It was one of those weekends where Harriers were scattered far and wide in search of thrills, adventures and goody bags. The biggest contingent were the juniors who made up the ‘magnificent nine’ (© shr.uk.com) at the first race of the 2012 Junior Hill Running League on East Lomond on Sunday. Conditions were apparently fine, and the boys and girls did the club proud. Keir was second in the under-12s, with Levi 4th, Duthac 6th, Finlay M 7th, David D in 8th beating his brother Finlay D by a mere 5 seconds. However, Finlay gets a special mention for carrying on after a nasty fall (with thanks to Digby for the support and encouragement). Catriona R won the under-12 girls with what sounds like a convincing 52 second margin, to follow her win at the Emily Hill race. Sol couldn’t quite maintain his winning streak but managed a very commendable second in the under-14 boys. It sounds like Maddy had a tough time on what must have been a long course- there were only two runners in her under-16 girls category, and unfortunately Maddy could only manage second. Great efforts from all concerned.
So from the wilds of Fife to Paris. Allan MacInnes was running his second marathon of the year, which frankly sounds like two too many to me. Allan tells his own story elsewhere, but suffice to say that despite things not quite going to plan, he still managed a very creditable time in one of the biggest marathons in the world, with 35,000 entrants.
Also on the marathon trail was Colin T, in the slightly less well-attended (and possibly less attractive) Lochaber Marathon, which takes the scenic route out of Fort William along the A830 to Mallaig and back again from a random turning point somewhere just past the end of Loch Eil. Sadly, Colin’s training since the start of the year has been disrupted with illness, so when things started feeling uncomfortable at the 19 mile mark he decided to call it a day for fear of doing more damage and scuppering his chances in the Edinburgh Marathon, coming up at the end of May. I’m a bit worried about this apparent outbreak of sensibleness from Colin, but I guess it has to happen sometime.
Phil M and Andy Greaves had a marathon of a different kind with their outing in the Highlander Mountain Marathon. This year’s course had them wandering around Slioch and Beinn Eighe – 55km and 3300m, in a bit over 14 hours, to finish in 11th position in the ‘A’ category. Sounds like a very fine effort to me. The whole things was filmed for the Adventure Show, and our heroes were interviewed extensively, so we’ll have to look out this when it’s shown. I’m sure signed DVDs will be made available.
And finally, Fi and I went to Glenlivet at the suggestion of a friend to run the Chest, Heart and Stroke charity 10k. We drove round the course the afternoon before and decided it wasn’t really going to be a fast time – there’s a big lump between the 1km and 4km marks which rather slows you down, and sure enough I was 2 minutes behind a 40 minute time after the first 4km. So with that taken into account, and the slightly-less-than-ideal preparation (24 minutes chasing Will at the Saturday morning speed session), I was quite happy with 42.29, in 18th position. (According to the published results, I was 1st supervet, but we didn’t stay for the prize-giving, so I missed out on my prize.) Fi did a very good 53.57, which I reckon should translate to 52 minutes on a flat course. We now have more whisky to drink, courtesy of the Glenlivet Distillery which hosted the event.
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