New Year's Run 2009

A fine new day and new year dawned as fifteen Harriers and friends, plus two dogs, began the club's annual New Year's morning run.

At just after 8.15 the group set off from the centre of Comrie with shouted encouragement from a couple of folk clearing up the Flambeaux debris.

Frozen ground made for good going up Glen Lednock, and by ten to nine the runners were at the Melville monument, enjoying the views and Rob Bolton's famous "coffee" (or a low-impact alternative recipe for the less adventurous).

On the run back down to Comrie a small group branched off to the Wee Cauldron, where after a short discussion three Harriers - Phil M, Will M and newbie Peter Hague - did the daft but traditional jump into the water.

Brrrrrrrrrr!

Mince Pie Run 2008

Fifteen folk were out this morning for what proved to be a very enjoyable Mince Pie Run on the Ochils.

Despite Jeremiah-like predictions from some quarters, the weather was breezy but dry and mild, with some pleasant blue sky and sunshine.

There seemed to be some minor navigational difficulties in finding the start point at Glensherup car park, but the group was assembled and ready to run by 10.15. The forest track took us steadily uphill and then out onto the open hillside with good views towards the Firth of Forth and the Lomonds of Fife.

At the top of Innerdownie hill we met the full force of the wind and standing upright did become a bit tricky. Fortunately there was a fine stone wall on hand to provide shelter.

From Innerdownie we dropped down a grassy track into the head of Glenquey for mince pies and coffee. Then on along to Glendevon from where a group of keen ones - Karen, Al, Will, Colin, Ben and James - took the high road back over the hill while the rest of us completed the circuit along the riverbank.

Approximate stats: 10.8k for the circuit with 470m ascent, a bit longer and a bit more climb for those who went back over the hill.

A special Sunday run

Many Strathearn Harriers and friends got together today with members of the Wake family for a special Sunday run up to a tall cairn that stands on Choinneachain Hill above Loch Turret, one of Simon's favourite places.

A large group of runners reached the cairn and took a quiet minute to remember Simon.

After coffee and biscuits, the group set off back down the hill, through mist and stinging hail, to emerge back at the dam, refreshed and invigorated by a run that Simon too would have enjoyed.

The weather was interesting to say the least, especially for those of the Wake clan who are more used to sunny climes, and the routefinding was of the usual Harriers standard (!), but we all felt the better for the outing.

Comrie Relay - 14th September

Some more photos from Graham:

Sunday saw the 3rd annual running of the Comrie Hills Relay sponsored by The Famous Grouse Experience. This year attracted the largest field yet with 26 teams from across Scotland descending on Laggan Park for the start. This included a formidable Carnethy team out to steal the title away from the local club, Strathearn Harriers who had won the race in the previous two years.

The race requires teams of 5 runners covering a total of 42km and more than 2000m of climb in 4 stages of varying distance, ascent and terrain. It begins and ends in Laggan Park taking in the hills on both sides of Glen Lednock via Shakey Bridge, Crappich Hill, Invergeldie, Meall na Seide, Carroglen, Funtilloch, Ma’am Road, 20 Shilling Wood and the Deil’s Cauldron.

In the men’s race, an early lead was established by Prasad Prasad of the Ochil Hillrunners who broke the Leg 1 record to handover in 1st place. Harrier John Burke was just a few minutes behind in 4th handing over to Phil Mestecky and Graham Johnston for the start of Leg 2. By the end of the leg, the Carnethy duo of Steven Fallon and Ronnie Gallagher had overhauled the Ochil pair to take the lead. Despite running the second fastest time for Leg 2, Phil and Graham were not quite able to overtake Fife AC in third place by the time they handed over to Will Manners for leg 3.

Will, however, had no such difficulty, and in fact streaked past both Fife and Ochils to lie in 2nd place on the climb up to Meall na Seide. His time of 66.47 was 3rd fastest of the day and a new club record by over 5 minutes, but more importantly kept the team just 6 minutes behind Carnethy and 3 minutes ahead of 3rd place. On the final leg, Colin Glencorse had a great run but despite being one of only two runners to get under 50 minutes was not able to make any impression on the Carnethy lead. They took the title in a new record time of 3.23.12 with Harriers a very creditable 2nd place just 6 minutes behind.

Special mention must go to Lara Carson who would undoubtedly have set a never-to-be-equalled Leg 2 record had she not been tackled and wrestled to the ground by Phil Tipping just a mile from the end. Maybe next year, Lara...


In the women’s race, the Harriers team put in consistently strong performances on all 4 stages. Karen Nichols set the tone with a very strong run on Leg 1 handing over in 2nd place and just a few minutes behind the Fife AC Female Vets (over 35). Cathy Tilbrook and Ali Manners were able to take 2 minutes off their time from last year to finish in 64.52. Angela Mackenzie then demonstrated her strength on the hills by recording the fastest women’s time for Leg 3 in 84.39 before Liz Mestecky brought the team home to great cheers from the home crowd. This excellent performance was good enough to pick up the prize for first women’s team while the Fife team that finished ahead of them picked up the prize for first Female Veterans team.

In the male vets (over 40) race, Strathearn fielded a second strong team of Graeme Martin, Gordon Morrison and James Bussey, Digby Sym and Phil Tipping. Their cumulative time of 4.10.02 was good enough for second place in their category and 9th place overall showing what strength in depth the club can now call upon.

Overall an excellent day’s competition made possible by the help of an army of marshals, the support of the landowners and topped off by a wonderful barbecue for all competitors prepared primarily by Liz Tipping and Beth Dillon.

Some more pics of the winning teams here from Alex http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/whitecroft/ComrieHillsRelay2008#

and more pics of the event generally from Graham Bennison of Fife here at http://web.me.com/dsmyth/Site/Comrie08.html

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

70 Wild Miles

Doug Flint found an interesting way to fill the longest day this year. Here's his personal account:

Perhaps it's something to do with the mid-summer light bringing out the maddies, but on 21 June this year there were a few Harriers in/passing through the Glencoe area (including those true nutters doing the W Highland Way race - still in awe of you guys - congratulations to you all, and phenomenal result for Phil M getting 2 hrs under his own target!).
Not quite such a success for me in this year's '70 Wild Miles' event but still hugely enjoyable now that I can look back on it from the comfort of my chair!

So, what does it entail? It starts with a 47-mile road bike race from White Corries ski centre car park across the edge of Rannoch moor to Tyndrum and on down to Taynuilt on Loch Etive; followed by a 10-mile sea kayak from Taynuilt (exciting mass-start of 100+ kayaks) up to the head of L Etive, all rounded off by a 13-mile jaunt back up the Glen Etive road to a welcome finish below the spectacular Buchaille).

After I completed the 2005 race in 6hrs 2 mins, my wife, who some of you may think of as the cheery/lovely Cathy (but read on), 'generously' set me a target of 5hrs 30mins (despite me now being 3 years older than last time and possibly 3 years less fit, I didn't get to set my own more realistic goals this time!).

Race day dawned dry and nice and cool for my bike leg start at 8.48am.
Trying to suppress both my porridge and pre-race nerves, I was excited and confident, despite having only made the transition to clipless pedals a week or so previously (a huge thanks to Will Manners for the loan of the shoes and some tips!). Then disaster! A final pump up of the tyres to make them race hard - my back valve blew out - no, nothing to do with my nerves or the porridge!. So with 10 minutes to go, I had to rush to change the rear inner tube (my only spare), and get down to the start. As one of the last to set off, it was a pretty gruelling slog but thankfully I passed a few stragglers on the way, and only got passed by a few real racers who’d set off behind me. Lost a minute or so having to stop for a traffic light/road works, but otherwise uneventful (and rather scenic), arriving in Taynuilt in just over 2 hrs. At 5 mins better than 2005, I was pleased and was up for hitting Cath's target). Glad to get off the bike, with slightly sore kidneys, only to be seized by hamstring cramp as I cocked my leg over the seat to dismount (still a lot to learn!). I thought my race might be over at that point, and wasn't welcoming being in my kayak with legs braced in one position for the next 2 hrs.

L Etive was glassy calm, apart from the frantic spray of eager paddlers at the start hooter, but having set off an hour later than the organisers had planned, there was more tide than I allowed for. A major tactical blunder saw me head up the middle of the loch with a few others, on what we thought to be the shortest straight-line distance. Frustratingly and mysteriously, the majority who chose to hug the left shore inexorably pulled away, but by the time I had worked out that they were probably less-affected by the strong but invisible current, it was too late as I was 200m from shore. It was a genuine slog ploughing along, and again I was relieved when the finish came, although the spectacular views had kept me going. However, a disappointing 15 minutes down on 2005, and probably losing 15-20 minutes on the day to the smart Alecs who had hugged the shore. I won’t make that mistake again (if/inevitably when I do it again next year).

After a brief re-fill (I gained in weight to sandwiches, chocolate and drink what I lost to the ferocious midgies and could stand it no more) I set off on the run. From memory miles 4 and 6 are the tough ones as although it’s all predominantly uphill, these two are the sapping steeper ones. Thankfully, although warm, it wasn’t too hot for running, and I was delighted to knock 7 minutes off my 2005 time, and to be met by Cathy and the kids at the finish.

To stop a long story getting longer, I finished tired and happy but annoyingly 2 minutes slower overall at 6hrs 4mins. I was forgiven though.
Icing on the cake was learning a few days later, to my amazement, I’d come 7th overall out of 58 individuals who did all 3 legs, and ahead of all but
6 of the teams of 3.

The photos show me at various stages of 'knackeredness' and my supporting family on the day. Now that my training is over (until next year) I can go back to eating donuts and enjoying life!

If anyone wants to do the event next year, or any part of it, I'll be happy to help and train with others. Gorgeous scenery, 47 miles on a bike, 10 mile kayak, 13 run; what more can I say, a top day out! And certainly less painful than 95 miles on foot…

Doug