Allan Scally Road Relay - Harriers Out in Force

Excellent form from Alan Cullie

At the second time of trying, the re-launched Allan Scally Road Relay took place at the new venue in Glasgow Green on Saturday. Surprisingly, it has been more than 2 years since "The Scally" was last held at its old venue in Baillieston where the entries were very low and decreasing each year. However the new venue and new Spring date brought the runners out in their hundreds and there was a real buzz around the start/finish area just as in the old days of the Scally. Calderglen helped considerably with a huge entry from our club with one and three quarters ladies' teams and four and one quarters men's teams. The initial results suggest that there were about 100 teams entered including a large contingent from the Scottish universities for which this event was their road relay championship.

The forecast was for the conditions to deteriorate later on in the race but for the 12 noon start the weather was almost perfect for running; overcast with a wind that was largely blocked by the trees and meandering grassy banks and bridges. Our first leg runners were Kirsty Wilson and Morgan Beaton in the ladies' teams, Alan Derrick, Stephen Phimister, Davie Wardrope, Paul Rooney and Colin Banks, all of whom lined up behind the starting line in a very compact group. With only about 10m of total ascent in the course, this was going to be a fast (and painful) blast around the park. As I have said in all of my recent race reports, I wasn't really sure how I would react to a fast pace as I am still working myself back to hard training. This was going to be a voyage of discovery as I had no idea what pace I could sustain for 5km. I chose to start a good few rows back in the heart of the field as I remembered that I couldn't live with the early pace of the students 3 or 4 years ago so I had no chance now. Then the bell rang and we eventually realised that was the signal to start! After an initial 50m surge, I eased back to around 3:25/km pace. I had thought that 3:30 average would be a good target, which would give me 17:30 so I wasn't worried about trying a little too hard for the first km, so long as I eased back then. Indeed this was OK for the first 1.5k but when we turned up the gentle slope from the McLellan Arch to towards the People's Palace, it suddenly felt quite tough and my pace slipped a little. Between 2 and 3km there were 3 or 4 quite sharp turns which required a little bit of extra effort to accelerate back up to pace.

Legs like lead in the final 500m!

Although I was gradually picking people off in the first half, in the second half I was wilting and started to drop a few places here and there. I was on the absolute limit and definitely in hanging on mode for the final 2km. Inside the final km and the finish is not in sight as the path follows the long, almost 120 degree curve of the river around to the Polmadie foot bridge and the finish line. This curve seemed to be never ending as me and those around me started their final surge for the line way too early, wondering when the line would come. Suddenly the line was visible 20m ahead of us and I joined the group of bent over double runners, all of whom had given their all. My watch showed 17:54 and a 3:34/km average so happy enough with that. However, we shall go with the official time of 17:56, the first leg runners suffering from the delay realising that the bell we heard was actually the start signal, so we were all a bit late starting our watches. A check back showed my previous 5k had been 17:40 at the equally flat Perth parkrun last June, so I haven't lost too much, although it is probable that my right lung was already damaged then too, following my fall on the WHW in May and my post-race Strava comments about not being able to breath then either.

Stephen P - nothing wrong with that running style

I shall review the other Harriers' runs in fairly random order rather than team order. It was fantastic to see and hear so many of the Harriers crossing the line delighted and buoyed up by this early season test of their pace (well, maybe a few minutes after crossing the line once they could talk). This seemed to be the general feeling of most of the Harriers who got a real confidence boost from this fast course. Stephen Phimister had hoped to be below 20 minutes for the first time in a while and was more than delighted with his 19:48 (until he found out that Martin Howell had recorded 19:44 on leg 2!). This has kick-started Stephen's aim to be back below 40 minutes for 10k this summer season. Although he was disappointed with his time, Andrew Buchanan had an excellent, well judged, even paced run of 18:52 from which he will hopefully take this experience into a few more 5k's in the coming month and gradually stretch the pace boundaries without starting too fast. Even pace is always the fastest way. As mentioned above, Martin Howell ran to a well judged 19:44, despite being in the midst of marathon training. 5k is Martin's specialist distance and a sub-20 is a great result at this time of the year.

Kirsty closing Davie down.

There was a real ding-dong battle between Kirsty Wilson and Davie Wardrope inside the last 500m. Although Davie had been ahead throughout, Kirsty closed a 20m gap and sprinted past in the final few metres before the line. A watch malfunction from Kirsty means that we had to wait for the official times to confirm an excellent 20:41, which is more than likely a substantial PB according to my records. Talking of PB's, less than two weeks after running Seville Marathon, Davie Wardrope demonstrated his tremendous fitness by recording a 5k PB of 20:41 (on his watch, also suffering from not realising the bell was the start although the official time of 20:44 equals his previous PB from Strathclyde parkrun). Well done Davie, demonstrating one of the side effects of a good, solid marathon background; huge reserves of aerobic fitness and the ability to recover.

Karen flying

Karen Allen is really returning to form, recording our fastest lady's time of 20:37 and edging towards her sub-20 form of old. It won't be long before Karen is back below 20. Alison Lessells is also making a steady return to form, heading back into the low 20's territory with an excellent time of 22:09. Lorraine Buchanan had a bit of a lonely time out on the 4th leg but ran a very even paced 23:16, just missing out by 9 seconds on a PB set previously at Victoria parkrun. Julie Thomson has not run many 5k's but paced this one well to finish in 24:13, not far outside her best set last year also at Victoria parkrun. Morgan Beaton had only recently started back on fast reps and with youth on her side, had the speed to get carried away with the fast early pace on leg 1, suffering a bit later on to finish in 24:45, a time that Morgan will smash by many minutes later on in the season. Sandy Hayden was only seconds behind in 24:48 but more importantly, paced it to perfection, maintaining an even pace throughout.

Morgan still moving well

Paul Rooney has been absent and injured for a while but made a good return to racing with a time of 22:30, homing in on his previous mid-21 form. However, the biggest come back performance was that of Colin Banks who has been out of action since last Summer with a knee injury and who threw himself in at the deep end by taking on the Scally. Colin's time was 30:22. This is just the first step back for Colin and we want to track steady progress as he gets back into regular training.

The battle for victory in the flat v hilly and long v short challenge  was contested between Davie Searil and Billy Buchanan, both of whom had raced at Glen Tress last weekend (marathon and half marathon respectively) with thousands of feet of climbing and hours of running and here they were on a 5k course a week later with only 30 feet of ascent. Unfortunately I don't know what the formula is to rank Davie's 6:28 severe terrain marathon and 24:40 5k at Glasgow Green with Billy's equally severe 2:28 half marathon and 23:10 5k. Lets call it a draw!

Davie takes any distance in his stride

Jim Holmes separated himself from the back by running an excellent 20:54, back into the 20's again and setting himself up for a deserved afternoon on the town, fuelled by a deep fried half pizza and smoked sausage supper, the fuel of champions (just ask Laura Muir)! The pack behind him was indeed tight. Richard Lawton triumphed in 21:16, pulling out an unassailable 3 second gap over Kenny Leinster (21:19). This was close to a pb for Richard and one of Kenny's fastest times over a distance he does not run very often. Not far away (21:27), Alan Cullie found the flat terrain suited his back injury better than last week's national cross country course, whilst Geo Ferguson took 10 seconds off his 5k PB to finish in an excellent 21:30. Richard Beaton was out to keep his daughter company and running for the Harriers for the first time. Richard ran 23:31, a time which I am sure Morgan will be targeting in her next 5k race! Russell Couper continued to demonstrate returning form and powered round in a fine 24:27, amongst his best times of recent years (and followed up with the tough Lasswade 10 mile the next day). Chas has done all the Scally courses over the years and was here to sample the latest edition with a solid 27:01, easily Chas' fastest 5k time for many years.

Jim Holmes adopts a familiar post-race pose

Hopefully I didn't miss anyone in the above (it might have been easier afterall to tell the story in running order!).

Thanks to Frances for support and photography, to the Harriers who made light work of bringing, setting up and packing away the tent and to Russell for suffering the stress of race registration on behalf of us all. All of Frances' photos are here (there are lots, plus a couple from me).
Alan