A huge increase in air temperature to the mid teens turned Saturday's West District XC at Barwood Park, Erskine into a very pleasant, vest and shorts event, a situation that had seemed unlikely in the sub-zero temperatures over the preceding few days. The main weather related problem was the gusty wind which lifted the Harrier's tent several feet into the air and blew it over, breaking one of the roof struts. This gave a new meaning to the definition of the club anchor runner as we had to leave someone sitting in the tent to keep it on the ground (we were not the only club with tent problems on the day though).
This rapid thaw also turned parts of what might have been quite a firm parkland course into a quagmire, particularly for the senior races. Our junior Harriers were racing over 2.2km in the first races of the day and both our representatives performed brilliantly in the U/13 events (note that all race distances were well short of the published distances; nobody was complaining!). Charlotte Buchanan challenged hard and finished 12th in 09:08 in a blanket finish with only 2 seconds covering 9th to 12th and separated by around 19 seconds from the winner. There were 88 in this race; a very impressive field. Hamish Anderson ran 8:51 in the U/13 boys race to finish in 19th position out of 53 finishers in another tight finish. Hamish thoroughly enjoyed this challenging one lap course which was very like the terrain we train on in EK.
Much later in the day, it was the turn of the senior and masters women to run three laps of the course which by now was becoming quite churned up in parts. The advertised distance was 7.5km but the reality is that the course was much shorter with the total distance being about 6.7km on the GPS, which is probably a slight underestimate due to GPS inaccuracies on the several tight, 180 degree turns. Frances Ferguson and Lorraine Buchanan were representing the Harriers in a field of 135. Despite tired legs from the Cyprus 4-day Challenge less than a week before and some significant injuries sustained there (and the "Brampton Cold"), Frances was our top age-group performer on the day, running very strongly to finish as first F60 in a time of 34:20. Lorraine has had a strong cross-country season so far, getting stronger with every race and finished this one in a time of 44:18.
Finally the senior and masters men took to the same 3 lap course as the women. A field of 238 charged down the wind assisted downhill start straight to a very tight right turn around a tree. The course then headed into a low lying wooded area with more slippery turns around trees to take us towards the furthest away corner of the course via a boggy stretch leading to a very steep, muddy bank (think Brancumhall bank height x 4) and along the edge of some football pitches to another 180 degree turn around a tree. After following the edge of a football pitch (the Brancumhall training is relevant after all) we turned right and followed a hedge line down into another wooded area, descending again before turning around some trees and proceeding back up a leafy hill to the start/finish area which we ran past and down a long straight before another inevitable 180 degree turn and an uphill, into the wind straight of about 150m length to the end of the lap.
Despite tired legs from Cyprus and still suffering with the "Brampton Cold", having recently solved my long-term right hamstring and siatica problem, I was able to move quite nicely through the field on the downhill and flat sections but the drained legs were struggling on every uphill or headwind section where I was dropping the odd place here and there. Overall, I ran quite well to finish in 28:57 and 5th M55. Next home was Andrew Buchanan in 29:47, who was struggling a bit today, no doubt due to having been on his feet for many hours setting up for the junior races. Jason Grant was another to suffer from the "Brampton Cold" but still ran well to finish in 32:18. Scott Hair is improving noticeably with every race and really enjoyed this course, making a steady start to learn the lap and then building on the final two laps to finish in 34:51. Kenny Leinster has participated in all of the cross-country races this season but also contracted the "Brampton Cold" and was feeling quite rough. So perhaps he was a little down on his Brampton form and finished in 36:47. Finally Russell Couper leaped to the lead of the GP with a finishing time of 41:24.
Well done to all the Harriers who participated, particularly Andy, Lorraine and Frances who were there from 10am for the juniors and then running themselves mid-afternoon.
