Glasgow Uni 5 Mile Race

Saturday saw the 2nd race in the Grand Prix series and a good turnout of harriers taking part in the Glasgow Uni 5mile road race. The weather gods were certainly smiling down on us as the pouring rain stopped about half an hour before the start of the race to allow us to get warmed up in the dry, and the skies were blue for the start of the race. The race consists of 2 laps starting and finishing at Garscube sports complex and is a hilly 5 miles with not a lot of flat - it’s either uphill or downhill, the good part is the last kilometre is all downhill. Andrew Buchanan is seeing the benefit of managing consistent training again and was first harrier home in 31:59,

Jason Grant also ran very well and was second harrier back in 33:09. Sileshi Tesema had been feeling some tightness in his calf so had to ease off in sections finished not far behind in 33:22. Julie Beveridge was first female harrier finishing in a time of 34:22. Julie also finished 2nd female vet.

Well done Julie. There was a couple of minutes until the next harrier Alison Lessells who ran steadily to finish in 37:29. Alison had been expecting Jim Mearns to overtake her on each hill she ran up so was surprised to see him cheering her on from the sidelines at the final corner. Unfortunately Jim had to pull up injured just before the start of the 2nd lap and declared he’s never entering this race again as it’s the 2nd time he’s DNF’ed it with Russell claiming his scalp… Robert Gibson and George Ferguson were closely matched, with Robert finishing ahead in 41:19 and Geo closely behind in 41:41.

Richard Lawton also had a strong run finishing in 43:01. Russell Couper ran a steady race to finish in 48:34 with Lorraine Buchanan about a minute behind in 49:40. Lorraine was cheered to the finish and managed to pip the lady from Wee County Harriers that she was racing up the finishing straight on the line. Well done Lorraine. Thanks to Morgan, Susan Grant and especially Heidi who had the loudest cheers for us all for the support on the day.