Countdown to Islay

As Eddie has announced on several occasions in the past month, on the 4th of May he will start taking bookings and deposits for the club accommodation places for the Islay Half Marathon. Names will only go on the list on receipt of the £20 deposit. First come, first served - no exceptions. Eddie will also take payments directly at his house if you can't make it to the club.

The total cost is expected to be around £100 for the accommodation (from Friday 4th August to Monday 7th August) and BBQ. The race entry and ferry/transport are extra and are to be organised by yourselves. We will try to coordinate sharing of lifts etc, nearer the time but if you are taking your own car, organise the ferry yourself. Similarly, enter the race yourself (pre-entry only by post, form downloadable from Islay Half Marathon web site http://www.islayhalfmarathon.co.uk/).
Alan

(note - with regard to the ferry, CalMac often put on some extra Summer sailings over and above the regular timetable. However, in the event of any technical or weather problems, the extra ferries will be the first ones to be cancelled, as happened last year. We therefore recommend that you book the ferries which depart on the regular, year round times which on the Friday depart Kennacraig at 0700, 1300 and 1800 and on the Monday depart Port Ellen at 0700, 0945 and 1815, I think - check with CalMac. Cost of taking a car, excluding the driver and passengers is £65 return. Cost for each driver/passenger is £13 return).

LONDON MARATHON

Well where do I start. I suppose the begining would be a good place. After a good nights sleep on the Saturday I wakened at 6am showered ,dressed a quick cup of coffee and went for a short walk before breakfast. 7.00am time for breakfast. Some juice Bacon and Egg coffee and Croissants. 7.45am 10min walk to train station arriving at Blackheath at 8.35. Organisation perfect and directed straight onto the heath. Had a banana before entering the assembly area. Toilet stop then mingle to see whats going on and take in the atmosphere. 9.20am went to the baggage truck and stripped ready to run. Temperature already warmer than forecast as I didn't need to keep any overclothes on. Bag dropped energy ball eaten and last drink of water. 9.40am I moved over to my starting pen (5) and was not far from the front of this pen. 9.55am and the pens are moved forward and seperations removed. 10.00am and the hooter goes, this is it time to put up or shut up. quicker than expected I was free to run 50 metres before the start line with more space than I was expecting. Over the start line, watch started and into a caucauphony of noise from the crowds (really quite an emotional experience). Anyway on with the running with a plan to run the first half at 10.30 pace so keeping it nice and easy and settled into a nice comfortable pace but the 1st mile registered on my watch at 9.23, Ok don't panic it was an easy mile just slow it a bit. 2nd mile 9.26 again I just need to slow it a bit but I was running easy and quite happy having others running past me as I'm sticking to my plan to run easy. Next mile came in at 9.18, I really need to slow this down but I was still comfortable and the 3rd mile did have a big downhill. I did notice at this point something Martin had warned me about beforehand that if your not on the blue line you will run long and when I went under the 3mile marker my watch was already at 3.1. I started trying to follow the line and you can for a while then you lose it and discover its over the other side of the road so this would be a repeating theme throughout the run. Decided I would stick with my watch and just accept there would be extra at the end as the watch would would give me the best guide of the real pace I was running. I did manage to slow the pace over the next few miles, 9.30, 9.53, 9.56. 10.01 and 10.31 although that one included a toilet stop which probably added 30secs. Onto pace now with next  miles at 10.23 and 10.26, That was the first part of my pre race plan done to run ten miles. Next up I had a 5k to do to take me to half way. My left leg by now was starting to become less effective and ran above plan with with  10.40, 10.45 and 10.55. and this took me to halfway 5mins ahead of plan. Next I had broken the race down to do a 5 miler but mile 14 was to prove difficult and was starting to feel pain in the soles of my feet and had slowed to 12.24. Outwith the pace but knew I was into the sort of distance where my performance will drop off but managed to pick it up a bit with 11.49 and 11.46. Really starting to struggle now and ran 12.39 and 12.35 to take me to 18miles and the end of my 3rd pre arranged point. Another 5k planned now and mile 19 was keeping with last couple of miles with a 12.28 but mile 20 has a lot of uphill and slowed again to 13.32. Feeling done in now and mile 21 slowed again to 13.50, the uphill on the previous mile had just about finished me but I just had to keep putting one foot in front of the other. 5miles to go and I had no plan for this stage as I had just put it down to (I will see what shape I'm in when I get there).the next 2 miles I was still struggling with 13.47 and 14.04. 3.2 miles left come on I'm going to do this and managed to lift the pace with a 11.56, 12.26 and 12.05, but as mentioned earlier my watch was now half a mile out from the official markers so still some work to do. 11.32 pace for the remainder of the race to cross the line in 5.04.48 for 26.71 miles. Watch shows marathon time at 4.58.57 so my estimation of 5hrs was pretty good. Crossed the line got the medal and goodybag, clothes back and dressed and headed for Charing Cross station and straight into the bar. That pint was fantastic. Onto the train and back to the digs for a bit of grub rest and refreshments. Chuffed to bits and online to see how my fellow Harriers and others had done. Martin Duthie 3.11.28, Julie Beveridge 3.24.34 and a new PB, Anne McLellan with a debut 4.30.43. Quite an incredible experience with levels of support around the course that I don't think could be matched anywhere and all the good luck messages from friends and fellow Harriers prior to the event. A day in my life I will treasure forever. I have to say if anyone gets the opportunity to run this you have to. The organisation is so slick you cant even find the tinyest thing that you would change.

London - how they are doing

Harriers' splits (plus two of the fast ladies from the Portugal Training Camp):

London Calling

All the best to the many Harriers and friends running the London Marathon tomorrow. I won't risk naming names for fear of accidentally missing someone but we will be looking out for you all on TV.

Record your Chatelherault times in the archive....

...... using this link (also available directly from the "Enter Chatelherault Times" menu item on the left of the blog screen.
Alan

Auldhouse 5k Time Trials 2017

The Auldhouse 5k time trials start as part of normal club training on Thursday 4th May and monthly thereafter on the first Thursday of each month until the last one on Thursday September 7th.  Report to the sports club as usual on each of these Thursdays such that the start list and starting order can be worked out and entered in the timing computer. If for some reason you cannot be at the Sports Club in time, then please get a message to me well in advance of 7pm.
Alan

Chatelherault Training Starts Monday 17th April

Our popular training sessions at Chatelherault Country Park start this coming Monday 17th April and continue through to the last session on Monday 21st August at fortnightly intervals. The dates are:
April 17th
May 1st, 15th and 29th
June 12th and 26th
July 10th and 24th
August 7th and 21st

Even if any of these dates clash with other events, we shall not change them, so make a note in your calendars now. Similarly, the last session can be a little dark towards the end but to avoid confusing anyone, we shall stick to the usual start time throughout. Eat carrots!

Meet ready to run at 7:30pm in the last car park on the right of the road in from the main entrance off Fernigair Road. If you need a lift to Chatelherault, then please turn up at EK Sports Club ready to leave at 7pm. Although there usually is, we cannot guarantee that there will always be someone there at 7pm with a car, so this arrangement is more of a lottery. Communicate with each other in advance if you think you need a lift just to be sure.
Alan

Round the Houses (the other way)

Kevan Harvey shortly after the start

The 51st (I think) annual Grangemouth Round the Houses 10k took place this morning in pretty much perfect conditions. The race organisers had overcome various restrictions placed upon them and extra costs and devised a new route, starting and finishing on the track, taking in a different part of the inner industrial streets in the middle of Grangemouth, adding in a sneaky little circuit round a park just as you thought you were approaching the finish in the stadium and finally, the usual blast onto the the finish on the track. Being Grangemouth it could be nothing but flat although, again, being Grangemouth, there was a little breeze. The feedback from the Harriers participating was that the absence of quite so many long straights helped the course distance seemingly pass more quickly, definitely a good thing.

The first Harrier to finish was Kevan Harvey, making his first race appearance for a while and blowing away the cobwebs with a fine 34:58 to open his racing season and 35th position overall in a very high quality field. Julie Beveridge is starting her taper for the London Marathon soon and ran a fine 41:01 despite heavy legs.

Julie Beveridge

Although Julie was disappointed with the time, this was first F35 position, so nothing to be unhappy about. Stephen Phimister has not been able to race much recently but is a regular at Grangemouth and, with the added pressure of his wife Frances also competing, pulled a performance out of the bag to finish in 42:09. Stephen will soon be back to sub 40 form if he builds on this. Jim Holmes has the double problem of training for the Stirling Marathon and starting his usual late charge for the Grand Prix title, of which this race is a part (actually Jim need not worry about the GP too much as he is running away with the club scratch championship). Jim finished in 43:20.

Recent performances have reconfirmed Stuart Waugh as one of the top M65's in the country and today he was 2nd M65 in 44:27. This is particularly impressive as Stuart was drawn into an overly competitive Strathclyde parkrun with his grandson the day before!

Stuart Waugh inside the final mile

Frances Ferguson had not been too well through the week so took a cautious approach today and enjoyed the course and the atmosphere, finishing in 44:53 and an excellent 3rd F50. Gordon McInally sneaked into the club grand prix lead with a strong performance, finishing in 47:26. This is just about the shortest race David Searil does but he is a regular here with family friends in the vicinity.

Gordon McInally takes the lead in the club GP

Davie was his ever cheerful self as he cruised around in a fantastic 48:03 and 12th M60. Sandy Hayden had picked up a cold in the latter half of the week and struggled as a result. This was still a useful training run though and Sandy finished in 54:50.

A relaxed run on the way to a great time by Davie Searil

Meanwhile Stephen Phimister's wife Frances had started off steady and passed many on her way to a fine 53:56 (8th F45). Time to get a vest for Frances I think! Russell Couper had very little sleep the night before, coupled with bigger than usual miles for the London Marathon and was very tired. However, Russell still ran faster than he has here in recent years to finish in 57:56.

Distinctive silhouettes (Grangemouth and Russell Couper)

Many more photos of everyone in this album.
Alan

Babcock 10k Series

Although Polaroid closed its doors this year at its Inverclyde plant after more than 50 years in Scotland, I am glad to see that at least the 33 year legacy of the Polaroid 10k series continues as another long-term local employer has stepped in to be main sponsor in the Babcock 10k series. The races and dates are as follows:
Wednesday 3rd May (date change from the Thursday) = Helensburgh 10k
Thursday 11th May = Dumbarton 10k
Sunday 28th May = Shettleston 10k (a new event).

Full details and entries via the event web site: http://www.babcock10kseries.co.uk/

Official coach to the event is Olympic Marathon competitor, Derek Hawkins. Derek is holding a free training, presentation and Q&A session on the evening of Tuesday 11th April, the training session starting at 6:30pm and the presentation/Q&A running from 7:45pm until 9:15pm. The venue is Lomond School Sports Hall, Rhu Road Higher, Helensburgh G84 8YJ. Again, further details on the event web site above (click the "Training Programmes" link).
Alan

SUNSHINE ON TOM SCOTT 2017

Sunday 2nd April was the 55th Tom Scott Memorial road races incorporating a 10 mile road race and Round the Loch 6k within Strathclyde Park in Motherwell. This was the second Sunday in a row the Harriers were out competing and this event was the 10th Grand Prix event replacing the Balloch to Clydebank Half Marathon (this year only because of ongoing refurbishment works on the Playdrome). This event also incorporated the Scottish Athletics 10 mile championship.

Calderglen's 2017 Tom Scott squad

Sunday again brought great weather to run the course with early temperatures at about 9c increasing to 12c during the race which brought mixed fortunes to all.  12 Harriers were running at this years event all for a mixture of reasons from competing in the Grand Prix, testing fitness & race performance and getting threshold miles under the belt to bolster marathon preparations. Personally I was a bit of all three reasons and that I like racing this distance which is unique in the running calendar.

 

After a short warm up I got myself ready and close to the start line to give myself a clear start in a field of 377 runners for the 10 mile race and 66 for the 6k. Both events were starting at the same time. As the race started I was behind junior Harrier Chris McCarron who went off at a blistering pace and left me for dust I continued to move along swiftly to get clear of any bumping into other runners. Before the first mile both Kay and Kenny went by me with ease chasing down Jim and as I was approaching the point I ran my warm up to I glanced at my Garmin which said I was under 6 mins as opposed to 7 mins in my warm up so I slowed down the pace at this point with Andy Henderson joining me.

 

Richard within the last 2 miles

Both Andy I preceded to run with each other from end the of mile 1 to mile 3 hitting the first of a few climbs together and Karen Allen joined us at this point. Onto mile 4 and the biggest climb on the course and legs were feeling heavy after my maintenance massage at Grant's the day before Andy pulled away from me as I did Karen. Between mile 4 and 5 Gordon was hot on my heels with Paul Rooney not far behind but after mile 5 the course was flatter and again I pulled away comfortably increasing my pace from mile 5 to 7 from 7.34 to 7.23. At this stage of the race I found myself running along side Maddy Watson from Strathearn Harriers and we were keeping each other going matching stride for stride. At about mile 8 the paths around the park were a bit narrower so Maddy got ahead of me as we passed runners and pedestrians and I struggled to bridge the gap.  So at this point I just got my head down and mentally pushed through any physical pain I was feeling.

 

Towards the end of the race my target was Maddy and I could see I was closing in on Andy Henderson who I knew has been trying to through off lingering cold symptoms but on a race day you take advantage of these weaknesses.  So even though I was tiring I did my best to maintain my pace for the last 2 miles closing in as much as I could. Both Andy and Maddy finished within a whisker of each other with Andy at (1:13:40) and Maddy at (1:13:41). My official time of the day was (1:14:09) giving me a 27 second Pb from my Pb I got at Brampton last year.

 

Kenny taking on Giffnock North runner

After looking at the results there was other Harriers who did good performances. Jim Holmes was first male Harrier home in (1:11:00) followed swiftly by Kenny Leinster in (1:11:28) achieving a M55 Bronze standard and Stuart Waugh achieved a M65 Gold standard with a time of (1:13:03). Fourth Harrier home was Andy Henderson who achieved a M60 Bronze standard. With Richard fifth in the finishing order Paul Rooney was next in (1:15:13), Gordon McNally not far behind achieving an absolute Pb over the 10 mile distance by 26 seconds in (1:16:28). Last male Harrier of the day was Russell Couper in a time of (1:36:56). Even though it was slower than his Brampton time he has been recovering from the cold which has stalled his marathon training but he finished looking strong and can only help him when the London Marathon comes round in the next 3 weeks.

 

Kay smiling all the way to the finish

Not to forget the Ladies who performed equally as well as the men. First female Harrier home was Kay Conneff in a fantastic time of (1:12:28) which I am not sure if it is a Pb but certainly she achieved F40 Bronze standard and Frances Ferguson was next home in a time of (1:16:33) which despite not being at her best achieved a F50 Silver standard. Karen Allen continues to make a good comeback with her first race since the National XC in February and juggling family life achieving (1:18:25) and last but not least Sandy Hayden continues to run with determination and enthusiasm getting a time of (1:27:01) which was 3:58 quicker than Brampton. So I assume it could be an absolute Pb.

 

I mentioned at the start of the report we had junior Harrier Chris McCarron out competing in the 6k event.  Chris was 4th Under 17 runner finishing in a time of (25:44) in a mixed field of 66 runners. Hopefully it won't be too long before he joins the ranks of the Seniors.

 

Please note the references to Performance standards might need to be confirmed by Alan just in case I have interpreted the Performance tables in correctly.

 

We had many supporters out there today with Stuart's wife Maud, Mark Saez and son Patrick and Allison Lessells who was on photography duty. Thanks to all and apologies if I missed anyone out. More pictures from Alison are on the club FB site and the http://www.thatonemoment.co.uk/tom-scott-road-races .

No rest for the Harriers as some members are back out next week at Grangemouth 10k and I am sure hoping for 3 in row with another good Sunday full of sunshine.

Simply...thank you....

To all our friends at the Harriers....thank you. We miss you all and appreciate you thinking of us.
Shirley, David, Louise and Gavin xx

Medals for the (old) boys in Livingston

The last Sunday in March attracted another large field to the National Road Relays in Livingston. Not only that but the snow from earlier in the week was replaced with blazing sunshine and temperatures in the high teens. Very unusual but we would definitely take it!

Calderglen's M50 team with their medals

This weekend the Harriers fielded a full ladies' team of 4 (Kay Conneff, Joanne McEvoy, Sandy Hayden and Frances Ferguson), a full M50 team of 4 (Charlie McDougall, Alan Derrick, Eddie Reid and Davie Watt) and a partial senior men's team (Gordon McInally, Richard Lawton, Andy Henderson and Russell Couper).

The event followed the usual format with alternating short (approx 3 miles) and long (approx 5.8 miles) legs. Although racking up the miles for the forthcoming Stirling Marathon, Kay Conneff got the ladies off to a good start recording a time of 22:37 on the first leg. Joanne McEvoy is in great form right now and was given the long leg to exploit her fitness. Joanne delivered a fine run, finishing in 41:13 and pulling the team up into 30th position. Sandy Hayden is on the way back to fitness and is piling in the training (running, cycling and swimming). This run was therefore intended to be a training run for Sandy on tired legs. Sandy recorded a time of 26:10 and only slipped back to 35th. Finally, Frances Ferguson was running off the back of a very high volume of training in Portugal and could not be expected to be fresh. However, Frances ran a great leg, finishing in 42:21 and 28th position, a great result overall.

Our M50 team (not quite the same personnel) had recently finished third in the SVHC road relays in Strathclyde Park and were at least in with a shout in this National Championship. However, it is always very difficult to separate out the M50 teams from the senior and M40 teams and so nothing is ever certain until the final result is read out. Charlie McDougall (actually an M65!) led off the team and had to remind himself that he was in a separate race to all the young men who took off at great speed from the start. Charlie used his experience to keep the team in a strong position but disaster struck in a dark underpass about 1km from the finish when Charlie did not see a step up in the darkness, tripped and fell flat on his face. Despite skint knees and arms, Charlie got to his feet, shaken and possibly a little slower to complete the course in 22:07 and 7th position in the M50 competition. Alan Derrick had flown back the night before from 3 weeks hard training in Portugal and was feeling heavy legged. However, after a cautious start up the first long climb, he got into his running and ran very consistently, relishing the opportunity to pass many teams which helped drag him around the course. Alan finished in 34:52, pulling the team back up to 3rd position behind Cambuslang and Edinburgh AC. Eddie Reid had returned from Portugal a week earlier and was still heavy legged from the high mileage done there. Experience allowed Eddie to manage that fatigue though and he ran to the limit on the day, finishing in 21:06 and dropping only two places to finish in 4th behind Cambuslang, Edinburgh AC and PH Racing Club. Finally, we saved the best to last with Davie Watt. Davie moved back up through the field, overtaking both PH Racing Club and Edinburgh AC. However, at that same underpass which had earlier caught out Charlie, Davie's old Metro Aberdeen training buddy, Nick Milovsorov (first M50 at the National XC this year by a long way), went past, dropping Calderglen down to third, a position which Davie was able to hold all the way to the line. This equaled our best performances in this event (in 2008 and 2009 in the M40 class) and was a great boost for the team and the club to be back receiving a national championship medal.

Our men's senior team was incomplete (should have been 6 for a senior team) but the effort put in was anything but incomplete! Gordon McInally set the team off on leg one, finishing in an excellent 23:25. Richard Lawton was instructed to use this run as part of his marathon training and had done a long run the day before. Richard finished in 42:22, a course best for him. Andy Henderson relished the warm conditions, finishing in 22:29, excellent for an M60. Finally, Russell Couper had his training knocked back by a very heavy cold and was still heavy legged. However, Russell was again told to just take this as part of his training and just put miles in the bank. Russell finished in 56:30.

If only all events at Livingston could be in such fine weather! Well done to all the Harriers competing and Sandra Reid supporting and providing the team photo at the prize giving.
Alan

PS: is it just me or did anyone else find it farcical to see one of Bellahouston Harriers' and Scotland's greatest ever runners, Peter Fleming, who emigrated to the USA 20 or 30 years ago to pursue a professional running career and who was back in Scotland for a two week family holiday, running in the winning M50 Cambuslang Harriers team? At the very least, if I was one of Cambuslang's regular M50's who missed out on a team place and hence a guaranteed national championship gold medal, I would have been annoyed. In an insignificant way, this is the same underlying problem that Seb Coe as IAAF president is trying to sort out on the international level with, e.g. Turkey in particular having various Africans running for them, effectively a flag of convenience, to raise Turkey's athletics profile. It is the situation that resulted in Calum Hawkins being third in the European Cross Country Championships rather than first. It is a symptom of a world where it is only winning that matters. Anyway, rant over. Back to a light-hearted and positive blog!

Harriers Perfect Triangle of Performance in Portugal

Four Harriers recently joined the annual 2:09 Events warm weather training camp on the Algarve where they enjoyed a high volume of training under expert guidance and a cloudless sky. Alan Derrick, Frances Ferguson, Eddie Reid and Kenny Leinster were all looking forward to escaping the highly variable Scottish weather and consolidating their build up for the Stirling Marathon in May (except Frances who had no specific race targets but was aiming to kick-start her training after a series of injuries and other interruptions). There they joined another 100 or so runners and expert coaches covering the full range of running abilities from relative beginner to elite international athletes.

We are all in there somewhere (Copyright 2:09 Events Ltd)

Over the 10 days of training, each day started with a pre-breakfast easy run of between 5 and 10 miles taking in the cliff-top trails, orange groves, nature trails and, of course, the beach. In the afternoon we usually had a conditioning session of yoga, pilates, core stability or running drills. This was followed by the second running session of the day which could be threshold repetitions on the hilly cross-country course, a track session or another steady run on the trails. The long runs were at the weekend on a flat road loop around the Victoria Golf Course in Vilamoura (home of the 2016 Portugal Masters). The course included a 5km loop located about 6km out from the village, allowing those training for marathons to build up a multi-loop run of anything between 14 and 24 miles with the benefit that runners could take on gels or drinks each time they passed some of the coaches who were positioned on the loop.

Most evenings there was a half hour talk by one of the staff (including Mike Gratton, 1983 London Marathon winner and tour operator, Bruce Tulloh, 1963 European 5000m champion and coach to many top British and Kenyan athletes and Nick Anderson and Tom Craggs, the head coaches on the camp). Midway through the training camp, we had the "pleasure" of substituting the morning run for the Falesia 5km road, race, a testing two and half lap loop of a hilly road circuit around the village which you have read about in this blog before.

Falesia 5k Road Race - Frances mid-pack (Copyright 2:09 Events Ltd)

The foundation of the training camp is the Triangle of Performance. i.e. Training, Nutrition and Recovery. Failing to consider all three parts of the triangle in your preparation will result in poor performance, injury or illness. All the Harriers applied themselves fully to exploiting the triangle although each of us had our strong points as illustrated by the following photos:

Training - Alan hangs on to 2:32 marathon runner Jenny Spink in the orange grove (Copyright 2:09 Events Ltd)

Nutrition - a serious session. Kenny bailed out before this one!

Recovery - Eddie has this one perfected.

Kenny has still to grasp the triangle

In all seriousness, the running was the biggest part of the week and all the Harriers really excelled here with Frances, Eddie and Alan all running well in excess of 100 miles during the camp, as would Kenny had he not had to return home early. Coupled with the relaxation and the food, all the Harriers returned home much fitter, nicely tanned and motivated (until they saw the snow in East Kilbride several days after returning!). Roll on next year.

Some more photos are in this album (note that most are Copyright 2:09 Events Ltd).

Alan

Morning beach run (Copyright 2:09 Events Ltd)