The course was marked, the marshals marshalled and the
burgers ready to be frazzled, it must be time for another Comrie Hills Relay.
There were a few last-minute hiccups. Patrick decided on
Friday evening that a sprint was the best way to round off a training session,
only to pull a hamstring, and Wattie eventually had to succumb to his niggling
groin strain, so Phil T had a bit of reshuffling to do, drafting in the
substitutes who stepped up to the mark in fine style. Kerry had some
reshuffling of the marshals to sort out when Colin Howat managed to fall down
his stairs and rendered himself unfit for sitting at the top of Crappich Hill.
Get well soon to all the injured runners and marshals.
We had new teams this year from Forres Harrier and an
Aberfoyle collective, who finished the race with very different fortunes. HBT
entered eight teams, but even a club of their size couldn’t quite muster the
required 40 runners, and eventually they ran five teams, with a few folk
doubling up on assorted legs.
First to the Leg 1/2 changeover were Andy Gilmour for
Carnethy A and Matthew Halliday for Forres, in speedy times of 45.49 and 45.51
respectively – proper racing! First woman through was Megan Mowbray of HBT in
52.18.
For the Harriers, Chris Clarke was making his SWCHR debut and
put in a fine run on Leg 1 to complete his leg in 53.07, in 10th position. John
Davidson put in a sterling effort to finish in 56.33, and Nicola managed to
overcome any navigational challenges to finish in 1.07.12. Nic is proof that
recce’ing your leg definitely pays off. Despite the care taken to mark the
course, we still had a couple of people go wrong, with one runner missing the
turn into the field at Balmuick and carried happily on up towards Carroglen. He
did eventually get to the handover, after John D had retrieved him from upper
Glen Lednock. We also had one runner who managed to get to Shaky Bridge but
decided that she preferred to run beside the river for a bit longer instead of
crossing the bridge, adding a few hundred metres on to her run before she
realised she’d missed something. Who can blame her – it’s a lovely run. We may
need to think about “You’ve gone the wrong way” signs. It all added up to a
mini-mass start of two runners at the Leg 1/2
changeover, which doesn’t happen very often.
Leg 2 saw Carnethy A and Forres extend their lead over the
rest of the field by a big margin, with leg times of 41.27 and 42.05. By this
point, they were about nine minutes ahead of third-placed Westies A. Meanwhile,
back with the Harriers, Digby was encouraging Phil M with helpful quips along
the lines of “Try to imagine you’re racing”. Phil’s response doesn’t meet the
parental guidance control requirements ... Jim Alexander was making his SWCH
debut with Gordon, with Jim doing a great impression of an over-eager spaniel
bounding up the hill, and Gordon doing his usual very sound job of picking the
best lines on difficult terrain. Rachel was also making her debut, running with
Cathy, another Leg 2 regular. Rachel almost looked like she was enjoying
herself at the end.
To add to the challenge on Leg 2, Rhian settled down in her
checkpoint about 100 metres away from the usual spot (or 150-200 metres,
depending who you talk to), which caused a few scratched heads. It was
certainly enough to send one of the HBT teams wrong, seen approaching
Checkpoint 5 from completely the wrong direction. And then one of the Deeside
runners fell and dislocated a shoulder. Fortunately, the club paramedic and GP
were at the Leg 2/3 handover to look at it and agree a diagnosis, and suggest a
trip to PRI might be in order.
Beth and Elaine M were doing a great job organising the
handover and set half-a-dozen runners off on the 12.30 mass-start for the haul
up Ben Chonzie. By that time, Kyle Grieg of Forres had overtaken Stewart
Whitely of Carnethy A and finsihed Leg 3 in a record time of 59.26. This is, I
think, only the second time that the leg has been run in less than an hour,
with the previous record-holder Robbie Simpson going on to run for Scotland in
assorted hill and distance racing events.
After falling a couple of times on the fast descent down to
Carroglen, Andy Greaves had a race on his hands over the last stretches of Leg
3 and Adrian Davies gradually overhauled him in the run-in to Funtulich, but a
time of 1.10.33 for Andy was a very good effort. Grant has run every day since
January 2012, but did admit that Leg 3 was a bit more of an effort than most of
his outings. Nevertheless, his time of 1.26.08 was very commendable. Emily’s
time was just a few second slower than Grant’s time, and judging by the way she
looked at the end, she worked very hard for it.
We had another mass start at the Leg 3/4 changeover, with
ten runners going off together, including Kerry and former Harrier Kirsty, now
running a storm for Wee County Harriers.
Once again, Forres and Carnethy A were extending their lead
on Leg 4, and finished comfortably ahead of the rest, with both teams recording
times better than the previous record. Forres finished in 3.10.54, with
Carnethy A finishing in 3.13.38. Carnethy’s times over Legs 1, 2 and 4 were the
fastest times on the day, but Kyle Greig’s outstanding performance on Leg 3
made the essential difference. Westies A had maintained their third position to
finish in 3.27.36.
Club captain, race organiser and Leg 4 specialist Phil T had
a fine time, to record the fifth best time, to finish the race for Harriers A
in sixth position, in a time of 3.41.44. Jim McConnell, venturing off road for
a change, ran a terrific leg and thoroughly enjoyed his pell-mell descent down
past the Deil’s Cauldron, overtaking bodies left, right and centre. Well, that
what he told me ... Anyway, he did really well, and bought the B team home on
16th position, in 4.11.50. Kerry was her usual determined self and recorded the
second best women’s time for Leg 4 to bring the women’s team home in 24th
position overall, and third female team.
Meanwhile, back at Laggan Park, the burgers were on the go,
and another pair of SWCHR debutants were doing a great job with the catering –
many thanks to Frances Graham and Lesley Johnston for the organisation, Graham
and David for the burger flipping, and all the other helpers. To quote
Westerlands CC Strathearn Harriers once
again put on a superb BBQ, including a delicious spread of home baking.
Prizes this year were presented by Sammy Wake, with bottles
of whisky being dispensed to assorted winners.
As with all the club races, the race could not happen
without a horde of volunteers to act as marshals, time-keepers and caterers,
and the club is very grateful to everyone for all their efforts. The club is
also very appreciative of the support given to the event by the local
landowners and residents.
Full results are available on the Harriers website www.strathearnharriers.org.uk
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