Livingston - Oh Dear!

Link to my photos fixed, so should now all be visible.
The story of the National 6/4 stage relays on Saturday was all about the first, short leg (at least according to some). The result of that leg is fully described by the photo on the left. There are winners and losers. Julie Beveridge was very much the winner, finishing the 3 mile leg in 20:19 to bring our ladies home in an excellent 10th position and the fastest Calderglen short leg time of the day (men or women). Not only that, Julie dismissed B team lead-off runner George Stewart (20:35) who himself triumphed over the heavily jet-lagged Jim Holmes (20:45) who was leading out the A, vets team. So it was an unusual sight to see Davie Watt chasing down Colin Banks and Frances Maxwell on the second leg, trying to get the A team back in front. This Davie accomplished quite near the start of the 5.8 mile leg, which he finished in 34:06 bringing the team up to 36th position. Meanwhile Colin Banks caught and passed Frances, finishing in 41:37 with a somewhat under the weather Frances finishing in 42:33. Andy Henderson took over on leg 3 for the A team and ran a controlled effort to finish in 20:51. Russell Couper was out on this leg for the B team and despite being mistaken for Andy Henderson in the results (an easy mistake to make) was awarded a time of 25:27 for the 3 mile leg. Joanne McEvoy was feeling full of energy on the third leg for the ladies, overhauling Russell to finish in an excellent 20:42, one of her best runs for a long time.

Karen Sturgeon had her first outing at Livingston and was put under pressure immediately by being set off alongside Scotland veteran internationalist, Sue Ridley of Edinburgh AC on the last leg. At this point the pre-race pep talk to Karen of ignoring all the men who would be going too fast at the start and just sticking with the ladies seemed to be bad advice! However, Karen stuck to the task and finished in 43:46 (note that Sue Ridley went round in 37:24, so Karen was probably dragged along too fast at the start). The team finished in 19th place, our best position ever in what is becoming an ever more competitive ladies field at this event. Well done ladies.

Fourth leg for the A team was handled by Andrew McCaffrey who, despite carrying a knee problem, was very satisfied with his run, finishing in 35:22. Hugh Simpson ran this leg for the B team and was  delighted with his time of 44:58. The A team carried on with David Herbertson on the 5th leg. David finally set George straight by setting our fastest men's time of 20:22. The glory leg went to Scot Hill, deep into his London Marathon preparations, who brought the A team home in 37:39 in 38th place and 8th vets team, confirming our veterans' strength in depth. Well done to all (except me who clearly inflicted a tragedy of justice upon George by selecting him for the B team :-))

Many photos from Joanne, David Herbertson and me are in this album with many more on the www.roadrunpics.com web site.

Alan