Family BBQ Sports Day

I've checked the weather and it's to be dry, Friday 8th May....what more can you ask for!! So, get your tickets (£5 per family)as soon as possible for the BBQ and Sports Day so, we can ensure we have enough food on the bar-be for all you budding athletes.

Plenty of games for all the family.

Lochaber marathon

A fine warm Spring day saw Eddie Reid and Scot Hill head for the Lochaber Marathon. Scot made it a bit of a family day with brothers Les and Alan starting the race too. The heat started to take its toll on the field early in the race with many showing signs that it was going to be a long day. Scot's brother Alan was first to fall by the wayside stopping after about six miles. The picture to the left shows Eddie, Scot and Les continuing at a good pace and on course for sub 3hrs. As they hit the turning point all within touching distance they looked in good spirits cheered on by family and clubmates and still heading for sub 3hrs. By 16mls the heat was taking its toll on Scot and alas by 18mls had to stop and jumped into Stuart Waugh's car (I wonder what he'd have done if Stuart wasn't there). Eddie by this time had pushed on and was still targeting that 3hrs although it was starting to look from his expression that it was slipping away (heat taking its toll). Eddie still had one challange ahead, to catch the girl he had been running most of the way with (Sandra he's got her phone number). As we waited patiently at the finish Scot's brother Les at least kept the Hill family in the race (picture above) finishing in a little over 3hrs. Eddie then appeared round the corner but the target had gone but just time for a sprint to beat that girl. Although initially disappointed with his time 3:07:50 it was good enough to earn him the Scottish Veteran Harriers GOLD MEDAL for MV45, well done Eddie.

Scot is expecting some jovality about him not finishing but try not to be too hard in the comments as it was not the conditions for good marathon running.

Good luck on Sunday for the London marathon to Davie Searil and i believe Ian Hughes too.

Temporary Change of e mail address

Unfortunately my laptop needs a replacement keyboard due to a unfortunate accident when I spilled some beer over it . Fortunately there was and always is ample beer in the fridge ( not forgetting Frances' wine) so the night in question was not ruined . In the meantime if you need to send me an e mail could you do so at csteven@duncanrig.s-lanark.sch.uk . I will let you know when the replacement arrives and everything is okay.

Donation Bags (Relay for Life)

The dates to bring the donation bags to the club are as follows:-

Thursday 30th April,

Thursday 14th May,

Thursday 28th May.

If you are unable to bring the bags back on any of these dates, then any of the club committee members will gratefully accept them from you. So far Caroline Lindsay has collected 35 bags and the club's total has been credited by £683.50, so we are off to a great start.

Well Done Caroline!

There will be more details on the Relay for Life, on the blog, over the next couple of weeks.

Irene Hill

Parkrun Update

The Harriers have continued to support the weekly Parkrun 5k's in Pollok Park over the past month.

Alan Derrick started the ball rolling on 28th March recording a time of 17:06 to finish 4th in that day's race in near perfect conditions. A week later on 4th April, Russell Couper made his debut with a 25:58 timing and followed this up a week later with a time of 26:43. Something clearly went wrong there! David Herbertson made his 3rd appearance on 11th April and recorded his 3rd consecutive course best with an improvement of 19 seconds to finish in 20:55.

On 18th April, Parkrun debutant Jamie McMonagle made his first appearance as a vet and also his first race since injuring his hamstring back in February. Although clearly having lost some form Jamie was pleased with his run (19:13, 22nd position) given that his hamstring was still not quite right and he had a few ciders the night before. As Jamie says "I would recommend this event to everyone as its low key although there is that competitive edge as well and its good for building up speed with all the 10k's approaching. Just wish I could run faster!". Stephen Phimister was also on the comeback trail from injury and was not expecting much given the relative lack of training. However, he surprised himself with another pb, recording 19:27, a 15 second improvement in this his second Parkrun 5k.

Alan

Grand Prix - Remaining Races

The final races for the Grand Prix are as follows:

Men's GP
Deaf Blind Scotland 10k - Bishopbriggs 16/05/09
Rouken Glen 10k Road Race 11/06/09
Dechmont Law 10k Trail Race 14/06/09
Vertical Mile Thursday 02/07/09

Ladies GP
As the ladies are short of a few races, there are some extras:
All of the above PLUS:
Troon 10k Wednesday 6th May
Calderglen 5k Auldhouse Time Trial Thursday 4th June

Alan

Tom Scott 10 Mile Road Race

On a beautiful Easter Sunday morning almost 350 runners from all over Scotland and beyond ( Stornoway, Aberdeen, Dumfries, Fife, Mull and Belfast to name but a few ) gathered at a positively balmy Strathclyde Park for the annual Tom Scott 6k and 10 mile races. A clear blue sky with just a slight cooling breeze, rippling waves breaking on the sand, racing dinghies and sculls on the water, the only fly in the ointment was the music, screams & shouts coming from the direction of that wonderful addition to any country park, the M&D “theme park”– thank goodness South Lanarkshire Council haven’t thought of that one for our own Calderglen! Yet.

To the running, Tsegezeab Woldemickael of Shettleston Harriers won the 10 mile race in a new record time of 49.24 with his fellow Eritrean clubmate Tewoldcebrhan Mengisteab second in 49:50. In a very impressive thirteenth place was our ex-clubmate Stuart Gibson in a pb time of 54:05, a tremendous start to his racing in the red vest of Ronhill Cambuslang. It’s worth mentioning this was a pb by over two minutes - watch out Stuart, at this rate of improvement it can only be a matter of time before you get a visit from the drug testers with their needles & sample bottles!

The only harriers at the race, although not at the races, were David Searil in 1:20:33 on his last competitive (ha!) outing before the London marathon and Richard Lawton in 1:23:47, a stunning seven minutes faster than his pre-race prediction. Another ex-harrier, now in the colours of Motherwell AC, Barbara Sloss split the two Calderglen runners in a time of 1:21:39.

There were 218 finishers over the longer distance and 56 over the shorter route which was won by Stephen Matthews of EKAC in 19:21

Your roving reporter, Davie Searil
PS I’m sure everyone in the club would join me in wishing all the best to Eddie & Scot this coming Sunday at the Lochaber marathon