Another bumper turnout of Harriers at the latest
Championship race. It looks like this year is going to go down as a record for
the numbers of club members participating in the Championship – so far we’ve
had double figures for all the races and Thursday’s turnout of 18 Harriers has
to be some kind of record at Kinnoull – we certainly got the attention of the
organisers in the post-race announcements.
So, Kinnoull Hill was the latest race. It’s short, just 4
miles, and doesn’t have the very steep ascents of many other hill races, but
it’s steep enough to get you working hard. We were lucky to get a glorious
evening for it, and I’m sure the views from the top would have been splendid if
we’d stopped to look. But, there was racing to be done ...
Up at the front, Will was leading the way and eventually
came in in 7th position and was first Male Vet. Patrick wasn’t far behind and
was first Male Super Vet. Phil T took a break from his Munro-bagging May to come
in next, despite complaining beforehand that his legs felt like they’d been
filled with concrete. Following his uncle closely was Daniel M, running well,
to finish a wee bit ahead of Kerry, who certainly seems to have got her racing
head back. Daniel and Kerry had come past me after the first mile or so, when
I’d blown it trying to stick to Phil T. After that, Em and I swapped places a
few times, up and down slopes, but I just managed to hold her off.
Gordon and Rhian were having their own wee tussle, with
Gordon just winning out with a final sprint over the finishing stretch – the
published time difference of 10 seconds is wrong, since they were within a few
strides of each other at the finish.
Maddy was running her first Kinnoull race and did very well to finish so
close to hardened hill runners like Gordon and Rhian.
Al, Nicola and Fi were racing each other for a large part of
the race, with Fi pulling strongly on the ascents, but losing out to Al and
Nic’s superior downhill technique. Peter G was making a welcome return to
racing action and held off a slight under-the-weather Cathy, who in turn held
off an injured Allan and a heavily-blistered Sav, and finally Liz came in
jauntily, to round out a very successful event for the Harriers. Also running
with was Amy Jones, who might be a member of HBT, but she’s been working
locally and joining us for Thursday evening sessions and is a very welcome
addition to the scene. Needless to say, we were also the noisiest club,
out-shouting even HBT as our finishers were sprinting to the finish.
Full Harriers results:
7 Will
Manners 28:19
15 Patrick
O'Kane 29:17
48 Philip
Tipping 33:19
53 Daniel
Mestecky 33:45
57 Kerry
Sweeney 34:13
59 Tony
Wayte 34:16
62 Emily
Grieves 34:33
65 Gordon
Morrison 35:07
66 Rhian
Evans 35:17
69 Maddy
Watson 35:31
100 Alastair
Nicholl 38:42
103 Nicola
Watson 38:58
108 Fiona
McDonald 39:55
112 Peter
Gaylor 40:12
113 Cathy
Tilbrook 40:40
115 Allan
MacInnes 40:54
116 Savannah
Sweeney 41:06
119 Liz
Mestecky 41:58
