SVHC Relay Strathclyde Park

For the second day in a row two teams of Harriers made a (shorter) journey to a race in very poor weather conditions. This time the venue was the familiar territory of Strathclyde Park for the Annual Scottish Veteran Harriers Club LSK Supplies Road Relay Championships. As the course was one lap of the loch, a map and compass were not required although with the torrential rain, sleet and strong winds, the compulsory full body cover required on the Devil's Burdens relay the day before would have been appreciated! Three of our Devil's Burdens participants were also lining up today, all three of us very much in recovery run mode rather than race mode (Andy Henderson, David Herbertson and Alan Derrick). Our strongest team was the M50 team of four (Davy Watt, Martin Duthie, Andy Henderson and Hugh Simpson). Davy was suffering with a heavy cold and probably should not have been running but nonetheless got the club off to a flyer, recording 21:57 and placing the team 3rd in the M50 category. After quite an early late arrival by Martin's standards, Martin Duthie was confirmed as our leg 2 runner and proved that he is well recovered from his recurring calf injury by setting our fastest time of the day (21:41). Andy Henderson had raced the day before and his legs were as stiff as a board so he did well to sustain a reasonable pace, finishing in 24:44. Finally, Hugh Simpson was acting as Super Sub, having been left on the bench the day before at the Devil's Burden's Relay. Hugh was setting off further up the field and with faster runners around him than is usually the case and this was a bit of an eye opener and motivator for Hugh who finished in 27:17, subsequently vowing to get back into regular training at least 4 days a week (remember saying that Hugh?). The team finished as 8th M50 team.

The second team was competing in the M35+ category. On leg 1, Richard Lawton continued to demonstrate his improving form, setting a course best of 27:07. Next up was the Devil's Burden's weary David Herbertson, who always gives his all, even when instructed to take it easy. David ran round in 24:55 with another spectacular sprint finish. Alan Derrick was also on heavy legs from the Devil's Burdens although they had eased off a bit following a full lap warm up. The sun had also come out for leg 3 and conditions were surprisingly pleasant, resulting in a very controlled run, accelerating gradually from start to finish to hand over in 22:26. Finally, the rapidly recovering (from surgery) Russell Couper headed off on leg 4. He had said he would only try hard if I handed him the lead but unfortunately I failed in that respect, so Russell had to satisfy himself with a time of 33:18, an improvement on last year, moving in the right direction.

In the absence of the club tent, the Boathouse Cafeteria gave a fine, warm over-view of the incoming runners as they rounded the top of the loch and for once, the terrible weather did not cause too much hardship for the waiting runners and supporters. Well done to all the Harriers, organisers and marshalls who made this another great morning of competition.
Alan
(ps: laptop software corruption caused the delay in getting this posted. All back to normal now).