Potters 'Arf Marathon 2013: Stoke-on-Trent

This was the race that I have been training for all year despite having Achilles Tendonitis and regular visits to Grant.

Its a hilly race very demanding and even more so on the hottest day of the year so far, there is a Gold medal for under 1:30, a Silver for under 1:45 and a Bronze for under 2 hrs, my goal was for under 2 hrs which I missed out on by 4 mins last year, this year I was looking for a Bronze medal.

The first few miles of the race are undulating and I found myself going faster than expected I soon slowed at 4 miles when I reached a long inclining hill, however the Monday night training at Chatelherault helped me get to the brow and a nice descent at the other side.

At the 1 hour mark I had completed 7 miles and was feeling good but temperature wise I was hot, 2 water stations and lots of enthusiastic spectators lining the streets shouting encouragement was a big help.

At 10 miles I was at 1:27 on target for under 2 hours but starting to struggle with the heat and yet another long hill, starting to question why I was doing this, but another water station came up took a few jelly babies and even managed to run part way up ‘Heartbreak Hill’ as the locals call it at 11 miles, similar in challenge to our vertical mile run, picked up the pace when I reached the top a few more smaller hills and a sprint to the finish in a time of 1:56:42, Bronze Medal in the bag !!

A great well organised race of about 1500 runners with streets lined with spectators supplying extra water, jelly babies and a few welcoming water hoses.

Maybe Silver next year......see how my training goes !

Well done to Phil on a great improvement on a tough course.
Alan

Roukenglen 10K

 As many of you know the old Roukenglen course had a 4k hill climb and wasn't known for being a fast course. So when the pre-race blurb advertised a new ‘faster, flatter route’ then it was worth a go. Over the years the Harriers had a big turnout at this event but our numbers were lower on a decent night for running. It takes the usual ‘festival’ format and Evan Hughes of our young athletes section ran in the 1k primary school races. His dad Ian Hughes chose the 5k event to save the family hanging around too long and finished 2nd in 18:18.

 

The 10k has been promoted to a chipped race and we lined up in the normal start position at the bottom of the park. Concerns were raised when the organiser announced over the PA that this was a challenging course and quizzed looks all round for those looking for the faster, flatter route.

 

For those that have ran the course before its a similar first loop but this time you remain inside the park and head up to the pond. There is a short sharp climb up onto Davieland Rd then its the usual outer loop past the park entrance and the start of the climb at Stewarton Road. The difference this time was that we came into the golf club car park and then its onto an ‘undulating’ section of trail that includes a lung bursting climb. Descriptions ranged from ‘the top part of Lickprivick’  to ‘the log jamb without the logs’ . It was 2 of these bigger loops then back past the pond and the usual finish down the path.

 

Estimates range from it being 30s to 1 minute slower than a flat course. Challenging it certainly was. Faster and flatter ... ? well only if you compare it to the previous course which had big uphill.

 

Best performance of the night went to Chris Wilson who stormed round in 39:39 - not bad for his first 10k race ! We’ll give him honorary Harrier status for the night but he needs to get a vest or Russell will withdraw such generosity ! Next home was Stephen Phimister 40:56 who had hoped for better - although strangely the chip time was 3s longer than the watch time. Stuart Waugh had a reoccurrence of his leg injury but made it interesting as Joanne chased him down the home straight, just managing to hold her off over the line although both with chip times of 43:41. Richard Lawton (47:16) was next over the line followed by Colin Jarvie (48:38). Russell Couper was out for a training run ahead of this weekend’s events but also had injury problems near the end and finished 55:42.

 

Nearly 400 ran with the winner crossing the line in 33:45.

 

As long as you accept that its not the fastest of courses then its a decent local race and probably well suited to our country park style of training. It has to be said that its one of the better race t-shirts although green, white and gold might not be to everybody’s liking !!!!

Thanks to Stephen for the report

Dechmont Law Trail Race & Skye Half Marathon

Over the weekend we had a few Harriers out and about racing.
First out on Saturday was Gerry Connelly at Skye for the Half Marathon. No race report available but Gerry ran a time of 1:51:54.
Then on Sunday we had round 15 of the Grand Prix at the Dechmont Law Trail Race.
The course was extended this year as it had been a little short in previous years making it even tougher than normal. The course was very firm due to the warm weather of late but with all the dry ruts it made for difficult running.
First Harrier home was Stephen Phimister ( 42.07 ) then came Eddie Reid (43.35 ) next in was David Herbertson ( 44.06 ) and Jim Holmes ( 44.51 ). Joanne McEvoy our only Female taking part came home next in ( 46.24 ). Our next two Harriers made a race of it between themselves ( 51.11 ) versus ( 51.13 ) with George Stewart just pipping Richard Lawton to the line. Finally still nursing a dodgy calf was Russell Couper ( 62.38 ). Happy enough with this all things considered with the extended course and dodgy calf it was still 3 mins faster than last year. Another good race hosted by Lothian Running Club and I would encourage more Harriers to try it next year. Alan will update the Grand Prix when he returns and then announce when the final race The Vertical Mile will be. In the meantime if my arithmetic is correct there is no change in the Scratch Championships positions but the Grand Prixs both have new leaders Joanne McEvoy and Russell Couper. Message for George I will need to start calling myself GPL.

If anyone else was racing over the weekend that ive not noticed let me know and I will add it on.

Phil Marshall ran the Stoke on Trent Half Marathon in a time of 1.56.42 a pb for Phil well done.
Hopefully a report to follow.

Davie Searil has had a busy weekend on Saturday he ran the Inverness parkrun in 23.58 but not content with this he then ran the Nairn 10m road race on the Sunday 1.22.26. It just goes to show even on holiday harriers just cant help themselves.

Ruth Kelly also ran the Vale of Leven 10k completing the full Polaroid series with a time of 52.44, this was also Ruth's first outing in her Harriers vest which to use her own words brought out a little competitive streak. Im sure this will grow in the coming months as the times drop.

Dechmont Law Trail Race

Registrations, Entries, Changing and Parking at Deans Community High School, Livingston, EH54 8PS Junior Trail Start: 10:30am. Fun Run Start: 10:45am. 10k Trail Start: 11:15 For those meeting at the club, we will leave at 9.30 am.

Longest Day Golf Challenge

The early rise at the West Highland Way was good practice for my next endurance event. On 21st June myself and three work colleagues are playng four rounds of golf in a day to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. Our team, "50-shades-of-grey-hair", are teeing off at 5.30am and hope to be finished around 10pm, subject to having enough golf balls! I know a lot of these requests go round so there is no obligation what-so-ever, but if you would like to know more about the challenge and the charity feel free to visit:- www.justgiving.com/50-shades-of-grey-hair

TTC T-Shirt Sizes

We have now checked the sizes of the event T-shirts we are going to be ordering and can give a little more detail on the sizes as follows (this information is now also shown on the on-line entry form but not the printed one):

XS.  33-34

S.    35-36

M.    36-37

L.      38 -41

Xl.    41-44

XXL.  44-47

For those who have already filled in the TTC entry form and wish to change their T-shirt size, please let Eddie know and we will manually change your selection. Note there is also an XXL option available now.

Alan

TTC 2013 is Go!

What shocking colour will the event T-shirt be this year?

The seventh annual Trossachs Training Camp is ready to launch. This year it takes place on the weekend of Friday 13th to Sunday 15th September 2013, starting at around 5:30pm on the Friday and finishing early afternoon on the Sunday at the Trossachs Backpackers Hostel in Callander. Due to the generous support of our club sponsor, EKGTA Ltd, we are able to hold the price at £70 for the weekend, the same as last year. This includes two nights dormitory accommodation in the Trossachs Backpackers Hostel, 2 x 2 course dinners (3rd course available as a £4 extra per night) at The Lade Inn and 2 x buffet lunches provided by Zizique Deli and Mhor Bread as for the last two years. There is an accommodation-limited entry of 28 as usual so move fast to secure a place. Entries are on a first come, first served basis on payment of the £40 deposit with a completed entry form and will be accepted from Harriers and non-Harriers alike (a waiting list will be put in place should we be oversubscribed). This year we have an on-line entry form option here to ease the administration or the traditional printed entry form here. So fill in your on-line or printed entry and then bring the deposit (and printed entry form if used) to hand in to Eddie Reid, preferably on a Thursday training night at EK Sports Club (Thursdays are best as we train at Chatelherault instead of EK Sports Club on alternate Mondays through the Summer).

All standards of runner from relative beginner to experienced are catered for but please ask if you have any questions about the weekend or any doubts about your ability to participate. There is a box on the on-line entry form for sending questions to us or pop along to EK Sports Club on one of our training nights (preferably a Thursday at 19:30). Further details of where we meet are on our web site (link in menu on left).

Our enthusiastic and experienced team of Calderglen coaches (over 100 years of running experience between the four of them; I know that must mean most of us were running before we could walk) will lead equal ability packs on the various sessions throughout the weekend. The Forestry Commission and local charities have been working hard repairing weather damaged trails and opening up new ones, so I intend to put my local knowledge to good use in presenting some new routes and variations in the wonderful Trossachs scenery. The basic structure of the weekend is the tried and tested format of trail runs of varying length in the forests on Friday evening, Saturday morning and Sunday morning, a repetition or hill session on Saturday afternoon and a mixture of seminars and easy conditioning sessions between runs on the Saturday. Grant and Robbie from the Hamilton Sports Hub are signed up to administer words of wisdom and healing hands on Saturday morning.

We are all looking forward to seeing participants new and old alike.

Alan