Ochil 2000s

(photos courtesy of SHR)


5 Harriers (plus Bob running in Ochil HRs colours) took part in the Ochil 2000s race on Saturday 23rd August. This 18 mile 5000ft tour of all the high points in the Ochils was the latest in the SHR Championship series and so attracted a much larger and field than last year with 160 runners including some of the top men and women in the country.

The race is a point to point from Glendevon to Stirling Uni (involving a tedious 30 minute bus ride beforehand) and while the first half is on good paths and tracks, the second half is more a random routefinding exercise across heather, peat hags and bogs culminating in a climb up Dumyat and descent to the university.

The race was won by Colin Donnelly of Lochaber in a new record time of 2.47.44 while first woman home was, inevitably, Angela Mudge who, in finishing 5th in 2.51.33 set a new course record by nearly 45 minutes.

All the Harriers performed well and, in fact managed to finish 7th team out of 14 clubs who fielded the requisite 3 runners.

Will Manners can be very pleased with his finish in 13th place and 3.04.19, just 4 minutes outside the old course record. Considering the quality of the field this represents a really outstanding performance.

The other Harriers finished as follows:

40th Phil Mestecky 3.25.35
67th Graeme Johnstone 3.41.07
107th Gordon Morrison 4.04.55
126th James Bussey 4.18.31

And Bob Hughes running for Ochils was 100th in 4.01.26

Sherrifmuir 11 2008

Despite the longest list of pre-race excuses I can remember in some time (some even believable!) inlcuding viruses, broken collar bones, travel sickness, hard week of training, wheeziness, bad sleep and even too much chockie pudding the night before, 12 Harriers made it to the start line of the latest club champioship race.

The race route is simple: 5 1/2 miles out, essentially downhill, on a single track road from the Sherrifmuir Inn to the A9 follwed by 5 1/2 miles back up to the pub.

For this years race, conditions were near perfect with cool temperatures and no rain. A record field of 102 set off, led from start to finish by the impressive Robert Russell of Central AC. His finishing time of 59.28 (well over 6 minutes ahead of 2nd place) ensured it was a low scoring day for the Harriers' club championship. Not that the ladies fared any better as the first lady home was FV45 runner, Fiona Matheson from Falkirk in 4th place overall and a time of 68.44.

Of the Harriers, the highlights were Will Manners (he of the collar bone) finishing in 7th place despite jogging the first 2 miles or so; Phil Tipping who picked up 1st local in 13th place; Gordon Morrison who came in 27th overall just outside his target time of 1hr20mins; Fred McCain in 39th; Ali Manners who ran a strong steady race to finish only just behind Cathy Tilbrook in 71st place; and Rowan Mestecky who kept a good pace throughout to complete her debut as a Harrier (our first US-based member) in just over 1hr40mins.

Dario Melaragni, pacing his protege, Eilish Angiolini, finished last overall but was delighted to pick up a bottle of malt (and free legal advice?) for his troubles!

Full Harriers results are as follows:

7th Will Manners 1.12.11
13th Phil Tipping 1.15.14 (1st local)
23rd Phil Mestecky 1.18.35
27th Gordon Morrison 1.20.08
36th James Bussey 1.23.05
37th Doug Flint 1.23.32
39th Fred McCain 1.24.08
67th Cathy Tilbrook 1.34.15
71st Ali Manners 1.35.13
81st Liz Mestecky 1.41.12
82nd Rowan Mestecky 1.42.02
102nd Dario Melaragni 2.10.15

To see how these results impact the championship check out the forum