Lanarkshire XC - Strathaven - Harriers through the Ages

 

All the Senior Harriers (minus Gordon who is probably tucked in behind Frances)

An impressive number of Harriers of all ages made the short trip to Strathaven on Saturday for the Lanarkshire Cross Country Championship in Kirkland Park. The event was kindly hosted by EKAC as the race was their club championship and was very well organised with the help of all the member clubs of LAAA.

A total of 26 Harriers had entered, including 9 juniors, our best turn out across the age groups for a while and good to see. Inevitably, there were a few last minute call offs due to work commitments and other factors but still a very impressive and colourful turnout.

Although the event had been held here a couple of years ago, pre-pandemic, only 2 Harriers did it that time and we therefore did not have much experience of the course. On paper, it looked like it could be a bit too compact with each lap totalling only a mile in distance but the reality was that the park provided a true cross country test with ups and downs of varying steepness, twists and turns and firm and (very) soft ground. We also got the best of the weather on what was otherwise a very miserable day as the heavy rain stayed off for the duration of the event and the wind dropped a bit.

Eva and Finlay with their medals

First away were the U/11's races which were held over one short lap of the course of total distance about 1km. Within that short lap there was a little bit of everything; a long uphill drag followed by an even longer downhill and then a nasty drop into a deep gulley and back out for a short, muddy uphill sprint to the finish. The Harriers picked up their first podium of the day with third place going to Eva McGory in 4:47, only a few seconds behind second place. Ailsa McDermot was the Harriers' next finisher in an excellent 6:11.

The Harriers were equally strong in the boys race with Finlay McMonegal also finishing third in a time of 4:41.

Well done to all of our youngest Harriers (all the photos we have of the competing Harriers are in an album at the link at the end of this blog post).

The u/13's races stepped up in distance to 2.6km which started with the 1km short lap and then 1 of the large, 1.6km laps to give 2.6km of tough running. Zoe Mullholland was our only finisher in this race in a time of 13:44; good going over a challenging lap. In the u/13 boys race, Angus Wilkinson, now running for EKAC but still very much part of Harriers' junior training was a clear winner in 9:53.

Emma and Anna

As the ages increased, the number of laps also increased. The u/15's raced over 2 large laps totalling 3.2km; short enough to be fast; tough enough to be painful! Anna Lindsay and Emma Hutton were our two representatives in this race, finishing in 16:35 and 17:23 respectively. Well done both. We didn't have anyone in the U/15 boys race. Neither did we have anyone in the U/17 races (4.8km). However, we did have several other juniors running in the younger age groups who through injury or not feeling well sensibly stopped before the finish. Well done to all the juniors for pulling on the Calderglen vest and putting your toes on the very muddy start line.

Then we moved on to the seniors (and masters) race which merged the men and women together into one big field. This final race was 4 complete laps (6.4km) of an increasingly muddy course. The Harriers were well represented across the senior, 40+, 50+ and 60+ age groups. The lap started with a gentle climb on a fairly soggy slope with a final muddy kick up as we turned left on a high part of the course. We then dropped down onto a twisty section through a sparse wood with a few low branches to clean the face and then climbed up a muddy bank to the long descent past the start line and into a narrow out and back section which had all the elements of a cross country course compressed into it, including a fast, gentle descent, a slippery U-turn, a deep gulley to drop in and climb out of and a very muddy ascent back across the start line. Looking at the various posts on Strava, it was great to see how well the Harriers ran this course, with even pacing evident on each lap.

Julie moving well
through the mud

First of the Harriers' women was Julie Beveridge in an excellent 29:53 and 1st F40. Although I know Julie isn't particularly keen on cross country, she is very good at it as her short, fast stride cuts efficiently through the soft ground. Well done Julie. Chasing very close behind, Karen Allen finished in 30:02, promising next year to string together a full series of GAAA XC training sessions to build her cross country form.

Frances breaks away

Frances Ferguson completed our women's team, consolidating her fine performance at the Masters National last weekend by winning the F50 category in a time of 33:38 (note that some or all of the provisional official results are offset by one position, so I have checked against the Garmin/Strava times and then selected the correct official time). Well done Frances.

Alan striding out

In the men's race, after a slightly too fast first lap, Alan Derrick moved through the field on the subsequent laps to finish in 27:07, placing 1st M50. Chris McCarron worked hard after also starting a bit fast to cross the line in 27:33. As is usually the case with these multi-lap cross countries, Graeme Lindsay found that the first lap seemed to be long and tough but that subsequent laps seemed to zip by as they became more familiar. Graeme finished in a fine 28:48. Kenny Leinster, Gordon McInally and Geo Ferguson had been marshaling through all the junior races and therefore had very limited warm up time before the senior race.

Kenny keeps an eye on Jim on lap 1

As always with Kenny, the psychological warfare started before the race with Kenny declaring his intent to sit on the shoulder of Jim Holmes. As the photograph shows, Kenny did indeed do this for the first lap but as he got into his stride, Kenny got faster and faster with each passing lap. Kenny finished in 32:07 with Jim crossing the line in 32:45 a few places behind Kenny. David Wardrope is only a week out from another overseas marathon and was desperate not to injure himself in these tricky conditions. David ran an excellent 33:14, confirming his readiness for some warm weather! Gordon McInally used Frances as his pacemaker throughout the race but unlike the professional pace makers, Frances did not step aside on the last lap to let Gordon take the glory! 

As Gordon missed out on the team photo, here he is in action

All the same, Gordon finished in an excellent 33:45, having recovered well from last weekend's masters championships. Kevin Farmer is also deep into marathon training and unfortunately had a fall which dropped him back through the field. Kevin finished in 34:10 but did no damage and was back out on a long run by Sunday. Geo Ferguson had a very minimal warm-up as mentioned above and backed up his masters performance from last weekend with a finishing time of 36:52. Russell Couper was our final Harrier who had also competed at the Masters Championship in Aberdeen last weekend and completed a tiring double finishing in 38:52. Well done all.

Events such as this cannot take place without volunteers which in this case came from all clubs in the LAAA's. So in addition to Geo, Gordon and Kenny mentioned above, a big thanks to Billy Buchanan who marshalled at all the races (and also provided all the senior race photographs; multi-tasking in action) and provided words of encouragement each time we passed him. Thanks also to Frances and Russell for handling all the registrations and race numbers and a big thanks to Sandy who came through and cheered us all on (although I somehow didn't hear her)! All the photos are in this album.

Alan