Lanarkshire Road Relays

Due to various marathons, injuries, holidays and Gruffalo shows clashing with this race, a smaller than usual contingent of Harriers gathered for the Lanarkshire Road Relays in Drumpellier Park.

I saw a panicked look on Dave Wardrope’s face. The word on the street was that a huge puddle had formed under the railway bridge and the best course of action was to run straight through the middle of it!
This was meant to be a road race! And there was no sign of Frances in her wellies!

He still had the emotional and physical scars of losing his shoe in the cross country last week and subsequently getting scalped by Russell.

Dave was on first leg duty along with Morgan Beaton and Gordon McInally, and they lined up against some strong teams from, amongst others, Shettleston, Cambuslang, East Kilbride, Hamilton and Motherwell.

The 4 km course was out and back through the park and it was a pleasing sight to see Dave running strongly to the finish, both shoes still attached, in a time of 16:56.

Morgan was our only lady Harrier running today and flew home in a fine time of 17:55, setting a benchmark for her Dad to beat.
Gordon McInally was another one still smarting from being scalped by Russell last week and in a determined run he laid down the gauntlet by completing the course in 19:01.



Jim Holmes and Russell Couper took over for the second leg in what was a fine day for running. The puddle under the bridge was the memorable feature of the course and offered no real alternative but to crash straight through. Your feet weighed a ton afterwards and it took a few minutes for them to drain and lighten up, just in time to crash straight through it again on the way back! Great fun!
Jim completed the course in 16:45 with Russell coming home in 19:29.



Jim Mearns took on the third leg and had a great run, he gained four places and gave it everything in the home straight to post the fastest Harriers time of the day, 16:39.
Richard Beaton was on the anchor leg and following Morgan's great time he had to put in a hard shift, clocking 17:47. When asked if he enjoyed the run his answer was unprintable!
That’s what we like to see, Harriers giving it all!



Congratulations go to former Harrier Kay Conneff, now running with East Kilbride AC who was part of the ladies’ team who took gold in the relay.

Thanks go to Richard Lawton for volunteering to marshal, thus allowing all of us to run, and to Emma Mearns for making us all look good in her amazing photos. The camera never lies!