It was particularly encouraging for us to be able to field almost 3 complete ladies' teams with a mix of experienced Harriers and first time cross-country competitors. Fastest Harrier on the day was Emma Carroll who was running leg 2 for our senior ladies A team, covering the course in 16:49. However, it was tight at the top for our top 3. Claire McSorley (3rd leg for masters team) finished in 16:55 very closely followed by Fiona Williamson (1st leg for the masters) in 16:58. Then Stephanie Caulfield on her XC debut (1st leg for the senior ladies A team) got the team off to a good start in 17:28. Frances Ferguson is gradually getting back to form, running a similar time to last year (18:21) on leg 2 for the masters. Jacqueline Balmer looked very relaxed completing the 3rd leg for the senior ladies in 19:48. Lorraine Buchanan was pleased with her time of 21:33 on leg 1 for the senior B team and handed over to Pam Rycroft on her XC debut who ran well through the mud to finish in 22:55. Wise decisions to play jokers has resulted in Claire leading the Grand Prix after race 1 with Pam just behind in second place and Stephanie close on her heels. The positions in the club championship follow the time order meaning that Emma is leading followed by Claire and Fiona. The GP and Club Championship league tables are available in the menus to the left of the blog.
Given the numbers at training, the number of men's teams we had was a little disappointing. However, those who were there all ran well. Fastest Harrier of the day was Jordan Stewart in an excellent 12:54. Andrew Buchanan was next fastest, leading of the masters team in a time of 15:33. Iain MacLean was in touch with Andy, finishing in 16:01 on leg 4 of the masters team. Gerry Connelly made a rare but much valued XC outing, finishing in 16:39 on leg 2 for the masters team with Robert Pattinson next fastest in 16:54. The race was a bit shorter than usual for Jim Mearns who nevertheless ran strongly in 17:48. Gordon McInally and Kenny Leinster are both fighting to overcome injuries and ailments and finished reasonably close to each other in 19:33 and 19:46 respectively. Russell Couper and Andy Rycroft completed our teams, finishing in 22:11 and 23:40, although Russell would have preferred it to have been a lot muddier. On the bright side, he did finish with both shoes on his feet. Jordan, Iain and Gerry made good use of their jokers to lead the Grand Prix whilst the Club Championship order is as listed above in the finishing time order.
From the enthusiastic performances I saw, hopefully we will have an even better turn out at Cumbernauld in a few weeks.
Alan
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