Fine weather and a fine course in Falkirk greeted another record entry for the National Cross Country Championships. The Harriers were out in force and expecting good times on a course that was firmer under foot than usual and for once wasn't windy. Our pre-race morale was given a boost when Emma Lawton earned a gold team medal in the U13 girls race for Giffnock North (still second claim for Calderglen) and was 8th overall despite being at the younger end of the age group. So no pressure on dad Richard in the senior race to emulate his daughter!
Although there was a record entry of over 750 in the men's race, on the day there were only around 500 who lined up. Still a very impressive site on the start line and still making for a very congested first lap. Andrew McCaffrey reckons he lost at least 30 seconds at the start due to being boxed in but even so he was almost 3 minutes faster than last year, finishing in 49:57. Eddie Reid made a very late arrival to the course and was perhaps running on adrenalin at the start, keeping relatively close to Andrew for the first few k's. However Eddie was overtaken by Stephen Reilly as the race progressed, with Stephen finishing in 51:28 (which was a few minutes down on last year) and Eddie in 52:36. Birthday boy Jim Holmes had officially moved into the M45 category by the time the race started and celebrated with a performance 3 minutes faster than last year, finishing in 54:04. David Herbertson thought that he was struggling today but was actually an incredible 5 minutes faster than last year (proving that it is actually much more painful running faster!) and just managing to stay in front of Andy Henderson who crossed the line in 54:33.
Kenny Leinster got the monkey off his back by staying on course today to finish in 56:21, only seconds down on last year. Gerry Connelly was making his grand prix race debut and has set his target for future years at 56:35, a time he will surely improve on. Richard Lawton was also running the Calendar Park course for the first time and although he could not match his daughter's performance, he ran well to finish in 61:31. John McBride was another first timer, crossing the line in 62:42. Hugh Simpson looked relaxed throughout as usual (perhaps too relaxed!) but still improved by over 5 minutes on last year to finish in 63:03. So Hugh is on the way back to form I think. Chas Steven was also considerably faster than last year, having strung together a good sequence of tough races in recent months, finishing in 67:58. Finally Russell Couper improved by about a minute on last year to finish in 70:48. Well done to former Harrier Stuart Gibson, who finished 9th in the senior men's race, his best ever performance!
Our most important participant today was Alison Lessels, who volunteered to be the club's official helper, performing de-chipping in the senior races and without whom we would not have been permitted to run. So a big thanks to Alison. Also a big thanks to all who helped set up and remove the club tent, which was the tent to beat all tents in the tented village. The grand prix and scratch championships have been updated (note that I have had to change the links to the GP and scratch results sheets, so when you get to the GP master page, press F5 to refresh the screen before clicking on the links). Joanne and Julie lead the ladies GP and scratch championships respectively, whilst Eddie and Stephen lead the men's championships. All is still very much to play for though.
Further photos of everyone are here. Finally, it was interesting to see Inverclyde use their club mascot for pre-race motivation! What happened next????
Alan
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