Saturday saw the welcome return to normality as far as Scottish Athletics competition was concerned with a very well attended and competitive West District XC Relay Championship at Alexandra Park, Glasgow. This new venue provided a challenging course with a surprising amount of elevation change but a also a firm, grassy surface in the light rough at the sides of the fairways. There were perhaps only 4 or 5 steps in slightly squidgy ground on the whole course, which was remarkable given the amount of rain in the preceding days and the number of feet that had pounded the course by the time the senior women and men ran at the end of the day.
The women were running in teams of 3, each completing 1 lap of the 4km course. We had one full and one incomplete (2 runners) team competing. We had the two Julies on the first leg of each team (Julie Beveridge and Julie Thomson) and each ran very well. Julie Beveridge paced the leg well and was able to take advantage of the terrain to finish very fast indeed in a time of 16:57. Julie Thomson has taken great strides forward this past year, hitting multiple pb's on the road but is still relatively new to cross country and is learning how to pace herself on hilly courses such as this. Julie had a fine run of 20:09. Kirsty Wilson made a welcome return to cross country (at least it was welcome for all of us supporting; speaking to Kirsty after her run, she was not so certain!) and put in a very strong performance on leg 2 for the first team to finish in 17:40. Frances Ferguson has been struggling with a few niggling injuries in recent months but showed good natural ability to run a very consistently paced lap in 19:38 for leg 2 of the second team. Alison Lessells completed the first team and, as seemed to be the case with most of our runners, got involved in a finishing straight sprint to hold a place, not that Alison had much choice given the very vocal encouragement she was getting to "Gooooooo" by her teammates. Alison finished in 19:06. As the ladies held onto their jokers, the Grand Prix and Scratch Championship leader boards are exactly in finishing order with Julie Beveridge leading both.
For the men we had two complete teams and a half complete team. The men were running in teams of 4 over the same 4km lap as the ladies. Our senior men's team was led off by Kevin Farmer who was getting himself unnecessarily worried about a return to racing. However, once he got going he was fine and stormed around on the crowded first leg in 16:13. Our over 40's (well over 40 in most cases) masters team was led off by Graeme Lindsay, stepping down considerably in distance from his last race. Graeme sped around the lap at a very consistent pace uphill and down in 16:54. For the incomplete team, Gordon McInally made his first race post foot surgery and surprised himself with an excellent time of 19:44. This shows that for all the race distances we cover from 4k to marathons and beyond, the bulk of the energy we use comes aerobically and Gordon has maintained his aerobic fitness despite the layoff from running by doing a lot of cycling. Gordon will of course get faster as he is able to add more running to his training but he has done a good job so far of keeping his aerobic fitness up.
Leg 2 of the senior team was given to Richard Beaton, making his cross country debut as an adult! Richard made good use of his new trail shoes to finish in 19:26 and with a strategically smart move, played two jokers to take an early lead in the Harriers Grand Prix. Stephen Phimister was on leg 2 for the Masters team and made up ground and passed several, including Richard in our first team, finishing in 17:19 with not a spec of mud on his legs; this was definitely a clean cross-country course. Russell Couper was on leg 2 for the incomplete team and was somewhat isolated but still kept the pace under control, finishing in 22:55.
Leg 3 for the Masters team was taken by me and as I was on the verge of several recurring injuries I lined up for the changeover with some trepidation. However, despite not having raced since October 2019, as soon as the leg was underway, it was business as usual and chase, chase, chase! I definitely felt my age on the uphills, lacking the power that I remember from even a few years ago but paced it well enough to even have a big sprint in the final 50m to make up one more place, finishing in 15:37. Callum Wright was on leg 3 for the senior team and despite not having done many cross country races of any distance, let alone a relative sprint such as this, ran very well and overtook many on his way to a time of 16:05.
Jim Holmes was on the final leg for the Masters team and held on well to the team's position. Jim enjoyed the lap much more at race pace than he did doing the warm-up lap with me, when it seemed there were only uphills on the course! Jim finished in 18:04. The senior team was also fielding a Jim on the 4th leg, this time Jim Mearns. Jim doesn't necessarily like to take the easy option, so somewhat handicapped himself by having a covid and flu booster jag the day before. However, Jim's main concern was finishing in time to see the Scotland match which had a 1700 kick-off. He needed have worried and was another Harrier demonstrating an impressive range of race distances from 4k to ultra, finishing in 18:52 (not at 18:52, in which case he would have missed the first half).
Well done to all who were able to compete and those who came down to support (Anne and Allan). Also a big thanks to Shettleston Harriers who hosted the event and put in a power of effort to put the first post-covid championship XC on at a completely new venue.
The impressive thing about all the Harriers running at the weekend was the very obvious commitment to chase down every vest in front of us and make up places for the team. For those new members who haven't competed in a relay for the Harriers (road or cross-country) and thought that running was purely an individual sport, this sort of event really makes you feel part of a team and, although there are unfortunately not many relays on the calendar, I would recommend getting a Scottish Athletics membership such that we are able to pick you for a future event and you can enjoy the team spirit first hand.
There are a few photos from Frances and some from me in this album (which you can upload to). Also, the up-to-date Grand Prix and Scratch Championship scores are available via the Grand Prix menu to the left of the blog.
Roll on Scone Palace in two weeks (also remember that the Glasgow University 5 Mile Road Race is next weekend and is a GP event. There are still over 100 places available for pre-entries on Entry Central)!
Alan
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