DEAFBLIND SCOTLAND 10K CANAL RUN

The Deafblind Scotland 10k canal run takes place on 12th Apr at 2pm
Register at the leisuredome Bishopbriggs by 1pm on the day.
This is a race the Harriers have traditionally taken part in for a number of years.
It would be great to see as many harriers as possible take part this year.

A Foggy Afternoon in Livingston

We have had all sorts of weather over the decades that Livingston has hosted the National Road Relays but today was probably the first where we had thick fog to deal with. On the highest point of the long leg visibility was so bad that only runners within touching distance were visible and it even seemed to us spectating as though some of the leading last leg runners must have gone off course such was the gap between the winning team (Central AC) and the following teams.

Of course Calderglen has plenty of experience (mainly bad) of races in poor visibility and so this was of no concern to the very enthusiastic Harriers who joined the record entry. Our ladies team was extremely strong and very much "up for it!". Karen Allen led the team off on the 3.1 mile short leg with a very competitive run of 21:29 (which included a 10s stop to tie a shoe lace). Alison Lessells was on leg 2, the first of the 5.8 mile legs. Alison is in ever improving form as demonstrated by an excellent time of 41:07, maintaining the 23rd position established by Karen. Frances Maxwell loves this event and is also in great form now, dispatching with the short leg in 22:23 moving the team up to 20th place. Finally, with all of her health problems "ironed" out, Joanne McEvoy ran an absolute stormer, breaking her target of 40 minutes by some margin to finish in 39:27, bringing the team home in 15th position. With one week to go before the Lochaber Marathon, Ruth Kelly was looking for a no-pressure run to keep the legs ticking over, so a solo first leg in a team of her own was perfect. Ruth finished in a comfortable 26:46. Well done to the ladies.

Our M50 team (of 4) had the most competitive chance in the men's races with a very strong line-up. Eddie Reid was glad to be free of any injury worries following the warm weather training camp and ran the opening 5k leg comfortably faster than he did the 5k race in Portugal to finish in 20:31. Andy Henderson seems to get faster each year, despite being in the M60 class now and covered the 5.8 miles of leg 2 in an excellent 39:27. Stuart Waugh has raced himself back to form in recent months and the good progress continued with a time of 21:35 for the 3.1 mile leg 3. Finally, Davie Watt always delivers and despite being somewhat isolated on leg 4, he covered the 5.8 miles in 34:32 bringing the team home in 4th place in the M50 competition.

Alan Derrick led off the M40 team and after an easy week is starting to recover from the high mileage warm weather training, running a well controlled 17:54 for the 3.1 mile leg, finishing in 16th position overall and the leading M40 team. Stephen Phimister had never been to the 6-stage before but the complex twists, turns, climbs and descents did not catch him out, posting a fine 38:03 for the 5.8 mile leg. Jim Holmes continues to progress after injury and was happy enough with his time of 21:08. He is definitely on the way back. Andrew McAffery has only run here once before and was just getting over an injury at that time. He was therefore glad to be significantly faster this time, finishing in 35:48 and perhaps experiencing the worst of the visibility conditions as the field became more stretched out. Jim Mearns was another first timer and thought that the 3.1 mile leg was a fantastic little route with lots of variety. Jim finished in 21:48. The team was rounded out by Kenny Leinster who was sent off into the mist for a 5.8 mile lap. As an experienced hill runner, Kenny was not phased by the poor visibility and followed the arrows around to the finish in 41:43, taking the team to 30th position and 5th M40 team.

Colin Banks not only led our incomplete B team off on the first leg but also the entire field after false starting, heading off on the "R" of the "Ready" rather than the "B" of the "Bang". Colin has some starting speed and led the A team for the first 400m or so but faded somewhat to finish in 22:03. Richard Lawton completed the incomplete team with a 5.8 mile leg of 42:51. Well done to all our runners. A fine spread of meals, cakes and hot drinks in the school cafe rounded off a great afternoon of racing. We can only hope that our suspicion that some leading teams went off course on the last leg is unfounded as this is a fabulously organised and situated event.

It is fair to say that the Calderglen teams were among the most enthusiastic on display which was great to see and a credit to the club. A big thanks to Geo for his support and photography. Photographs will follow in due course. "That One Moment" official photos (first leg only) are here.

Alan

The Lost Trails

Today I headed to Falkland for a 5 mile trail race (flying solo this time!). I had pre-entered the race, but somehow I wasn't on the list. I figured that either someone wants to be me or maybe they're trying to tell me something?!?
As it turned out, it was the usual 2 laps that I had ran in the Frostbite series with a hill climb in the middle. The terrain was challenging and exposed my lack of strength on hills (Alan and Eddy's fault of course!). This caused a bit of a yoyo race between me and 3 local guys that I'm usually ahead of in these races. Speed v strength? I was happy to report that it was speed 2 - strength 1 as in spite of getting murdered on the uphill I was able to pass 2 of them on the way down.
I was relieved to get off the hilly part and to be heading for the familiar sight of the burn (wet feet again!) and vault the fallen tree, followed by about half a mile up the finishing straight.
Time 40.20 Distance- meant to be 5 miles?
Well done George and thanks for the race report.
Alan

National Road Relay Teams 2014

Teams for tomorrow are listed here. Note that the ladies and M50 teams compete over 4 legs, the senior and M40's over 6 legs.

For those meeting at the club, be there ready to leave at 10am. For those going direct, please be at Livingston for 11am so that the teams can be confirmed and declared. Parking is at West Lothian College as in the past couple of years with about a half mile walk to the school for changing and declarations.

Full details including a map and rules and regulations can be downloaded from the Scottish Athletics web site here.
Alan

6 + 4 STAGE RELAYS

Next Sunday is the 6 + 4 Stage Relays.
We have entered 4 male and 2 ladies teams.
Below are a list of those entered and reserves.
Could those that asked to be entered confirm this week at the club with Alan that they are still available and those on the reserve list if you wish to run there are plenty of places available just let Alan know you wish to run.

Entered atheletes are  A Derrick, C Banks, S Phimister, J Mearns, S Waugh, E Reid, A Henderson, J Holmes, J McGregor, D Watt, G Stewart, R Lawton, K Leinster, A McCaffery.
F Maxwell, R Kelly, A Lessells, K Allen, J McEvoy.

Reserves
             M Goldsmith, J Beveridge, B Buchanan, M Duthie, C Jarvie, I Hughes, G Lindsay, P Marshall, J McBride, G Mullen, I Rae, G Ramage, M Saez, D Searil, H Simpson, C Steven, D Wardrope, I McKenzie.

Club (18 to) 30 Anniversary Celebrations in the Sun

One week in and the training camp continues at a relaxed but consistent pace with Harriers Eddie and Alan fully involved. With this being the club's 30th anniversary year, it seemed only appropriate for us to get involved in a club 18 to 30 style record attempt (except more like club 18 to 50 plus with the addition of Eddie and I). So after Sunday morning's 15 mile run, we spent 3 hours on Sunday afternoon attempting to break a volleyball keepie uppie record of 100 taking only a single time out for a Magnum. The youngsters were burnt out after a couple of hours leaving only Eddie, senior coach Nick Anderson, the colourful (and youthful) Barbara from the Czech Republic and myself. 3 hours in and having been stuck at a rally of 80 shots, we finally broke through the century and went on to record a rally of 197! Calderglen in the record books again :-)

Of course we are not here to enjoy ourselves and after one week our individual training mileage is sitting at 78 miles. This included yesterday's annual Falesia 5k road race. A record field of 151 lined up for the two and a half lap, hilly course around the village, As the track was unavailable, we had a new sting in the tail with the last 300m being uphill rather than around the track! Despite this, the old course record was demolished by 3 young Russian athletes, the fastest of which won the race in 14:31 with all 3 below 15 minutes. Very impressive. Meanwhile, Eddie was nursing a knee issue and was under physio instruction to run easy which he did, finishing in 20:55. I couldn't get the physio to give me a note so I had to burst my gut, finishing first M45 in 17:42, just passing the first lady (a young German) in the final 300m. And then we had a training run in the afternoon preceded by yoga!

All this exercise needs proper fueling, an aspect which we are not neglecting.

BMAF CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP

British Master XC at Tollcross Park 2014 

 The Briitish Masters Cross Country Championships were held on Saturday at Tollcross Park and the Club had 1 lady and 4 men taking part.   To have a British Championship right on our doorstep was great.   The ladies race was over a distance of 6k and the men 8k.  The course was a 2k loop with 3 hills in it, the first one being right at the start.  The course was not muddy and pretty good to run on.  Before arriving at Tollcross Park we had received our very own weather report from Russell Couper who informed us that the top part of the course was extremely windy.  We knew this was an accurate description as Russell had already done the Tollcross Parkrun with John McBride earlier on in the morning.  After completing a warm up lap of the course we soon found out how windy it was.   We were all going to have to work really hard as the wind was getting stronger and colder by the minute.  At least the rain stayed away.   Frances Maxwell ran a strong race and finished in a time of 27.15.   The men’s race started at 1pm and Andy Henderson, Stuart Waugh, Richard Lawton and Jim Holmes all lined up for the Club.  Andy Henderson was first Harrier to cross the line in a time of 33.37.  Stuart finished in a time of 35.00 closely followed by Jim Holmes in 35.23 and finally Richard Lawton in 36.46.   Thanks to Maud and Lewis for their support around the course on such a cold and windy afternoon.

Many thanks to Frances for the report and pictures.

Warm Weather Training

A few days into the annual 2:09 Events Algarve Training Camp (also sharing its 30th anniversary with the Harriers) and the two stalwart Harriers, Eddie Reid and Alan Derrick, are applying themselves fully to the training in perfect weather conditions along with 80 other runners of all abilities. After only a few days we are already at over 30 miles of running sessions on road, trail and track. Added to that we have been through sessions of stretching, running drills and Pilates with expert, international coaches. One of us (not me) has already been suffering at the hands of the masseur but with a positive outcome (deemed fit to continue training). Yesterday's track session was a tough one and not just because we were sharing the track with the Russian athletic squad including a few World and Olympic competitors who I am sure were impressed with how quickly we were able to get out of their way as they flew around the track.

Here Eddie and myself expertly demonstrate a complex stretch and an advanced foam roller session.

Alan

Balloch to Clydebank Half

It was a fairly cool day for a half marathon and the wind from Saturday had dropped away.
The start was delayed by approx. 25mins due to replacement chips being brought in for everyone

We had 8 Harriers racing in our latest GP event. The times I will give here are just rough and we will need to wait for official results for more accuracy.
First Harriers home was the returning Andy Buchanan (1.28) although see me for a vest followed closely by Stephen Phimister (1.30) then our first lady Julie Beveridge (1.33) being chased by Stuart Waugh (1.34) and trying to get in the mix Kenny Leinster (1.36). We then had a short wait for John McBride (1.43) then a little more for Phil Marshall (1.54) being chased by Mary Goldsmith (1.56). With so few running there was some good scoring in the GP. Well done to those that represented the Club today.   More pictures to follow

NATIONAL ROAD RELAYS

The National Road Relays will again this year be held in Livingston.
Date is Sunday 30th March with a start time of noon.
Entry is FREE.
The event will have the usual format of short leg then long leg.
6 Stages for Men and 4 for Ladies.
If you want entered leave your name HERE .
Those entered are listed HERE .
NAMES REQUIRED BY MON 10TH MAR.

Your committee has decided to make this a free event so we want to see as many as possible entering this event. For those that have never taken part before its a great and very enjoyable event. Lets see if we can get as many teams out as possible.

Balloch to Clydebank GP Jokers

Hi all entrants to this race.
To allow the declarations of Jokers for this race please submit them on this blog as a comment.
I will list everyone that's entered name below with the jokers available if ive done my sums correctly.
J BEVERIDGE (1),         M GOLDSMITH (1),        R KELLY (2),
A BUCHANAN (0),            A HENDERSON (3),             K LEINSTER (5),
P MARSHALL  (5),             J MCBRIDE (0),            J MEARNS  (1),
S PHIMISTER  (4),              S WAUGH (2),.

Alternatively you can declare them to me at the club on Thursday night.

Russell