Brampton

A total of 25 Harriers set off on a wet and windy (fortunately a cross wind) Saturday afternoon to complete a shorter than usual Brampton. The severe flooding in Cumbria meant that the usual 3 to 6 mile part of the route was largely under water and so the course reverted to the old main road course into Carlisle. This gave a total GPS measured distance of 9.1 miles. The gremlins got into the computerised results timing system too, so we still await the corrected official results to determine if Russell has won the sweep (again!). However, even without the official times, there were clearly many excellent performances from the Harriers.

Davy Watt was first Harrier back in 13th position overall and 1st M45 (51:06) with Martin Duthie taking 2nd M45 spot in 19th position (52:13). Andy Buchanan is missing from the results due to his watch (or rather Dawn's watch) disintegrating as he crossed the line at which point he dipped under the tape to look for the pieces (I know, the most unlikely excuse I have heard too!). However, we can deduce that Andy's time was around 53:16. After that, the next batch of official times are out of synch by one or two places (Please leave a comment with the time from your own watch to help me sort out the official results; as I am not sure at exactly which position they come back into synch).

Performance of the day, and I don't just mean from the Harriers, was Charlie McDougall finishing as 1st M60 in the incredible time of 53:21. Alan Cullie is having his best season for a few years, finishing in 54:45. Next in was the boy of the boy Mullen, Gerry's son Ross displaying pure talent to finish in 56:47. Andy Henderson could genuinely state that he was "21 Today", joining the exclusive group of Harriers who have completed 21 or more Bramptons. Andy was 6th M55 in a time of 59:15. Brian McDougall was tracking Andy closely until the last mile or so when his progress was halted by a stitch. Brian looked to be suffering when he finished in 60:04. Stuart Waugh completed another veteran "one two" for the Harriers finishing as 2nd M60 in a time of 60:16. Jim Holmes has been inseparable from Andy Henderson this season but this time Andy got away. Jim finished in 61:22. Gerry Mullen and Billy Buchanan were side by side for the whole race until the last 100m when Gerry sprinted away to finish in 63:07 compared to Billy's 63:16. David Herbertson is not quite back to full form yet but gave his all to finish in 64:05. Graham Lindsay was not far behind and was also suffering from successive colds but crossed the line strongly in 64:22.

Newly appointed Club President Frances Maxwell led the Calderglen ladies home, finishing in 64:51 and 4th L45, dropping David Wardrope in the last mile. David finished in 65:00, surely his best performance over a longer distance race. Colin Banks (also missing from the results) ran his usual steady, controlled race and finished comfortably in 65:54. John McBride was straight off a night shift and did well to get to the bus let alone run the race. John finished in 67:45. Graham Ramage was making his first trip to Brampton and hopefully will have many more (slightly longer) Bramptons to come. Graham's time was 70:58. Mary Goldsmith rounded off a great season with 71:56 and 7th L50. Alison Crooks was another of those suffering from a cold but kept it steady to finish in 72:10, ahead of husband Graeme. David Dickson appeared to be running well and finished in 72:57. The most prolific Harrier at Brampton, Chas Steven completed his 25th Brampton in a row in a time of 75:03. Graeme Crooks backed up wife Alison from a safe distance, finishing in 75:43. Ian McKenzie has been out of action for a while with an injury and so had to work hard for his 76:42. Finally Russell Couper ran 1 minute per mile faster than the Uni 5 mile race a few weeks ago to finish happy in 80:10.

Once the official results are modified to include Andy B, they should show that Calderglen were 3rd team over all (D Watt, M Duthie and A Buchanan) an excellent result in this premier road running event. Not only that, we were 1st veteran team (D Watt, M Duthie, C McDougall). Very well done to all who took part.

While all this was going on, intrepid cycling duo Dawn and Don (Buchanan and Kennedy) decided to check out the planned race route. The photos show that the organisers had good reason to change the route!

Thanks to Don for the enroute photos to add to my slightly blurry "100m to go" photos (OK, I'll admit to 200m but no further). You can see all the photos here.

Alan