Brampton 2013

Last Sunday a smaller but no less enthusiastic than usual bus load of Harriers headed south for the annual Brampton to Carlisle 10 Mile Road Race. Now in its 62nd year, "Brampton" has been the benchmark race for the Harriers every year since the club was founded in 1984. Cold, sunny conditions greeted us on arrival in Brampton where the usual pre-race rituals began. Warm-ups completed, we assembled for the team photo, always the most difficult task of the day, like herding wasps. Billy Buchanan was the unlucky injured Harrier tasked with taking the photo, managing to capture 22 of the 23 Harriers running plus one cheeky interloper.

Just before 11:30am we were allowed out onto the main road and the start line and the large field of 500+ bunched up in anticipation of the fast, downhill start. Then we were off! From my point of view it seemed like the usual very fast start as Davie Watt and I followed the leaders through the first mile. Not having run the race since 2002 (longer ago than I thought), this was always going to be slow compared to "the old days", so I was not expecting the usual 4:50 first mile but all the same I was disappointed to pass through the mile marker in only 5:49. All hopes of being able to ease back a little bit to a comfortable sub 60 minute pace were already out the window. I was going to have to hang on to this "fast" pace for the whole race to achieve my target! Meanwhile, Davie had increased his cadence and moved away to the pack in front. There was not a breath of wind so it was a beautiful day for racing, only having to judge the pace according to the hills and distance to go. I ran most of the race in a very loose pack of 3 or 4 with me sometimes breaking a few metres clear and on occasions someone else would burst away for a while. I nipped through 10k in just over 36 minutes and then started the climb to the finish. At the 8 mile mark we entered the outskirts of Carlisle and at this point thoughts turn to pushing on to the finish. Not long after we passed Blair Matthew taking photos and cheering us on. Blair is happily recovering from recent surgery on his heel and was down at Brampton to get the hunger back for when he is cleared fit to start training.

Fortunately I had managed to drop my pack by this point but was soon joined by a young runner who was charging fast. This pulled me on for the last mile, past Billy Buchanan in full photographic mode and on to a long, downhill sprint, neck and neck with the young guy (the Garmin later confirmed that the last quarter mile was sub 5 minute mile pace). I just lost out in the final 20m but was happy to have been dragged along to a sustained, fast finish, crossing the line in 59:08. Meanwhile, Davie had maintained his progress through the packs and finished as first M50 in an excellent 58:19. Ian Hughes has had a bit of a break from racing but is clearly in good form still, finishing in 60:11, a half minute faster than last year and consistent with earlier years. Then it was an absolutely fantastic performance from Andy Henderson, finishing as first M60 in a time of 65:26. This is remarkable as Andy is running significantly faster than he was 10 years ago and has now run 25 Bramptons! Stephen Phimister has had very sporadic training recently and so was not surprised to be a minute down on last year, finishing in 67:06.

Then the in-form Julie Beveridge who smashed her pb, finishing in 67:46, an improvement of 42 seconds on last year. Jim Holmes had another, strong consistent run, in this his 13th Brampton, finishing in 68:47. Stuart Waugh was not confident coming in to this race but ended up running better than he predicted, finishing as second M60 in a time of 69:29. Joanne McEvoy has had her best race season for a few years and confirmed her good form with a time of 69:51, picking up 3rd F35 in the process. Graham Ramage has had a sparse year of racing but is keeping the miles up in training and ran a steady 70:47 under severe pressure from Karen and Alison though! Karen came from a long way back in the last mile to pass Alison and almost catch Graham, finishing in 70:49. Karen is clearly making great progress considering her illness earlier this year. Biggest improver of the day was Alison Lessells who had an absolute stormer, finishing over 7 minutes faster than last year and setting a new pb. Eddie Reid struggled with his knee on the cambered roads and was happy just to get round in 70:57. Kenny Leinster has had a few hamstring issues this year but now seems to be back to consistent training, finishing in 71:40. Jim Mearns was the only Harrier making his Brampton debut this year and set his benchmark of 72:20 to surely be beaten in future years. John McBride was a little down on last year which is surprising given that he has been destroying his pb's at other races this year but his time of 74:27 was still a good one. Frances Maxwell has had a catalogue of injuries recently so was another one happy to get around pain free in 75:56. Gerry Mullen is one of the "grand daddies" of Brampton and this was his 28th consecutive appearance. Unfortunately it was also his slowest (76:59) but Gerry will be back to form for future years. David Lyon joined us for his second Brampton, finishing in 77:52. Phil Marshall was also on Brampton number 2 but a year of Achilles problems has held him back, finishing a little down on last year in 79:35. Mary Goldsmith had a steady run of 81:59 which was good enough for 4th in her age group. Chas Steven was also on his 28th Brampton and this year was running pain free to finish in 87:03. Finally Russell Couper was definitely just out to finish and this he did in a time of 1:44:38.

In a very close veteran team competition, Calderglen (Davie Watt, Alan Derrick, Ian Hughes) came out on top by a single point over Keswick AAC and Morpeth Harriers who were tied in second place; some big names to beat. The women's team competition was a very clear victory for our ladies with Julie Beveridge, Joanne McEvoy and Karen Allen winning the team prize for the first time in Calderglen's long history at this race. Very well done to the ladies.

There were some great performances by the Harriers on the day with many performance award standards being achived: Gold standards to D Watt, A Derrick, A Henderson, S Waugh; Silver standards to I Hughes; bronze standards to J Beveridge, J McEvoy, F Maxwell.

A fine afternoon's entertainment in Carlisle was followed by our usual journey to Moffat for dinner and the annual Harriers' prize giving. Everything went as smooth as clockwork and none of this would be possible without the organisation of Russell, Eddie and Gerry. Many photos are available courtesy of Billy Buchanan here and Blair Matthew here and of course a thanks to our travelling support of Maud and Frances.
Alan