Since the Allan Scally Road Relay moved to early March and the Glasgow Green venue a few years ago, the weather has been fantastic. The 2023 event was no exception with fine, calm conditions and blazing sun for at least leg 1 and 2 runners. Calderglen Harriers have always had a big turnout for this race, irrespective of the venue and on Saturday we fielded 24 runners from juniors all the way through to M70.
The fine conditions and the hard work from the Harriers training and racing through the worst of the winter weather resulted in fine performances throughout. The accurately measured 5k course is a regular source of fast times and Calderglen PB and Performance Standards awards. Karen Allen has piled on the hard training in preparation for her London Marathon debut in April and has proved that consistent big mileage and quality sessions reward us at all of our race distances as every race we do from 1 mile upwards requires a well developed aerobic energy system. So it was no surprise to me (but a big surprise to Karen) that Karen recorded a fantastic new 5k PB of 19:30 despite being tired from weeks of heavy training. Well done Karen!
Relays always seem to produce very tight times within the Harriers and we had a dead heat for the second fastest ladies' time with junior Rachel McPhillips running a PB of 22:08 and tying to the second with non-junior Frances Ferguson who is getting faster by the week. To further add to the coincidences, this was also identical to the time that Frances ran at this event one year ago!
Alison Lessells was next fastest with a time of 22:17, faster than last year and definitely heading to better and better form with each race. Claire McSorley has had heavily interrupted training in recent months and was happy to be out racing and setting a benchmark of 23:05 to build on. The Harrier who seemed to be enjoying themselves the most on the run was Junior Harrier Emma Hutton who ran a very even race to finish in a fine 24:30, a time that she will soon take minutes off with consistent training. Well done to all the ladies.
In the men's standings, our fastest on the day was the ever remarkable Davie Watt, setting a time of 18:06. This actually puts Davie as the 4th fastest M60 over 5k in the UK so far in 2023 according to the UKA Power of 10 rankings (which excludes parkruns though). Gerry Connelly is also getting back to the fine form of a few years ago, recording a very good 18:31. After a break from racing in the Harriers vest of over 10 years, Blair Matthew made a welcome return in the gold and black stripes to record an excellent time of 18:39. As Blair is on the gentle come back after years and years of injuries and operations, this was indeed a fine return to competitive running which Blair will improve on substantially if he can stay injury free. Duncan McKellar has been one of the strongest Harriers through the cross country season and followed that up with pace on the flat course around Glasgow Green with a time of 18:53. Another huge improver compared to last year was Paul Lucchesi who smashed last year's time by over 2 minutes, finishing in 18:56. This is another reflection on high, consistent miles in training. Rounding out a group of very close finishing Harriers, Andrew Buchanan crossed the line in 18:57, about a minute faster than last year as a result of consistent training through the winter.
Stephen Phimister is another who has also put in the miles in recent months despite a number of setbacks with lingering illnesses. Resplendent in brand new semi-super carbon plated racing shoes, Stephen got back to performances of old with a comfortable return to the sub-20 club, recording 19:32. Jason Grant is another benefiting from marathon training, just missing out on the sub-20 club to finish in 20:02. Next time! Kai Wheeler is a junior who has been loyal to the Harriers for many years and it was great to see him out in a senior Harriers team, setting a good benchmark time of 21:00. Not far behind, Kieran Rooney, another of our long-term juniors ran very well to finish in 21:41. Well done to all of our younger members for representing themselves and the Harriers in this excellent event.
Another tie followed with experienced Harriers Martin Howell and Jim Holmes both recording a time of 22:12. Gordon McInally is still suffering with niggling aches and pains and is not at his best yet. Gordon's time of 23:19 reflects his current injury status. Robert Gibson has been getting back into more consistent training recently and ran a time within sight of his usual form, finishing in 23:24. Gerry Mullen made his first race appearance of the year covering the 5k lap in his usual well paced manner to cross the line in 23:44. Richard Lawton continues to take the cautious approach back to health and despite running to a heart rate limit, crossed the line in 24:30 and only around 30 seconds slower than when he was pushing himself to the absolute limit! This is a good demonstration of how consistent, easy training miles will actually make you faster for a given level of effort. Richard is probably fitter now than he was pre-health scare and if the brakes were off I am sure would run faster than ever before. Billy Buchanan tried to use age as an excuse to be substituted for his leg but the evidence provided by a time of 25:28 confirmed that Billy is still in very fine form for an M70. Finally, Russell Couper ran his fastest 5k for a while, crossing the line in 26:07 in the first race of a double race weekend for him.
Our best team position of the day was achieved by the M50 team of Davie Watt, Gerry Connelly, Martin Howell and Stephen Phimister who finished an excellent 4th in a very competitive field. Our M40 team of Duncan McKellar, Blair Matthew, Jason Grant and Paul Lucchesi finished 8th in a very strong age category.
As mentioned at the beginning of this report, the flat, fast course provides an excellent opportunity for Calderglen 5k performance standards (and PB standards) to be achieved. I shall leave it to individual Harriers to self report their own PB's as it is too difficult for me to keep track of but the performance awards achieved were: Davie Watt (M60 Gold), Frances Ferguson (F55 Gold), Karen Allen (F35 Bronze), Gerry Connelly (M50 Bronze), Blair Matthew (M45 Bronze) and, if in M45 rather than M40 age group, Duncan McKellar (M45 Bronze) and Paul Lucchesi (M45 Bronze), Stephen Phimister (M50 Bronze). All of these are subject to correction if I have the ages on race day wrong of course, so do please self report your own results using the Performance Award menu on the left of the blog home screen.
Finally copious photos from myself in this album and Kai in this album. Here is hoping that we are out of winter racing conditions and into fine weather racing for many months to come.
Alan
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