April Race Roundup

Following some excellent performances at the start of April, our senior Harriers have had a busy few weeks taking in track and field, trail running, road racing, hill running and Ultra marathons at various venues across Scotland and indeed much further afield!

Kicking things off on the 10^th of April were our senior track athletes at the first outdoor Open Graded meeting of the season held at the AAA.  The weather was extremely kind for early April, and there were some excellent performances across the board with some early season PBs.  Results can be found on the Harriers website as there are too many to list individually here.  On the same day some of our throws specialists made the trip to Carlisle for the Border Harriers Open medal meeting, with Hannah Henderson, Logan Mitchell, Alex McIntosh and Dean Murray all having a successful day – well done to all our track and field athletes!

On the 17^th of April, Sharon McNicol travelled through to Grangemouth for the Round the Houses 10k, incorporating the British Masters Championship.  Sharon had a strong run in a very competitive race for 22^nd lady overall and 6^th in her age category in 43:06.

Monday the 18^th of April saw our Chairwoman Amanda Bryden take on the Boston Marathon and complete the tricky course in an excellent time of 3:35:51 – well done Amanda!

The following weekend was another busy one, and starting the weekend off very early in the morning on Saturday the 23rd were John Speirs and Shaun Dunbar who were both taking on their first Highland Fling – for the uninitiated this is a 53 mile ultra from Milngavie to Tyndrum taking in 7000ft of elevation, definitely not for the faint hearted!  John completed in 9:49:51 in an extremely credible 42^nd overall and 16^th V40, with Shaun close behind in 10:12:30 in 54^th place and 24^th V40.  Huge effort from these guys!

Sunday the 24^th saw our second Summer Championship race held at Ormidale on Arran.  Unfortunately only 1 Harrier made the trip across to take the full 15 points available – well done Mark Lyden, completing in 31^st place in 51:28.  Mark has pleaded to keep this race in the series for next year as he says it was a ‘braw day out’ – let’s see if we can get it better supported next time around.

Also on the 24^th, Amanda Bryden and Douglas Steele took part in the Glasgow Epic Trail 10k, with Amanda finishing  51^st overall (4^th F30-39) in 55:09 and Douglas 122^nd overall (27^th SM) in 1:02:12.

On Wednesday the 27^th, our third Summer Championship race took place at the Ron’s Runners Spring 5k in Irvine.  A total of 20 Harriers took part in this event, with some great performances all round.  First Harrier home was Jonathon Downey who had a real race on his hands to finish 3^rd in 16:31.  First lady home was Lorna Baird in 18:55, Lorna was also 2^nd Senior Lady overall.  There were also top 3 age group positions for Michael Corson (1^st MV60 in 20:41) and Izzy Caufield (2^nd FU20 in 24:23).  Well done to everyone who took part, results are available here.  Also on the 27^th, Colin Glencorse made the trip to Luss to take part in the Beinn Dubh hill race.  Colin finished in 21^st place and 2^nd V40 – well done Colin!

We now look forward to the Troon 10k and Land O’Burns 10k in the coming weeks for club championship points, and the Marymass 10k is now open for those of you that are planning ahead.  Currently Mark Lyden is leading the men’s table with 39 points, and Kirsty Mackay leads the ladies table with 29 points, but there is still all to play for in the coming months – it’s not too late to get involved! The full tables can be viewed here –

summer points league