Trials in the Trossachs!

4 Harriers made the trip to Loch Katrine for the inaugural running of the Trossachs Duathlon. The event attracted 88 individuals and 30 teams of 2 or 3 who enjoyed superb weather and an interesting and testing course.

Digby Sym, competing as an individual, completed the 7 mile 2200' run up and down Ben Venue in 1.17.18, the 16 mile slog of a bike ride in 1.20.40* and the final "sprint" around a 4km loop in 25.14* - finishing in 20th place overall in a time of 3.03.12. (*includes transition times).

The Mestecky family were out in force with Phil taking on the hill run (1.14.11), handing over to Daniel who was competing in his first ever bike race (1.24.15), and finally Liz on the 2nd of the runs (25.11). They managed a creditable 12th place in the team event and finishing just 25 seconds behind Digby in 3.03.37.

Photos are of: Digby in transition from run to bike; Phil setting out on his hill run (not really in the lead!); Liz finishing in style at the end of the 2nd run and Daniel muddy and buzzing after an excellent debut ride.

Karen passes the blizzard test

On Sunday 18th March, Karen Pass and just under nine hundred other hardy souls braved strong winds and blizzard conditions to make the trip to the Alloa Half Marathon.

Despite the conditions, which were particularly tough between Tillicoutry and Alva (approx miles 9-11) along the long, straight, exposed roads, Karen finished in an excellent official time of 1.46.03 (watch time of 1.45.38) which augurs well for a sub 3.45 attempt at the Edinburgh Marathon at the end of May.

The race was won by Scottish International Hill Runner, Jethro Lennox of Shettleston Harriers, in a time of 1.11.45. Full results are now available on the Clacksweb website.

Fort William in the rain

Ian Beattie reports a wet, windy but satisfying run of the Lairig Mhor race on Saturday March 17th.

The race route is 14 miles along the last section of the West Highland Way from Mamore Lodge (just above Kinlochleven) to Fort William Leisure Centre. Ian was pleased with a finishing time of 1 hour 49 minutes and 42 seconds, somewhat faster than when doing the same stretch as part of the whole WHW!

More details on Ian's blog at www.whwrunner.blogspot.com

Ian and Vic at Inverness

Well done to Ian Beattie and Victor Johnstone who both took part in the Inverness half marathon today. Ian finished in an excellent 1.24.45, in 68th place out of over 1000 runners (his blog http://whwrunner.blogspot.com records his personal view of his performance). The Vicster also had a good run coming in under 1.48 (1.47.51 to be precise) and 534th overall.

Like to run for Orangutans in Edinburgh?

If you're interested in doing the Great Edinburgh Run (10k, Sunday 6th May 2007) for a good cause, you might like to check out the attached.

(Despite being a Glaswegian, I have resisted any jokes about apes and Edinburgh)

Annual General Meeting

The Agm was held last Sunday at The Murray Park Hotel.The minutes of the meeting will be available from Liz Mestecky for anyone who wants to see them. One of the main purposes of the meeting was to elect club officers and the committee which resulted in the following:

Club President Philip Tipping

T reasurer Digby Sym

Club Secretary Liz Mestecky

Sponsorship and Communications Officer Gordon Morrison

Social Secretary Simon Wake

Men's Club Captain Will Manners

Women's Club Captain Liz Mestecky

Comrie Hills Race Organiser Alex Dillon

Crieff 10k Race Organiser Liz Mestecky

The next committee meeting will be held on the 25th march, if you have anything you would like raised at the meeting please get in touch with Liz.

Open Forum for March - it's good to talk

We thought that it might be a good idea to try a general posting on the blog that everyone could use for informal communication with other club members.

So please feel free to add a comment to this posting to ask or answer a question, invite other people to join you for a run, ask for help, share some useful or interesting information, or whatever else you want.

If you have any difficulty with the process of leaving a comment, please email blog@strathearnharriers.org.uk for help.

Digby Does Duathlon

On Sunday Digby (pictured here finishing in last summer's Crieff 10K - photo courtesy of Graham Hunt) took part in the last of this years Glentress Duathlon Series crossing the line in 16th place (out of 64). However, several of those ahead of him were competing as pairs with one of the pair doing the bike section and the other the run. The results show that Digby was actually 7th individual and 5th Vet 40. He was 28th in the bike section and 11th in the run.

This compares extremely well with his result from last years race in which he was 30th overall, 35th on the bike and 32nd on the run.