Strathclyde parkrun - Grand Prix Race 15

18 Harriers old and new invaded the Strathclyde parkrun 5k race this morning to contest the penultimate race of the club Grand Prix. Although the loch was like a mirror on arrival, by the time the race started a stiff breeze ensured that the return leg of the out and back course would be straight into the wind. Despite this the Harriers achieved many good times and even some pb's. First Harrier and first in the race was Alan Derrick in 16:53, an M45 gold standard and 1 second outside his season's best, followed by Neil Green in 18:50, just missing out on an M40 performance standard by 6 seconds. Stephen Phimister did very well to break the normal Harriers finishing order, setting a new pb of 19:01, smashing his previous best by 31 seconds and just pipping Eddie Reid (19:05) who set his best time of the season and achieved and M45 bronze standard. Scot Hill is gradually getting back to form (19:35) and led a tight grouping of Harriers with Jim Holmes (19:49, a new pb!), Andy Henderson (19:55, an age group pb and M55 bronze standard) and Stuart Waugh (19:58, M60 silver standard) in close succession.

First lady in the race and first Harrier was Joanne McEvoy in 20:12, slightly disappointed not to break 20 minutes but still a season's best. The Harriers also claimed second lady with Julie Beveridge setting a massive pb of 20:35, improving by 30 seconds in the space of a month. Amazingly, new member Karen Sturgeon gave Calderglen a clean sweep, finishing third in 21:42, only 4 seconds outside her best set a few weeks ago.

George Stewart was more competitive than of late, especially in the first half of the race and in the end came home in 20:55, a season's best. Not far behind was Billy Buchanan in his first parkrun and setting a new 5k age group pb of 21:02 which gets Billy a bronze M60 standard. New members Stevie McIntyre and Hugh Simpson were competing for the first time in Calderglen vests finishing in 22:27 and 22:47 respectively, this being another pb for Hugh. David Searil was at his first Strathclyde parkrun and set a good time of 23:07, a season's best (by 1 second) and his fastest for 2 or 3 years. Russell Couper had a self admitted bad one today with a time of 25:10. Youngest Harrier and making his first appearance at a senior race was 16 year old Stuart Hill who will hopefully flourish as a runner like the rest of his family. Stuart finished in 27:55, just 1 second outside his previous time. After the race a posse of Harriers headed for ATHelite in Hamilton to enjoy the usual high standard of hospitality, hand over their TTC payments and for one Harrier to swap running shoes for budgie smugglers (no reflection on the race result) for a forthcoming holiday.

The Grand Prix and Scratch championships have been updated and with one race to go there is still a little uncertainty over the final result, especially in the men's series. Well done to all on another impressive Calderglen club performance.

Alan