SVHC Road Relay 2018

Typically dreich weather conditions prevailed on Sunday morning for the annual Scottish Veteran Harriers Club Road Relay Championship at Strathclyde Park. Fortunately the weather did not put off the runners who travelled from all over Scotland to compete. This included a great turn out from the Harriers with 1 and 2/3 ladies teams of 3 and 3 and 1/4 men's teams of 4, including one M50 team. Our ladies A team was a strong one led off by Julie Beveridge in the worst of the wind and rain on a complete (5.8km) circuit of the loch. Julie ran strongly in a tightly packed field bringing the team in 4th in an excellent 23:28 and 8th fastest time of the day, exactly the same ranking as last year although 30 seconds slower, no doubt due to a combination of the conditions and the crowded field.

The very much in form Joanne McEvoy set off in the rain on leg 2 to build on Julie's position. Joanne very quickly established 3rd position and held on to that all the way round to the handover, finishing in 24:09 (13th fastest). Frances Ferguson was given the running equivalent of the "hospital pass" in rugby, as she set off only metres in front of Scottish Masters internationalist Michelle Sandison of Springburn who was soon past and successfully chasing down 2nd and 1st positions to win the event. Frances has had a good spell without injury and this was reflected in a time over a minute faster than last year, finishing in 5th place in 25:58.

Lorraine Buchanan had a long day supporting at the Devil's Burdens the day before but was ready to race on Sunday, covering the first leg in 32:06, a good improvement on last year's 32:34, so heading in the right direction. Not to be outdone, Allison Johnston also improved by a similar margin to finish in 33:09 compared to last year's 33:32. Well done to both ladies on keeping the consistent training up with the result being a steady improvement.

Mark Saez is making rapid improvements nowadays and hence was given first leg for the men's M35+ team. Mark did not get carried away from the start and made up a half dozen places on the way back in to finish in 21:33 and 21st position. Making his much welcomed return to racing for the Harriers after an absence of many years, Alan Cullie burned his lungs in on leg 2, setting a respectable new benchmark time of 24:56. Welcome back Alan; the form will soon come back after a few races. Jim Mearns hasn't raced anything that isn't prefixed with "ultra" for several years and was keen to get a bit of pace into the legs again. His time of 26:58 is one that Jim will easily better after  a few more "sprint" races. In a team which could easily have been titled the "Comeback Kings", Ian Hughes was back in a Harriers' vest after a few years away from running. Ian has not lost his trademark fast finish and blasted across the line much to the alarm of those around him to finish in an excellent 23:57 and 39th position overall.

Our M50 team were out to defend last year's bronze medal with a 50% change in team personnel. However, there was no change at the front with Davie Watt being called into action and doing what Davie does best - just going for it and taking no prisoners! Davie ran an excellent 21:27, our fastest leg of the day and an excellent 3rd position in the M50 race. Martin Howell has recently turned 50 and had targeted this race. There is always a bit of pressure taking over from Davie as he tends to drop the next runner right into the heat of the action.

This was indeed the case for Martin who nonetheless was only 7 seconds down on last year, finishing in 23:52 and 7th position. A spate of injuries has hampered Allan McLellan in the past 6 months but the racing experience is still there. So Allan was selected for leg 3 despite suffering with a bit of an illness on the day. Because of this Allan was feeling a bit weak and was disappointed with his time of 24:47, having run about 40 seconds faster last year. However, at this time of year, it is difficult to stay healthy. Allan held on to 7th position. After a crazy long day of work and travel on Friday, I had picked up a sore throat and upset stomach also (which stopped me in my tracks on the far side of the loch during my warm-up). However the prospect of a chase on the last leg spurred me on a bit for the last leg. Unfortunately the legs were like lead from the off. With hindsight, this was no bad thing as it meant that my pace was sensible for the first half. The wind speed had dropped since the warm up, so that helped too. I passed quite a few on the way around but I wasn't sure whether they were M50 teams or not. A later inspection of the Garmin splits showed that it had been a very even paced run into 5th position in a time of 21:50. Although only 8 seconds down on last year, I wasn't impressed as I was well down on many regular M50 competitors. However, I was glad that the Harriers confirmed their strength in depth and all is looking good for the forthcoming Scally and National Road Relays.

Richard Lawton was another of us who was unwell over the weekend and did well to turn up at all on a day that was only ever going to make him more ill. Richard led off his team in a time of 26:59, only 15 seconds down on last year. Stuart Waugh continues to be one of the fastest M65's out there, running with his usual fine style to cross the line in 26:54. Billy Buchanan has had a load of injuries and illnesses in the past 6 months and his time of 27:10 on leg 3 was in his target window. Hopefully this is the start of some consistency and improvement again for Billy. Paul Rooney took a quite lonely 4th leg, pacing himself around in a time of 27:01. Russell Couper had the luxury of a leg to himself and, in traditional Russell style, improved by 1 second over last year to finish in 30:41, which is also his fastest ever time on this course. Well done Russell!

Thanks to our very hardy supporters (including Sandy, Andy, Neil, Marion and Gordon) and photographers (Ruth and George) for keeping us motivated out there. All the photos are here (and no, a special, soft filter has not been used, that's is just the way everything looked on Sunday!). Full results here.
Alan