Harriers conquer Europe

Harriers travelled far and wide last weekend to take on marathons in Inverness,  Berlin and Warsaw.  We will have more details of their exploits when they’re back to tell their tales but we can report that nine toed the starting line and all nine made it the 26.2miles to the finish.

Closest to home were four at Inverness for the Loch Ness Marathon.  First home was Stewart White completing his first marathon in many years in an excellent time of 3.27.02.   Tony Rodden  completing his 3^rd marathon this year recorded 3.32.50, his best time of the three, followed home by John Tougher, 3.48.39 and Susan Beattie in 4.10.41.

Meanwhile in Berlin where the marathon world record was being broken, father and son combo Matt and Stewart Ferguson had an emotional day as they ran in memory of their late wife and mum, Morag.  Stewart just missed the 3 hour mark in 3.03.03, with Matt finishing in 4.48.16.  Also in Berlin was Brian Darroch who finished in 4.17.48.

The best was saved for Warsaw however where after a great season in preparation for the race Scott Martin and Connell Drummond got just reward.  Both secured personal bests, finishing the top two British runners in a race which had over 8,500 finishers.  Scott was 41^st in a time of 2.44.01, closely followed by Connell in 2.51.16 in 81^st place.

Running almost 10% of the marathon distance each, a number of Harriers went to Houston on Saturday for the George Cummings Road Relays.  A relay event 2.7m laps each.  With many running marathons and a few late call offs we only managed two full teams.  The female team of Kara Tait, Lindsay McMahon and Colleen Tait had a strong performance to finish in 4^th place.  The mens team of Neil Walker, Davie McLeod, Alasdair Murray and Murray McDonald had a steady run.  Stewart McAllister and Janice Millar were also able to enjoy a run on the undulating course.  The picture above shows Neil and Kara in the pack, shortly after the start of the 1st leg.