September 2021 Race Round Up

After a long 18 months or so with very little to report, racing is now well and truly back with a bang!
Events have cautiously begun to start back up much to the delight of the senior Harriers who are
reaping the rewards of their lockdown training with wins and top 3 places at numerous races, as well
as National level medals on the track and at multi discipline events, and PBs tumbling down across
the board.

Following the huge success of Roon the Toon which felt like the real turning point for larger events in
Scotland, the first couple of weeks in September have been really busy for our U20/senior athletes
with events from 100m all the way up to 50km, kicking off with the ever popular Ron’s Runners ‘not’
Spring 5k on the 1 st of September. 10 Harriers took on the course at Irvine Beach Park under great
racing conditions, with Jonathon Downey first home (2 nd overall) in a fantastic time of 16:09. Paul
Lafferty was 2 nd senior man and 6 th overall in 17:02 and from the ladies Lynsey O’Connor was 1 st lady
home in 19:18 and Eilidh Ballantyne was 1 st U20 lady in 21:32. Great running from everyone and
some PBs in there too!

Friday the 3 rd saw two Harriers travel across to Livingston for their Open meeting, with Andrew Baird
having great runs in the 100m (11.64) and 200m (23.25) and Jennifer Beattie finishing the last event
of the evening under the lights for a 1500 PB of 5:23.04.

The weekend continued at Run the Blades at Whitelees Windfarm for the gruelling 50km
Ultramarathon. Two Harriers completed this tough event, with a fantastic 50k debut for Steven
Robson for 11 th overall in 4:20.53 and a solid finish for Ken Monaghan in 6:02.02.
Sunday the 5 th saw 7 road runners head to North Ayrshire 10k. Paul Lafferty was 1 st Harrier home in
4 th place in 36:37. We had a V60 men’s 1-2 with Michael Corson taking the age group prize in 41:36
and Russell Duncan 2 nd in 45:31, and Gillian Wishart ran a HUGE PB of 51:56 to finish 3 rd V50 lady.
Great running from everyone in conditions that were not especially favourable for running 10k (in
true NAAC style).

The U20 and senior athletes back at the Arena for Club Championships however were extremely
grateful for the warm and calm weather! No fewer than 23 U20 and senior athletes took part on the
day in up to 5 events and there were some excellent performances throughout the day.

Last weekend saw teams across the age groups head to Linwood for the Scottish Athletics Relay
championships. There were some great performances across the board, with the Senior Men’s team
of Ally Mitchell, Josh Smith, Aidyn McMahon and Andrew Baird securing silver in the 4×100; and the
senior ladies team of Shona McBean-Kyle, Brooke Dunlop, Courtney Goodwin and Hannah Burn
narrowly missing out in a hotly contested 4×100 final for 4 th place. In the men’s 4×400 the team had
to settle for 6 th place (Andrew Baird, Luke McManus, Lewis Ferguson and Jamie Nix) and the ladies
3×800 team rounded up a really successful day for the U20/seniors with another silver medal (Laura
Haggarty, Eilidh Ballantyne and Hannah Burn).

Away from the track, our road runners were up and down the country at a variety of races. Firstly
we had Craig Ferguson producing a fine PB of 1:16.46 at Kilmacolm Half Marathon for 5 th place
overall (3 rd senior man) in some good company. Meanwhile, 4 Harriers travelled through to Stirling
to compete in the Scottish 10k Championship. John Speirs was 1 st home for the club in a new PB of
34:59, followed by Kara McKenzie-Tait in 37:07 (3 rd senior lady). Lynsey O’Connor crossed the line in
40:54 which was also a PB, and Mark Lyden completed in 47:18. Finally, we had 4 intrepid Harriers

go south of the border to contest the Great North Run. Josh Raeburn was first home for the club in
1:29.51, followed by Nick Carter in 1:38.35 (both PBs), then Les McDerment in 1:49.36 and Brian
Keachie in 2:09.27.

It’s great to see so many successes (and apologies to anyone I’ve missed – it’s been a busy couple of
weeks!)