Allan Scally Relay Race Report

Julie flies to a pb.

Conditions remained dry and fair for Saturday's Allan Scally Road Relay hosted by Shettleston Harriers in Baillieston on Saturday afternoon. The field for this long established race has dwindled in recent years despite a slight resurgence in numbers for the first few years on this new course. If it was not for this event hosting the annual Scottish Universities Road Relay Championship, Calderglen would be the major participant most years. However, with many of our regulars competing in Dublin the same weekend and the first serious bout of Winter colds knocking out a few more, even our numbers were down this year.

We did have a very good turnout from our women with 4 running (one and one third teams), two of whom were running here for the first time. This is the first (and only) long relay of the season (4.8 miles per leg) and we always consider this as a good training session for Brampton. Kay Conneff was sent out on leg 1 as she does not know this course and some company always helps for first timers. Kay set a strong time of 35:16, handing over to Frances Maxwell on leg 2. Frances has run this course many times before but this year has had a succession of injuries and other "events" to handle which means that she is on the comeback trail. Frances set a time of 36:21, a couple of minutes down on last year but to be expected.

Frances heads out on leg 2.

The final leg was left to Julie Beveridge who had only run this course once before, shortly after joining the club in 2010 when Julie ran 34:39. This year Julie smashed that time, recording an excellent 31:49 which is our fastest women's time on this course ever. Sandy Hayden was running a solo first leg under strict instructions to pace it carefully and not to go too fast at the start. Sandy obeyed instructions and ran a well paced 43:00.

For the men we had one and a half teams of four running, our lowest turn out for some years. Richard Lawton was trusted with leg 1 and duly obliged with a course best of 35:11, around 20 seconds faster than last year. Kenny Leinster set off on leg 2 and demonstrated a continuing return to form with a time of 35:35. Mark Saez set our fastest time of the day on leg 3. Returning from a few weeks of injury, Mark recorded a time of 30:10. Jim Holmes had been suffering all week with a cold. To take the pressure off, he was given the last leg and told to take his time. However Jim proceeded to run a very competitive 33:07 virtually on his own. This was around a half minute down on last year but understandable given his cold. Gordon McInally was running here for the first time too and hence was given a first leg to provide him with runners to chase. Gordon set a time of 37:11. Finally, the last of our wounded was Russell Couper who had taken a nasty fall on a loose paving slab earlier in the week bruising some ribs. This made deep breathing painful so Russell was very much holding back. Nevertheless, he set a time of 43:45, around 20 seconds faster than last year.

Mark Saez flying out from the start.

Well done to all for representing the club well. A big thanks to Jim and Kenny for bringing and organising the setting up of the club tent.

More photos here.
Alan