TOM SCOTT MEMORIAL 10M

It was a day of mixed fortunes for the four harriers that headed to Strathclyde Park for the Tom Scott 10M road race. It was a warmish morning but not overly hot as the sun came out at the start but we knew it was going to heat up. Frances and Billy I think had a plan to run together and set off side by side and up round the top of the loch. Richard and Russell meanwhile had both been under the physio this week trying to sort out some injuries and were just happy to be on the start line. Richard set off at a good pace and had obviously decided to give his recent strains a good test. Russell on the other hand wanted to just run without pain and set off more cautiously although put in a first mile faster than planned and although slowed for the second mile still ran ahead of plan. The third mile hits the first few climbs and with no running for a week Russell found the legs very heavy but decided to abort plan A which was to just run a lap of the Park. Onto mile 4 and the biggest climb on the course and legs very heavy so decide plan B would be best as the injury was ok but best not to push it. plan B being finish at the car parks about 10k. Before the 6 miles met Stuart and Lewis so decided to stop there and have a blether. At this point I was informed that Billy had to stop with a niggle in his calf. That left just 2 out on the course for the final lap and Frances promptly appeared to finish in a time of 73.08 a good solid time for Spring. Richard then gave us all a surprise finishing in 78.39 and a new PB. We had many supporters out there today the aforementioned Stuart and Lewis along with Maud and Lewis's parents. Also adding vocal support was Kenny, Karen, Allison and our latest fan young Rebecca Lessells although not so vocal as she was sleeping in her pram. Allison prays that continues.

Next week we will have plenty out at Grangemouth and it would be great if some that aren't running could make it up for support.

Grand Prix Updated After Balloch Half

The Grand Prix and Club Championships have been updated after a short delay. Access via the usual links in the menu on the left. It will be a boost to Russell (but no surprise!) in his present injured state to see him stick his nose in front of the men's Grand Prix whilst Andy Buchanan closes in on the leaders in the GP and extends his lead in the Club Championship. With Sandy Hayden the only Harrier representing the ladies at Balloch, she appears on the GP and Club Championship score sheets for the first time in a handy mid-table position courtesy of a fine début and a well advised joker.

Grangemouth 10k is the next GP race. However, if anyone would like to lend their support to Billy and Frances at the non-Grand Prix Tom Scott 10 mile in Strathclyde Park this Sunday (1000 start), I am sure it would be much appreciated.
Alan

Scottish Duathlon Championships - Stirling

Two Harriers travelled to Stirling University last Sunday morning for two different reasons at two different races.
John Freer was making his first appearance at a Scottish Championship multi discipline event. His aim was to test himself against the best at the Scottish Duathlon Championships. Encouraging early season performances at the New Years Day Triathlon and the Scottish Vets relays confirmed to John that his consistent winter training had paid off.
However disaster struck 6 weeks ago. John was travelling at speed cycling to work when he was hit side on by a taxi. His hip took the full brunt of the impact, but thankfully his precious bike had hardly been touched. Fortunately John hadn't broken any bones, but the impact had compressed muscles surrounding his hip. That resulted in a nasty painful injury. Training was unthinkable at this point, just walking was torture. Four weeks of treatment by club masseur Grant McLullich followed, to the point where he could finally manage a very easy run.
Little did Grant know that John's competitive side had got the better of him. Two weeks ago he planned to give himself a little test to see how much he'd recovered by taking part in the Hamilton Sprint Duathlon. Grant got a bit of a surprise during an early morning walk around Strathclyde Park. Suddenly his "patient" flew by him during the run leg of a duathlon. That created a bit of an awkward silence on the treatment table the following week.

Thankfully no damage was done and John was fairly confident that he could probably get round the much more demanding standard distance duathlon course at the Scottish Championships. This comprised of 10k run/42k bike/5k run. The weather wasn't going to help as it was forecast to be cold, wet & windy. Finally some good news came his way. Forecast on the day had changed to just cold and wet.......what a result. His luck was changing so hopefully the omens were looking good for a successful race.
Despite having very little training for six weeks, John defied the odds and had performed superbly. When he crossed the finish line we were still not sure of his position. The results were being posted live online. After a few anxious minutes checking all his rivals times, we thought, but were by no means sure, that John was the Scottish champ in his age group. This was later confirmed at the prize giving.





I was the other Harrier competing at Stirling University in the shorter sprint distance duathlon. This race also doubled as a qualifier for the World Duathlon Championships in Adelaide, Australia this October. I was nursing a hamstring injury on the run but was able to give it full welly on the bike. This resulted in me doing just enough to qualify. Australia in October is now very tempting.  Am I going to go?? mmmmm it's a tough one, watch this space.
Thanks to our support team of Mandy and Claire, who have now perfected the race checklist.
Martin

6 + 4 Stage Relay Results

Photos from Eddie now added.
I've been waiting for the results to come in before writing this as I had some times missing but looks like there are some errors. We had a partial ladies team, a complete M50 team and 2 partial male teams.

Gerry Mullen approaches the finish in good style

It was a breezy day for the race but not as bad as it had been in the morning and the rain stayed away apart from a few light showers. On the short leg for the Ladies was Sandy Hayden making her debut and finding the course quite testing and not overly happy with her run but shouldn't despair as it was a good opener of 25.23. Frances Maxwell ran the long leg and declared her time of 42.49 finding the conditions quite tough at the high part of the course but I have to say she was looking quite strong when she passed me just before going under the railway. Perhaps she would prefer the official time shes been given of 36.02. Onto the men now and our A team had 4 runners and first out was Andy Buchanan again on his debut at this event running a great time of 17.09 and had the usual eyeballs out finish handing over to Geo Ferguson another on his debut and straight into the long leg running a great opener of 44.26. More to come if he continues to race. Colin banks ran the 3rd leg putting in a steady performance of 23.44 a bit down on what hes ran before but conditions didn't make for fast times. Billy Buchanan finished off this partial team running the long leg in 41.46. I hope this is correct as I never got his watch time.

Billy Buchanan

Our B team was our complete M50 team and starting them off was Eddie Reid with the legs possibly a bit heavy after his 10 day training camp but running a steady time of 20.29. Next out was Andrew mcCaffery on the long leg and again I hope they've got the time right of 36.44. Kenny Leinster took the proverbaly baton for the 3rd leg and ran a good run finishing in 21.44. Gerry Mullen completed the team running the long leg in 42.04 bringing them in in 8th place in the category. Great to see Gerry out racing again and hope he can make some more of the upcoming races. Our C team only had 2 runners with Jim Holmes setting us off. Chasing Eddie most of the way to complete in 21.25 and handing over to Russell Couper for the long leg. Really shouldn't have completed this but not in my nature to quit while ive still got one good leg. Limped most of the way for the 3 miles uphill but managed to move a bit better when I hit the downhill section but finishing in a PW of 54.32. Good to see the club represented at this event again but our attendees have been dropping for a few years now. Lets see if we can start to increase our number of runners next year. Another good days racing and always good to see our colours taking part.

Colin's Party - New Venue

Colin Banks is turning 40 soon and is holding a party to celebrate to which the Harriers and their partners are invited. This is being held on 2nd May 2015 in The Salmon Leap, Calderwood Square, East Kilbride from 7:30pm. Please leave your name here or respond directly to Colin (c.banks@talktalk.net) by Friday this week (note if you previously responded, please reconfirm your response using the form).
Alan

National Road Relay Teams - Livingston

Teams for Sunday's National 6/4 Stage Road relays are at here.

You will see that we have 2 spare places available in the ladies' team and 6 spare places available in the men's teams (we have paid for and entered 3 men's teams, so we should at least try to fill them). The reserves who are eligible to fill these spaces are (obviously some more likely to be available than others :-)):

Reserves:- M Duthie, J Freer, M Howell, I Hughes, R Lawton, P Marshall, J McBride, C McDougall, S Phimister, I Rae, G Ramage, D Searil, H Simpson, C Steven, D Watt and J Mearns.

J McEvoy, J Beveridge, S Reid, R Kelly, M Goldsmith, R Kelly, K Allen and A Lessells.

Please leave a comment on this post, send me a txt or e-mail if you can fill a place. Inevitably, returning from warm weather training, I have come down with a heavy cold or I would have been running myself.

A group are meeting at the Sports Club to leave at 10:15 sharp. The race starts at 12:00. This year, parking has moved back to its usual place in Almondvale Stadium (EH54 7DN), just a 5 minute walk from registration and the start/finish area. Full details and maps on the Scottish Athletics web site here. 

Please remember that the clocks go forward 1 hour tonight!!!!!
Alan

Clydebank 5k Road Race

A melting pot of perfect racing conditions, a flat, freshly ironed tarmac road and a stacked quality field made today’s race an excellent opportunity for PB and SB seekers alike at Clydebank’s annual 5km road race.

A generous start time of 2pm and dry 14 degrees brought out a large stellar field looking to participate in this enter on the day race.

Andy Buchanan, Sandy Hayden, Russell Couper and an old harrier legend from some six or seven years ago making his comeback, Blair Matthew made the journey the Clydebank playdrome.

Blair making his first racing appearance in some years after relentless injury problems finally found some consistent enough training to make a return racing.  While myself Russell and Sandy were eager to test out our latest good form and consistent training in this short, sharp, 5km race.

The race begins with 2 laps of Clydebank industrial estate on perfect flat roads covering the first 3.5km before moving briefly onto the main road then turning a sharp left to join the canal towpath for the remaining 1500m to the finish.

I positioned myself within the masses of nervous twitching energy of the second row of what was clearly a very experienced field.  Within the first 100m after the gun I was surprised to be elbowed and stubbed down to what felt like 150^th place with barely enough space to stretch my legs in the dense fury of movement.  I was forced to head out wide on the slowly banking left turn to move ahead in the field after the pace evened in the opening half kilometre. On completing the first the lap I found some rhythm, but in a no-mans land between two large groups of runners meaning I had to pace my own race for what was left of the distance whilst picking off stragglers from ahead.  I was delighted to cross the line in personal best of 16.29, a pleasing time considering my last three weeks of training have been mostly easy running and a half marathon.

 Blair followed in 17.19.  He ran the first 800m in front of me leading me to believe his predicted time of “sub 19” was clearly nonsense. Clearly a sign of more to come.

Up next was Sandy Hayden.  Sandy ran a commendable time of 24.57.  After a comfortable PB at last week’s parkrun of 24.12 she was somewhat new to the electric pace at the start of the race, perhaps over cooking the first mile.  However with this experience now in the bank there is no doubt good chunks of time will come off her already impressive 5k times.

 Russell has a history of good running at this event, the course he holds his fastest time on.  Today proved to be another good run for him.  He finished strongly in the middle field in an improving time of 26.21.  Boding well for the coming season.