Basic Life Support

Just a wee reminder that we are holding an update on basic life support and defibrillator training up at the club Wed 12th at 8pm. Hopefully see Some of you there

Chatelherault World Championships 2019

Our fortnightly trip to Chatelherault Country Park for an enjoyable 7 mile training run turns into a more competitive outing once per year when it becomes the Chatelherault World Championships, one of the final few races in the Harriers' Grand Prix. It can't be that unenjoyable though given that all but one of the 14 Harriers who lined up on the start line had arrived knowing it was race night as they had remembered their club vests, as the photo above shows.

After a short warm up and briefing the Harriers lined up and set off on 7 miles of hard effort. Andrew Buchanan made the early break from the start and would have an almost solo effort all the way around except for an encounter with a hissing badger high on the far side of the trail. When I heard this, I remembered the time about 20 years ago on one of the club's earliest Chatelherault training runs when Martin Duthie and I were running ahead of everyone and at that exact same point a badger ran out of the undergrowth and I had to hurdle it as it snapped at our feet! I think we can say for sure there is an established badger set out there. Andrew escaped unscathed to record a comfortable victory in 50:35. Next across the line and having a great run was Stephen Phimister in 53:57. Russell even let him keep his Grand Prix points despite not wearing a club vest. Jim Holmes was glad to be running rather than swimming in a cold lake as he had been the day before and powered across the line in 57:32. It's no surprise that Eddie Reid's legs were shot after the previous days ADIL half marathon leg but Eddie still managed a respectable 58:54. Unfortunately Richard Lawton is suffering from an inflamed Achilles tendon attachment which makes every run painful (and especially painful the next day). So Richard's time of 61:52 was impressive. Morgan Beaton was the first of our ladies across the line, absolutely smashing her PB in a time of 63:05. Julie Thomson was close behind in 63:31, an excellent time. Gordon McInally had a bit of a race on with Lorraine Buchanan but managed to hold on to finish in 64:59, Lorraine at his back in 65:11. After another gap, Russell Couper finished in 66:42, his fastest for some years, just keeping ahead of Seonaid Morton (66:50) who was escorted safely around the unfamiliar route by Geo Ferguson (66:52). Martin Howell and Chris McCarron were both ill in one way or another and stopped short of the finish. Frances Ferguson was our photographer for the night and captured the action at several points near the start and finish of the lap. Thanks to Frances for withstanding the midges! Frances' photos are in this album.

The GP is now set up for the final showdown at the Vertical Mile in a few week's time.
Alan

June Auldhouse 5k

A sunny run for a change and a great turnout! Results are here.

Analysis of times, CB's, PB's etc to follow. Thanks to Martin Howell for capturing everyone in a photo. Album here.
Alan

A Day in the Lakes - quite literally!

The green caps half way to the turning point

Jim prepares for battle

As the wind and rain battered my tent on the Saturday night before Sunday's A Day in the Lakes Half Ironman Triathlon, I was sort of glad that I wasn't running this year, having experienced the run in similar weather conditions 5 or 6 years ago. The Harriers were well represented in two relay teams this year. In the Calderglen M50 team we had Martin Duthie on the swim leg, my brother Robin on the bike leg and first timer at ADIL, Eddie Reid on the run leg. Following a debut victory in a similar event at Loch Lomond last year with a work's team, Jim Holmes had somehow conned encouraged those same colleagues into joining him in a team for ADIL, never mind the distances of all the legs were stepped up from the Loch Lomond event. So Jim took the swim leg and his colleagues David and Colin took the bike and run legs respectively.

Earlier in the week, we had been advised that the 13 mile run leg had been sanitised to a certain extent, replacing the second and larger of the two off road hill/fell ascents with a run up the valley between the very severe fells and back again to join the original route along the lake side road. This was still not what could be considered a flat route but was welcome news to Eddie.

Martin arrives just in time

Martin and Mandy made a huge effort to be at the race this year having had a prior commitment on Saturday which meant they arrived in the Lake District very late on Saturday night. Half an hour before the event was due to start and Martin was still not at the course. If it had been anyone else I would have been concerned that I might have had to substitute for Martin in the swim but without a wet suit! I wasn't worried though and two minutes into the pre-race briefing, Martin appeared running through the field in his wet suit ready to go just in time (or early as Martin would probably say).

After a detailed briefing explaining all the different ways you could be disqualified, we headed down to the slip way to watch Jim and Martin step into the uninviting and increasingly choppy waters of Ulswater. Shortly after, the mass of green swimming caps were set on their way on a 2-lap 2km course. However by about 10 minutes into the swim it was clear that all was not well. A few swimmers had already surrendered to the conditions and been pulled out by the rescue boat and now the large inflatable buoys nearest the shore were dragging their anchors in the wind driven current and were moving rapidly in the direction of various moored yachts and cruisers. Despite the best efforts of the rescue boat to rescue the buoys, we heard the race director ask the rescue boat to relay a message to the swimmers to come out after one lap. Conditions were just too dangerous. As we all know, giving instructions and directions to runners during a race is difficult enough. Try doing it to swimmers in rough water! Neither Martin nor Jim initially believed or understood the instruction but the sight of others heading for the slip way after lap 1 convinced them to head for shore. Meanwhile, I had run back to transition to tell our cyclists that they only had a few minutes before the swimmers would be in.

Robin exits transition

Martin emerged from the water and passed a few on the 100m run to transition, crossing the timing mat in 20:09 in 6th place and handing the timing chip over to my brother. Jim was not too far behind in 24:09 and 28th position (note that there were only 5 or 6 relay teams in the competition, so these positions are for the overall field consisting mainly of individual triathlon competitors).

Jim found this to be a horrendous experience, swimming across the wind on the long way across the lake, he couldn't breath as the waves were smashing into the left side of his face, the side he breaths to and he couldn't see over the waves to see where he was going. Turning briefly down wind at the far side of the lake, it was almost like surfing, he was being blown along so fast but then there was the inevitable turn back across the lake. At least he was breathing away from the wind this direction. He wasn't sure he could have managed a second lap. Well done Jim and Martin for the most horrendous leg.

This was the third time my brother has done this event and he was reasonably confident of the course. However, the marshals had been instructed not to direct the cyclists at a particular junction where the cyclists joined the two lap course and left it for the finish after either one or two laps depending on which distance they were racing (quarter or half ironman). The reasoning behind this was that the marshal could not know if the cyclist was on their first or second lap so the cyclist had to work that out for themselves. As two cyclists had gone straight past this marshal ahead of my brother, he followed them. When they arrived at a motorway roundabout leading on to the M6, they realised they were off course! This detour also involved passing through temporary traffic lights twice, which were naturally at red! As Martin had been disqualified a few years previously for passing a red light, my brother duly waited, growing ever more impatient. Eventually, after a 2.5 mile detour, he was back on course and pushing a little too hard, setting many Strava segment personal records on the first lap trying to make up lost time. He almost held it for the second lap but blew up 2 miles from the finish and was absolutely done in when he crossed the line into transition and handed over the chip to Eddie. Robin covered the 50 mile hilly course in 2:40:19 and 36th on the bike leg. A few minutes covered many cyclists though, so without that off course excursion he could well have been in the top dozen. Jim's cyclist David had no navigational problems and handed over to Colin in 3:07:36.

David sets off.

Eddie had been well instructed to take it easy on the first kilometer which was flat and to ignore anyone who sped past him as they would most likely be walking up the steep hill that followed for km's two to three! Indeed this was the case and Eddie made good progress up the hill onto the high track which unfortunately turned directly into the strong winds. After about 10k the course headed up the valley into even stronger winds which Eddie reported made it almost like running on the spot. During this part of the run, Eddie held off a challenge from what we thought was another relay team and had a relatively clear run back along the lakeside to the finish which he reached in 1:53:13. Colin was also charging around the course but stood no chance of making up the almost half hour gap, crossing the line in 1:49:00.

After another soaking awaiting the prize giving, we were pleased to hear that Calderglen's M50 team had won the relay category. There is no truth in the rumour that our illustrious club president phoned up to ask how we got on and on hearing that we had won had uttered "what, you won with Eddie in the team!". Shocking! Well done to the guys.

The winning relay team

Jim's team (Calderglen Beasties) were not far away from the lead, finishing third relay team. No doubt they will be more wary of suggestions from Jim in the future though.

Jim's team, the Beasties

The final event of the triathlon is of course packing away the tents in gale force wind and rain. Never an easy session but one which we all completed.

A well earned seat for Eddie

Tent wrestling

A few more of my photos are in this album. Many more official photos here. Thanks to both our teams for making this another fun weekend, despite the weather. I don't think any of us were deterred from competing next year!
Alan

A tale of two laces...

Two slightly concerned harriers, Billy and myself, set off for Milngavie last Sunday morning due to injury and over-training respectively. Mr B was worried whether his knee would hold up on the rocky and muddy trails of Mugdock Park and the WHW while I had run/walked a double Conic (Drymen to Balmaha and back) the day before in the company of Ruth, Ian, Gerry and Geo.
It was a deceptively nice morning but as we'd seen the forecast both of us were kitted out with trail shoes which was to prove a wise decision. A very brief warm up followed by a soggy race brief and we were off. We more or less ran together until the first of two hills on the route, less than a mile in, where I started walking. I had decided in advance to do this as I knew my quads were in no shape for hard work and planned to save them for the downhills. As a result Billy was soon out of sight and although, as he told me later, he walked much of the later, bigger hill I wasn't to see him again until I heard his shouts of encouragement as I approached the finish line. Twice during the race I had to stop and tie my laces, a different foot each time - what a complete beginner others must have thought. A first at my age, never before have both laces come undone during an event - I'll hang my head in shame!

As Gordon commented on facebook, Jack and Victor's day out - I guess I would be Victor

Billy covered the 8.5 mile route in 1.19.39 to finish 2nd MV60 while I was a full ten minutes down on my 2015 time in 1.26.13. It's fair to say both of us thoroughly enjoyed splashing and squelching our way in the constant warm rain, being big kids again.
The race winners were Katie White of Garscube Harriers in a new course record of 57.40 and 5th place overall and Matthew Hunter, unattached in 54.55.
As an aside this race puts on one of the better post-race spreads - not a patch on ours of course but very enjoyable all the same. Come along and sample it yourselves next year, if you can get an entry that is - it's sells out fast.

Hebridean Half Marathon Series - Part 1: Stornoway

Back in October Joanne and I entered the Heb 3 series. Months of planning and finally Friday 24 May came around, the start of our first adventure.  For those not familiar with the Heb 3 series this is a challenge in which you have to complete at least 3 out of the 5 Hebridean island half marathons - Stornoway, Benbecula, Skye, Barra and Harris.

Our first race was to be Stornoway.  We travelled up to Ullapool on Friday to catch the evening ferry to Stornoway.  Unlike our ferry trips to Islay we had not banked on the journey being rather choppy.  However we survived the journey and arrived in Stornoway.  We had to register on Friday night and luck would have it that our hotel was directly across from the church hall where the registration was taking place.  At the registration we met a familiar face to the Harriers in Gerry Connelly, a member of the host club Stornoway.

The hotel we had chosen was in such a central location that we were only a few minutes from the start line.  Saturday morning came and so we both lined up at the marina at the harbour.  A piper led the runners along the harbour to the start line.  The first mile involved a lap of the town centre.  The next few miles took us around the wider area of Stornoway, on a mixture of roads and trails, including running through a farm yard.  At around mile 7 you enter Lews Castle grounds and this was mostly trails, taking us right up to about mile 12.  This was also a hilly section of the run.  The trail paths eventually led us back to the opposite side of the harbour and the last mile was a loop to get back to the finish line on the opposite side.

It was worth noting that a 10k race also takes place, starting about an hour after the half marathon and joins in on the same route as the half marathon.  I was a bit taken aback when the leading female runner came flying past me.  It was only when a few other runners flew by that I noticed they were wearing a different colour of number - thank goodness I thought to myself - I knew I was beginning to struggle with a lot of recent racing in my legs but I didn’t think I had slowed down that much!

Due to our handy hotel location we were able to head back to the hotel and get showered before heading for the buffet and prize giving.  Stornoway Athletic Club had laid on a fantastic buffet which included 3 choices of soup and many, many cakes!!!  [for anyone possibly thinking of going in a future year Stornoway AC put on a Ceilidh at the golf club on the Saturday night].

Now for the history lesson- the prizes were trophies which had been made by ex-harrier Gerry.  Each trophy was an individual replica of one of the Lewis chessmen.  The chessmen were discovered on Lewis in 1831.  93 pieces were discovered and they are currently displayed between the British museum in London, the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and in Lews Castle in Stornoway, which Joanne and I visited after the race.  I was the third female home and was lucky enough to get a trophy.  What a unique prize and all the more so that we had the connection to Calderglen Harriers in that Gerry made it.

All in both Joanne and I agree that it was well worth a visit to Stornoway and I am sure we would both like to visit Stornoway again.  The short time we had was not enough.  Thankfully the sailing on Sunday was no way near as bad as coming, although this may be because we got on the ferry quickly and bagged a seat in the upstairs observation deck.

As many of you know we both like our gins and this series of trips is going to be characterised by a gin from each location.  So on our way back at Ullapool we stopped to both get a bottle of the Highland Liquor Co experimental series gin, a gin which is distilled in Ullapool.

Thanks to Gerry for a warm welcome.  Stornoway AC put on a great race and this year they had record finishers in both the the half marathon and the 10k.

So we roll on to the next trip which takes us to Skye (via Kyle of Lochalsh)

Julie and Joanne

CHATELHERAULT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Remember tomorrow night is the Chatelherault World Championship and as such is a race therefore club vests should be worn. Please arrive in plenty of time to declare any jokers and to give those wanting to know whos running before declaring a chance.