Relay Happy Harriers

Well it is true, runners are a different breed (in the nicest way possible). In the late hours of Friday 30th September and early hours of Saturday 1st October, some of our harriers assisted in the baton carrying relay, Running out of Time, which is a record breaking relay from Scotland to Egypt, to help deliver a message on climate action to the world’s leaders at COP 27. To find out further info on this, visit the website

For Kilmarnock Harriers, it started with stage 10 at 10:30pm in Fenwick where Connell Drummond and Alexander Curran took over and headed the 9km to Kilmarnock bus station. Thanks to Alexander’s mum who seen them there safely by cycling with them.

The next handover for stage 11 was to Amanda Bryden who then ran the baton for the 4km up to Leadhills Road in Bellfield. Luckily the ever organised Ian Gebbie had discovered that the stage 12 runner was not taking part anymore and ppl took over from Amanda for this stage.

Ian ran a slightly undulating 13km along the back roads to Mauchline to handover (and run some more) to our next stage runners.

It was now 01:30 on Saturday morning when Stage 13 had started and was ran by Ian Gebbie for a short time, Brian McLure, Susan Beattie, Lauren Little and Hannah Connell. Another undulating section for our relay runners, but this didn’t stop them coming in after 10k and heavy rain showers to Auchinleck still smiling, although that was maybe the thought of Ian’s kindly pre prepared hot chocolate.
The baton was then safely passed on at 02:55 to the next stage runner to take it that bit closer to Egypt.

Well done to all involved and staying up to run those unsociable hour sections. A big thank you also has to go to Graham Short who supported our runners and kept them safe along the way.