A Busy Weekend in October

It was another busy weekend for Strathearn Harriers, with runners racing across the country.

Saturday’s action kicked off with the Ben Venue hill race. This was the sixth and final race in the Scottish Hill Racing Championship, and Will was racing for a top ten position in the championship table. Will finished tenth, in a time of 1:20:21 to cover the 12 kilometres distance and 860 metres of ascent from the bottom Ben Venue, up to the top and down again. Also running for the Harriers were Andy Gallagher (79th in 1:36:13), Doug Flint (112th in 1:43:25), Gordon Morrison (127th in 1:46:13) and Rhian Evans (16th woman, in a time of 1:48:06).

Will’s finish gave him sufficient points to finish 7th overall in the SHR Championship, and 3rd in the V40 category. Last year Will finished 10th overall, so the Ben Venue result rounded off a very successful season in great style.

Much of Sunday’s action was centred on the Loch Ness Marathon. This is the biggest marathon in Scotland and follows a scenic route from the southern end of Loch Ness to Inverness. Kerry and Nicola ran together and finished in the very impressive time of 3:39:10. This was only the second time that Kerry and Nicola have run a marathon, and they were delighted to improve their previous best times by more than 10 minutes. Karen P was next Harrier home, in a time of 3:49:51, followed closely by Allan MacInnes in 3:53:04. Susan Saunders run her first marathon and finished in 4:21:46, with Colin T flying the flag for the over-60s with a splendid time of 5:05:42.

Following her success at the Pitlochry 10k, Angela once again headed the women’s results at the Saint Andrews Hospice 10k, held at Strathclyde Park. Angela was first woman home in a time of 41:51.

Also running on Sunday was Elaine Moffat, at the Oban half marathon. Elaine ran a personal best time of 1:51:15 to finish 8th woman on a course which has a very nasty sting in the tail, with a steep climb right at the finish.

Upcoming races for Harriers’ members over the next couple of weeks include the Kirkintilloch half marathon, the Mersey marathon in Liverpool, the Meall nan Tarmachan hill race, and the first race in the Eastern District Cross Country League.