Another Busy Weekend

Last weekend was another very busy one for the Harriers. I was down to do a training session with Johnathan on Saturday morning and then went to see the Dunky Wright 5K road race. On a great day for the race, a change from some recent years,it was a good race to watch. Unfortunately there were only two club members running in our own race. It has become a habit to use our own officials and it should be possible to persuade members of other clubs to come along and assist to allow our own runners to turn out. I had a look up the arrs web site (www.arrs.net) when I came home to see what the top prize money on offer for 5K's was. If you haven't looked up this site and you are interested in road running it is well worth a visit with information on record times, largest fields, biggest earners (Haile Gebre with life time earnings so far of $3,530, 603) and so on. 24 of the 30 top highest earners of all time were Africans. The biggest pay out was a total of over $51,000 for the Rogaine 5K in 1991, the highest total payout for a 5K in 2009 was $42,500 in Downtown Rhode Island. So who's the club's top earner???? As for the two pics that are on the blog - I sincerely hope that you noticed me talking to Jim Wright and watching the runners come in?
On Sunday it was the Scottish Road Running Championships for all age groups from Under 11 to Under 20 and we had a few runners out. Another great day and they all continue to improve - Roisin setting an excellent example at the start of the day with a really fine run in the Girls race and a welcome return to racing for Caitlin. Claire ran well after missing a week when her school did not enter her for the Scottish Schools Championship and Peter is setting a good groundwork for the summer and is a well known face among the best in his age group. The Under 20's had two men running - Ryan Nelson and David Brown who had missed some time because of other commitments and it is good to see them back. But the numbers were small and maybe a wee recruitment drive is required for the summer season. Maybe an early club championship would get some of those missing over the winter out of the woodwork and back in harness.