Livingston Road Relays - Surely not Sun!

Martin Howell and Sandy enjoy the sun

Thankfully the snow was nowhere to be seen at Livingston on Sunday for the final Scottish Athletics event of the winter season, the National 6/4 Stage Road Relays. It was even warm in the sun! A huge field lined up for both the men's and woman's races which for the first time kicked off 10 minutes apart to leave a less congested field for the ladies.

For various reasons, our numbers were down a little bit this year, with only one complete M50 team of 4, one incomplete M40 team (4 out of 6) and one incomplete ladies' team (1 out of 4). However that did not discourage the Harriers from giving their all. Sandy Hayden had a no pressure solo first leg of 5k distance which she paced very well (with the benefit of Garmin Connect, I can check these facts) to finish in 25:43, a good 25 seconds faster than last year. Well done Sandy.

The men's over 50 team was at full strength and was fired up to try to equal or improve on last year's bronze medal. Martin Duthie ran to a strong third position on the first leg crossing the line in 19:06 in 3rd position behind Central and Cambuslang.

Having eased back the training for the final week in Portugal, I was feeling quite good for the long leg, despite arriving back at half past midnight (a point that Scottish Athletics mentioned on their blog report; I have no idea where they picked that snippet up from). We were advised that the long leg had been lengthened by about 300m (to bypass a building site on part of the old route), taking the distance up to 9.4km (6.0 miles). Naturally, most of this extra distance seemed to be uphill. I made steady progress through the field on the first half of the leg which was uphill. But it was not until we approached the highest point of the course that I finally spotted the Cambuslang vest 100m or so in front of me. At this point, I was also surprised to see that Kenny was marshaling and had the encouraging words "Get a Move On!". As the course levelled I started to make a push to catch the Cambuslang runner and early on the descent, I caught him with the intention of accelerating past. However as he saw the Calderglen vest, he gave a groan of disappointment and then clung on with great determination. I tried everything to shake him off but the downhill was destroying my quads and despite increasing the speed significantly, it was not until we went under the final underpass and climbed onto the track beside Almondvale Stadium (or Toni Macaroni Arena as I believe it is now known) that I managed to open a gap. I had the hammer down for those final 800m and maintained a few seconds gap at the handover. At some point I had also passed the Central AC team and we were now in first place. My time was 35:10 which turned out to be the 3rd fastest M50 time of the day on the long leg.

Making his debut at Livingston, Martin Howell was really up for this event over his favourite distance of 5k. He was certainly thrown in at the deep end being handed the lead (although I am not sure that he was aware at this point)! Martin did know from Tollcross parkrun that the Cambuslang 3rd leg runner was a bit faster than him and indeed he was soon overtaken by Cambuslang, as he expected. However, Martin hung on well to second place, not knowing that both Metro Aberdeen and Edinburgh AC were closing in on him. Martin ran a very strong 20:37, handing over to Davie Watt for the final long leg. Davie seemed below the form he demonstrated at the vets relays in Strathclyde Park as fairly early on both Metro (with fastest M50 of the day) and Edinburgh (the second fastest M50 of the day) slipped by and opened a gap. Davie crossed the line in 36:15 having given his all as usual. Fourth place was initially disappointing given that our cumulative time was significantly faster than last year (despite the longer course) and would have won us the gold medal last year but was still a great result for a small club such as ours and continues our remarkable consistency in this event with a variety of members in this team and various medals over a period of a dozen years or more. It was also satisfying to know that we had been in a really competitive race and had occupied all the leading positions at some point or other. Well done the super vets!

Russell inside the final mile

Our second men's team was an incomplete mixed team of M40's and M50's. Richard Lawton was on the first leg and smashed his course best by 62 seconds, crossing the line in 22:23. Having finally recovered from the injuries and damage caused by last year's Stirling Marathon, it looks like Richard is back on track for some further big improvements. Mark Saez was another first timer here (not sure how we let him escape from this in previous years) and as such, the quite complex and tough long leg would be a surprise to him from start to finish (spiral bridge and all!). Mark continued to demonstrate his improving form resulting from hard training, finishing in 36:46. Russell Couper is another one who is improving race after race and relished not being isolated on a final long leg, finishing the short leg in 25:17. Jim Holmes was given leg 4 and I was worried to see that he had his left knee strapped up (a hamstring/calf attachment discomfort rather than a knee problem though thankfully). This did not seem to hinder Jim too much as he ran well to finish strongly in 43:20.

Recovering in the school cafe

A huge thanks to Mandy, Neil and Charlie for their support on the day and for the photographs used here. An equally huge thanks to Kenny for representing the club as a volunteer marshal. Without these volunteers the event would not take place. We also get some of the best school lunches in the cafe after this event and a huge well done to the organisers for making sure we are well catered for. Here's hoping we can get back to our usual numbers next year.

Finally, if you think the snow of the preceding weeks has been untypical for this time of year, see the photograph below. This is the start line for the first leg of the National 6 Stage Road Relay in Livingston (different venue back then) 29 years ago to the day almost. We are lined up in a blizzard and I was clearly hard as nails back then as I am wearing a vest with no t-shirt (incidentally, I still wear that same vest for the really important races!). I believe I was either 3rd or 5th on the first leg that day. Thanks to Charlie for providing the photo.
Alan