National Cross-Country Championships - Callendar Park

Several thousand club runners of all ages descended upon Callendar Park, Falkirk from all corners of Scotland for Saturday's National Cross-Country Championships. The weather and underfoot conditions were near perfect with only a gentle breeze and hardly a trace of mud to be found. Consequently the small contingent of Harriers had a good chance to finish the cross-country season with a hard, fast run.

In the senior ladies race, we had three Harriers, Alison Lessells, Julia Petchlof and Frances Ferguson competing over 3 laps and about 10.5km of undulating terrain. In her best race of the XC season, Frances Ferguson was the first Harrier and our highest age grade finisher of the day. After a strong start by all 3 ladies on the first lap, Frances moved into the leading Harrier position about half way around the second lap with Alison continuing to chase hard. Frances crossed the line in 51:22 and 5th F55. Alison was not far behind, finishing in 51:40. Julia had her strongest cross-country race of the season too and was certainly the fastest Harrier on the final climb through the tented hill, pacing the race very well to finish in 53:45.

The men's race was over the same 3 lap course and in this race we had Duncan McKellar, Gerry Connelly, Andrew Buchanan, Jim Holmes, Gordon McInally and Russell Couper running. Duncan, Gerry and Andrew remained close for the first lap but a stumble by Gerry and a general tiredness meant that he pulled out about half way around the second lap. Meanwhile, Duncan had tweaked a hamstring on the first lap and his stride was very constrained for most of the race. Meanwhile Andy was demonstrating the great endurance base he has developed and looked strong throughout the race. Duncan finished in 43:10 with Andy crossing the line in 44:35.

Jim Holmes enjoyed the firm conditions which meant that endurance rather than strength was the main factor. Jim finished in very good form in 52:01. Gordon is still struggling with a niggling injury which is limiting his training volume. Gordon ran steadily to finish in 55:59. Russell is benefiting from his gradual increase in mileage and looked to be strong all the way through the race, finishing in 59:11.

Well done to all the Harriers running and thanks to those Harriers supporting around the course (Stephen and Frances Phimister, Lorraine Buchanan and Shaun Mochan to name the ones that I saw).

Some photos of the race leaders and all the Harriers in this album.

Alan