A week of heavy showers could not put the dampeners on a thrilling day of racing at the National Cross Country Relays at Cumbernauld on Saturday. In fact underfoot conditions were about as good as they have ever been in the 10 years that this venue has hosted the race. This meant that the course was muddy rather than the usual absolute quagmire! The Harriers' senior ladies and men responded magnificently with many significant course best performances achieved, building on the improvements displayed by many in the preceding races.
Joanne McEvoy was on first leg duty for ladies A team. In a field of 70, Joanne established an early mid-field position before handing over to Mary Goldsmith in a time of 18:21. Mary has run this course a handful of times but today ran her fastest ever time covering the hilly 4km course in a time of 19:48, not only her first time under 20 minutes but also her first time under 21 minutes! Mary pulled back a few more places in the process. Frances Maxwell was on the anchor leg with plenty of teams ahead to work on. Frances gained a further 6 places bringing the team to the line in 34th position in a time of 18:40, an improvement on her previous best by 32 seconds.
Kirsty Findlater lead off the ladies B team in her first ever cross country race. A tough one to debut on! However Kirsty and second leg Laura McConnel have covered plenty of cross-country miles in training at Brancumhall and on the golf course over the past year with the club and both ladies demonstrated great toughness and strength in completing their laps. Kirsty completed her lap in a time of 22:36 whilst Laura, also on her first ever cross country race, completed the 4km in 23:13. Although neither lady professed to have particularly enjoyed the experience (at least not during the race) they will both have boosted their strength and race experience.
The Calderglen men fielded 3 and a half teams in a record field of around 130 starters. The Calderglen veteran A team were psyched up to contend the first ever Scottish Masters National championship held within the overall National Championship. Davy Watt is a master of handling the fast, physical starts on these relays and today launched the club into a very competitive 31st position overall and 3rd vets team in a time of 14:27, only seconds covering the first 5 or 6 veteran teams. This was Davy's fastest time from only a couple of appearances on this course, the last in 2002! Eddie Reid was dumped right into the fast and furious leading action on leg 2 and found it a bit unsettling being passed at great speed by so many younger athletes. However Eddie kept his head and ran only 8 seconds outside his previous course best, recording 16:34, handing over in 9th position amongst the veteran teams. Martin Duthie had been feeling a little bit ill through the week and was not at his strongest on leg 3 but still gained two veteran places crossing the line in 7th place in a time of 15:26, only 16 seconds outside his best set 5 years ago. Alan Derrick has been in good form this season but was another one with some sort of virus for the past two weeks which was denting his confidence a little. However, this did not affect his performance on the day, passing the Cambuslang, Garscube and finally Kilbarchan veteran teams cheered on by a very loud Calderglen support but unfortunately finishing exactly 10 seconds and one place behind the third place Fife AC veteran team at the line, having taken 84 seconds out of them. Alan recorded a course best of 14:36, an improvement of 1 minute on last year and 13 seconds better than his previous best set in 2004. The veteran championship was won by Shettleston Harriers, 1 minute ahead of Calderglen, Corstorphine were second (22 seconds ahead) and Fife third (10 seconds ahead). A very impressive performance by a small club such as Calderglen in a National championship.
There were equally impressive performances and improvements in the Calderglen B, C and D teams. Jim Holmes (17:05), Scot Hill (16:42) and David Herbertson (17:37) all improved massively on their previous best times in the B team whilst Stuart Waugh completed that veteran team with a time of 17:54 in his first National since 2005. Ian Rae toughed it out on first leg duty for the C team running a course best of 17:30. Richard Lawton had never run this event before and probably found it a shock to the system, recording 20:02. David Wardrope is still on the comeback from a knee problem but still improved by 15 seconds on last year to finish in 19:13. An improving George Stewart recorded 18:34, a minute or more outside his best on this course but by no means his worst performance. Russell Couper had the dubious pleasure of a first leg for the D team but was delighted to improve by almost 3 minutes on last year to finish in 20:54. After last year's DNF, Chas Steven ran a solid 21:14 on leg 2 as he builds his form for the forthcoming Brampton to Carlisle 10 mile race.
Thanks as always to our supporters on the day; Mandy, Malcolm, Roddy and Barry. The shouts of support do make a difference even if we don't have the strength to acknowledge it during the race. There are photographs of most of us in this album courtesy of Frances and the various photographers trusted with her camera (more photos added 25th October courtesy of Kenny Phillips).
The Grand Prix and scratch championships have been updated. Jim Holmes maintains his Grand Prix lead whilst Alan Derrick jumps to the top in the scratch championship. Frances Maxwell maintains her lead in both championships although the leaders are tightly grouped. Use the menu to the left to access the latest positions.
Alan
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