Senior round up 7th March 2022

The past fortnight has been super busy for our senior Harriers who have been grateful for the marked improvement in the weather as they have been representing the club both at home and abroad.

We start this roundup with a trip to Pollok Country Park on Wednesday the 23^rd of February for Amanda Bryden, who on this occasion was representing the Scottish Fire Service at the Police Scotland XC event.  Despite some really challenging conditions and a tricky course, Amanda powered home to take the ladies bronze medal for Fire Service personnel – great run Amanda!

Not content with the mud on Wednesday, Amanda then ventured to Falkirk on Saturday the 26^th February with a senior team unfortunately decimated by injuries and illness for the Lindsays Scottish Athletics National XC championships. A slight change of course this year included a somewhat interesting water/mud feature which proved highly popular with spectators (if not the runners that got a full submersion!) but other than this conditions were better than we have seen in previous years, and this was reflected in some really good times from our athletes.  For the ladies in a strong field of 268 athletes we had Lynsey O’Connor making her Nationals debut with a solid 46:05 in 79^th place (14^th V40) and Amanda in 145^th place in 50:34. For the men Craig Ferguson was 1^st Harrier home in 109^th place in an excellent time of 38:22, followed by David Sherrington in 246^th (42:05), Paul Black in 430^th (47:03) and Douglas Steele in 617^th (59:21).  Great running from all the athletes who put their toe on the line at this prestigious event.

Making sure that mud was not an option on the same weekend, Richard Beattie opted for the unusual 10.5km distance at the Gran Canaria running festival – you definitely had the right idea Richard!  He crossed the line in 56:16 and was 2^nd placed V70 man, well done!

It seems that Richard brought the sunshine back with him (if not the heat), as Saturday the 5^th of March  dawned bright and calm for the 51^st Annual Allan Scally relays.  A total of 25 Harriers travelled through to Glasgow Green to take part in this popular and highly competitive event, with representation from U17 right through to V60 athletes.   First to complete in a fantastic 19^th position overall out of 126 teams were our men’s A team of Jamie Phillips (15:50), Charlie McNulty (17:25), Jamie Nix (17:27) and Jonathon Downey (16:15) – really impressive running from a young team in excellent company, with I believe both of the Jamies and Charlie running PBs and Jonathon coming very close to his.  Next to have all athletes home were the men’s B team in 63^rd place overall with Ross Granger (18:27), Robert Lindsay (18:32), Wilson McPhail (20:53) and Connell Drummond (19.05).  A few minutes later the last lady in our women’s A team crossed the line in 78^th overall (11^th ladies team) with Lynsey O’Connor leading the team out (20:00), Lorna Baird (18:25 and new PB), Laura Jedrusiak (21:22) and Jennifer Beattie (20:09).  Next back in were the ladies B team in 106^th place – Kirsty Mackay (22:43 and a huge PB), Gillian Wishart (24:30 and a new PB), Amanda Bryden (21:15) and Eilidh Ballantyne (23:29).  Our men’s C team completed in 112^th place with Russell Duncan (22:03), Les McDerment (24:57), Douglas Steele (24:09 and a new PB) and Murray McDonald (23:32).  The lovely C team ladies rounded up a cracking day in 122^nd place with Jackie Duncan (27:24), Laura Carruthers (27:30 and a new PB), Lorna Stevenson (25:06 and a new PB) and Louise Baillie (24:46 and a new PB).  Unfortunately we lost some athletes so could not fill our 7^th entered team, but Paul Lafferty also ran the first leg in 18:35.    I don’t think we have ever seen so many PBs from our athletes in the one day, but it was also great to see athletes from the different training groups running together and encouraging each other – great team spirit!

Not content with simply running a 5k, Sunday the 6^th of March saw Harrier Robin Bourne take on a duathlon (for the uninitiated this involves a 5k run, a 25k cycle and then another 5k run).  Huge congratulations to Robin who completed this in 2:09.42.

We are now looking for names for the 4 stage/6 stage relays at Livingston on the 26^th of March (U20 athletes upwards) – speak to Robert or Jennifer before Thursday 10^th March please.  Entries are now opening for a number of the local road races that form part of the club summer points – don’t miss out!