Calderglen Lead the Lanarkshire Ladies!

Check out Joanne, Julie and Alison with their winners' medals. Funki!

Frances' photos now added to the album (21/10/13)
On a day that started out looking bleak with torrential rain over Drumpellier Country Park, Calderglen's senior ladies' team ended the afternoon with a brilliant performance in warm sunshine, winning the Lanarkshire Road Relay Championship by a large margin. Julie Beveridge was on first leg duty and is certainly consolidating her impressive speed, pulling out a significant lead on the 4km out and back course to finish in 15:36. Alison Lessells was in 5k pb form only a few weeks ago. However a recent holiday to Cuba may well, by her own admission, have dented the training a little. With this her first race back, extra pressure was piled on by being handed the lead on leg 2. It was no problem for Alison though who extended the lead, finishing in 16:48. Joanne McEvoy had the final leg and was under no immediate pressure but still managed to push herself on to an excellent 16:23 and confirming the Lanarkshire Championship for the team. Their victory was celebrated by the most unusual prize giving yet, with the medals being handed out to them as they stood in the cafeteria queue! Well done to Julie, Alison and Joanne. Frances Maxwell and Ruth Kelly completed our excellent representation from the Calderglen ladies, running in an incomplete team. Frances took the first leg and continues her gradual comeback from injury to finish in 17:50. Ruth has gone from her longest race distance (Loch Ness Marathon) to her shortest race distance (this 4km relay) in the space of a few weeks and found it a lung burning experience, completing the course in an estimated 20:00.

Hugh Simpson finishing leg 3

The Calderglen men were represented by two and a half teams. On first leg duty for the vets team we had Alan Derrick, racing himself back into form in recent weeks. As the U-17 boys race (not a relay, just a straight race) was combined with the first leg of the men and women's relay, there was a wide range of levels of age, speed and experience on display. The initial pace was fast as the young boys took off but many of them faded within a few hundred metres for the more experienced runners to move through, including myself. I had a fairly even paced run, on the limit as usual, finishing in around 4th or 5th pace in the relay in 13:45. Stephen Phimister was taking part in his first short relay of the season and reckons he went off too fast, suffering in the latter stages. However, the team were still well in touch with Stephen finishing in 15:15. Stuart Waugh is making steady progress back to form and in this, his first of two races this weekend, Stuart finished in 16:39. Finally, Martin Duthie relished the challenge of teams to chase and made up 4 or 5 positions, closing down some big gaps to finish in 14:04, bringing the team up to an excellent 4th or 5th place (to be confirmed when official results available).

John McBride led the second team off and squeezed a bit more speed out compared to last week's cross country, finishing in 17:32. Jim Mearns was also doing the difficult trick of running a very short relay leg only weeks after the Loch Ness Marathon, finishing in 17:20. Hugh Simpson had a great run, holding really good form from start to finish and completed the course in 17:47. Richard Lawton was right in the mix with an excellent 17:37 on leg 4. This was clearly a very well matched team!

Phil Marshall is really relishing his first season of road relays and is reaping the benefits, running a considerably faster pace than he did in his first relay only 3 weeks ago. Phil finished in 18:13. Russell Couper is suffering just now with various injuries but got himself around in 22:27 to complete Calderglen's senior participation. We also had two excellent U17 boys running who we will report on when the official times are published.

A big thanks to Maud and Mandy for their support in potentially unpleasant weather conditions and to all the participating Harriers for their continued enthusiasm to race. Only 4 races in and we have already had 26 Harriers competing in the Harriers Grand Prix, which is now led by Julie Beveridge for the ladies and John McBride for the men. The respective scratch championships are led by Julie Beveridge and Alan Derrick. Further photos of the Lanarkshire Road Relays are here.
Alan