SVHC Road Relays on the Baltic Shore of Strathclyde Loch

Alison runs out of the sun and into the wind!

In conditions that looked better than they felt, four Calderglen teams travelled the short distance to Strathclyde Park for the SVHC Road Relay Championships on Sunday morning. Despite the extremely strong winds the field was even bigger than usual with around 90 teams lining up for start.

The course comprised a complete lap of the loch in a clockwise direction. Unfortunately the open and exposed first mile was straight into the wind which destroyed any chance of fast times but did reward those who judged their effort to make best use of the conditions.

Julie on the back straight

Our ladies' A team was our strongest team of the day. Julie Beveridge led off the team with a strong run to 4th place behind PH Racing Club, Giffnock North and Kirkintilloch Olympians. Julie finished in 23:41 which was the 9th fastest time of the day. On her first race back after a few weeks with an injury, Joanne McEvoy ran strongly to move the club up into third position in a time of 24:49, passing Kirkintilloch Olympians in the process. Frances Ferguson was given the pressure last leg. Unfortunately, the fastest runner in the field by a long way was also on the last leg (Michelle Sandeson of Springburn) who swept through the field from 5th to 2nd which bumped Frances down to 4th as Frances battled the conditions to finish in 26:01. No matter, fourth place is a fantastic result for a small club such as Calderglen, so well done to the ladies.

Lorraine running all alone to a course best

Our ladies B team was also a very strong team. Karen Allen led the team off, finishing in 25:27 to hand over to Alison Lessells. By now the field was quite spread out, so most of our second leg and later runners were very much running solo efforts against the clock and the elements. Alison finished in 27:28. Our only big improver of the day was Lorraine Buchanan who ran leg 3 in a time of 29:20, an improvement of over a minute on last year and bringing the team home in 11th place. No other club had two teams in the top 11. A fantastic demonstration of our strength in depth. And we have even more strong ladies who were not there on the day such as Kay, Julie T and Sharon to name but three!

Martin has time for a thumbs up

We also had two men's teams. Martin Howell led off our A team and was looking for a good time. Unfortunately the conditions were against fast times today so Martin had to settle for a strong 24:11. Jim Mearns is on a transition period from ultra distance to 5k at the moment and again, was looking for a fast time today. Jim crossed the line in 25:37. Ian Hughes always give 110% in races and today was no exception. Ian worked his way through the field to finish fast in 24:03. Finally, our fastest male runner of the day, Andrew Buchanan headed off on the last leg. Despite a conscious effort to take it easy into the wind in the first mile, the strength was sapped from his legs by the turn at the top of the loch with still 3 miles to go. This did not prevent Andrew from unleashing a powerful sprint over the final 50m to finish in 23:56 (offical time says 22:56 but Andy and his Garmin confirm otherwise!). The team finished in 34th position.

Ian looking smooth into the wind

Our B team was led off by David Wardrope making a welcome return to a Calderglen team. Although he was disappointed with his time, this was entirely due to the conditions and he crossed the line in 25:16. Stuart Waugh was a bit isolated on leg 2 but is very familiar with much of this lap from previous SVHC road relays and many Strathclyde parkruns. Taking account of the conditions, Stuart ran a fine 27:23, handing over to form man, Richard Lawton. However, in these conditions, Richard was struggling to make headway against the wind and would also be a little disappointed to finish in 27:06. Finally, Russell Couper did the seemingly impossible and for the third year in a row ran exactly the same time (on his watch), finishing in 30:41. This was despite being tangled up with at least one dog lead and a child on a scooter on the way round! The team finished in 51st position.

Andrew B flying to the line

Well done to all for battling against the elements to represent the club so well. Also a big thanks to our supporters (Maud, Neil, Alan C and Mark) who had an even more unpleasant experience standing in the cold wind.

Russell times his finish to perfection

Note that some of the provisional official times are a bit off but I have only corrected Andy's as he mentioned that one to me and it was clearly a full minute out and Russell's as he always runs the same time here, so it doesn't matter what the results say! Further photos here.
Alan