ALLOA HALF MARATHON

11 Harriers turned up at Alloa for the 30th Alloa half marathon on what turned out a very warm day due to the direct sunshine. We had a mixed bag of results some good and some not so good but we'll get to that later. For my own part i started off well enough but had to watch most other Harriers disappear into the distance and out of sight only John McBride holding back a bit. As we went through 2miles the course starts a gentle climb and John eased past and rapidly moved away and i found myself in a nightmare. The legs were gone, stomach churning, and a knock to the thigh i got at registration was louping. Pace plummiting i had to think about stopping but thought its a nice day so if it has to be a long walk so be it. I did find a bit of recovery at Alva (7mls) and found myself running 2mins a mile quicker but still slow then came the last 2 climbs which i thought i was going to die on but the times were still quicker than i had gone downhill earlier in the race so from half-way heading for over 2.30 i was not as dissappointed to finish 2:17:35. A long way up the road the other Harriers had mainly good fortune with Stephen Reilly leading the Harriers home with 1:23:02 a PB by 2mins and a Bronze performance award. Next in was Scot Hill 1.26.52 but nowadays having to watch Stephen run into the distance. The Harriers came home in a bit of a prossesion after this with Stuart Waugh 1:29:48 and surely a performance award followed by Andy Henderson 1:30:12 then Mark Saez 1:32:06 although official results give him 2:08:00. Next came debut girl Karen Sturgeon clocking 1:32:23 with future performances sure to improve. Jim Holmes kept his averages with 1:33:34 then we had a gap to David Wardrope 1:38:27 outrunning the GPL George Stewart who was really dissappointed in 1:41:17. Last but one Harrier to finish was John McBride 1:48:38 again a good average for John and eventually me.
Some jokers were played which will make a difference to the GP. I think we will find Jim Holmes leading both the GP and Club Championship for the men and no difference to the Ladies but Karen closing the gap.