Trail Race 2013 - A Record Field

Calderglen Harriers flying at the start of the 1km

Expectations were high after record pre-entries for our annual Friday evening trail race series and we were not disappointed on the night when young and old enthusiastically lined up for the 1k, 3k, 5k and 10k races in mild and dry conditions. A slight breeze kept the majority of the midges at bay too thankfully. 

First race of the evening was the under 9's 1km starting at 6pm. A start line "Mo-Bot" confirmed that Mo Farah has indeed grabbed the attention of young athletes across the country. Then the around 50 youngsters launched themselves off the fast downhill start. Just over 4 minutes later a very close race to the finish line was won by Calderglen's Evan Hughes closely followed by team mate Patrick Saez, both sons of senior Harriers. Just behind, first of the girls, Isla Ward of Fusion Triathlon Club was third overall. There was plenty of effort and smiles throughout the field as the youngsters clearly enjoyed this great little loop around the Country Park. A link to the provisional results is at the end of this post.

Next race on the programme was the combined U15 and U13 Ewan Murray Memorial 3km race over a challenging, undulating course of two laps. Pre-race favourite Aiden Gilbride (U15) of East Kilbride AC did not disappoint and was the clear winner in a time of 11:42, followed by Paton Struan (U13) of Ron Hill Cambuslang and Cameron Watson of Inverclyde AC (U13). First of the girls was Calderglen's Emma Lawton (U13) in a very impressive 6th overall in a time of 13:32.

The 5k race field covers a mixture of youths and adults and indeed youth won out in the end with Law & District AC's junior Luke Foss the clear winner in 15:54, an excellent time on such a tough course. Towards the opposite end of the age spectrum, Hunter's Bog Trotter Donald Naylor (M40) was second in 16:09. The enigmatic HBT contingent had all entered both the 5k and 10k races, so were definitely making good use of Calderglen Country Park on their trip through from Edinburgh. Third place was a senior athlete, Andtew Coulter from Ron Hill Cambuslang in 16:36. The next 4 places were occupied by a quartet of East Kilbride AC athletes, Vincent Hastings, Jamie Clements, David Gorman and Niall Walker, for a certain team prize and first of the ladies was team mate Kelly Baillie in 21:23.

A record entry of 218 was received for the 10k race and even though there were around 20 non-starters, it was still the largest field assembled in the 17 years of this event. The course covers a very tough 10km route around the country park and out towards Langlands before returning through "The Glen" to the traditional finish through the avenue of trees to the entrance to the Sports Club. Former Calderglen Harrier and pre-race favourite Stuart Gibson of Ron Hill Cambuslang was perhaps feeling the pressure on this relatively low key race, even more so when he went through the initial short lap lying in third or fourth position. However, local knowledge and pace judgement paid off in the end as Stuart stretched away on the long lap to win in 34:49 followed by club mate Robert Gilroy in 35:13 and Colin Thomas of Jog Scotland in 35:26. Impressively, Donald Naylor of HBT who had finished 3rd in the 5k was 6th in the 10k! First lady was last year's winner and current national masters cross country champion Edel Mooney of Lothian Running Club in 40:18, heading a large and much appreciated contingent through from the east.

And then of course we had the domestic challenge between a hand picked selection of Calderglen's finest volunteers who not only helped out with the preparations and marshalling for the earlier races but then competed in the 10k race. First Harrier across the line in relatively relaxed style was George Stewart in 48:56 with recent close rival John McBride just behind in 49:27. Alisson Lessells was not far away from big John, crossing the line in 50:05, having made a big effort to pass Richard Lawton (50:13) with Hugh Simpson (51:03) and Jim Mearns (53:38) completing a very closely matched Calderglen team.

A huge thanks to all who made the effort to travel from far or near on Friday evening to support our event and a huge thanks to our club and event sponsors EKGTA, Run-4-It and EKES and others who made donations to help us put this evening together. We could not do any of this without the Calderglen Harriers, family and friends, Jimmy and Myra Moore who helped out on the night and we should all congratulate race director Russell Couper who makes sure that everybody volunteers to help and has done such a great job organising and publicising this event.

Provisional results for each of the events are here: 1k, 3k, 5k and 10k. Age group and team prize winners will be notified by post after the results have been reviewed. Results from previous years are available here. Some further photos of the earlier races are here.

Alan