIE
B McDOUGALL

B TEAM
G ALLAN
D WARDROPE
R LAWTON
R COUPER

LADIES
F MAXWELL