Perth Ultrafest

I went through to Perth on Saturday to see Aileen compete for Scotland in the International 24 hour race. Unfortunately the Irish and Welsh teams withdrew leaving only Scotland and England to contest the international fixture. In only her second 24 hour race and first on the road, Aileen finished third woman covering and amazing 177.157 kilometres. There were 28 competitors, the youngest being an M25 and the oldest being a W60. I was only there for two hours plus but found it very entertaining - on the 1400 metres loop you saw the runners at frequent intervals and could actually see positions changing as the race went on. Mind you when I realised at tea time that they were still running, and then getting ready for bed at about midnight thinking the same before getting up in the morning and reminding myself that they still had two hours to go, the reality of the feat really hit home. It's a pity more of the club did not make their way through to see her in action.
There were other races - an open 50K and 100 K race started at 12 noon when the internationalists had been on the road for two hours. Among the familiar faces in these races were Davie Gardner of Kirkie Olympians and Terry Mitchell of Fife who dropped out quite early on when he seemed to be running well.
They tell me 100 miles in 24 hours is quite easy - run for 15 minutes, walk for 5 minutes, and repeat for 24 hours. Mind you it's only 4 miles an hour ..... Who's up for the challenge?

A Busy Weekend for Aileen and Prasad

The first weekend in September is a busy one on the international scene for two Clydesdale Harriers. Aileen Scott as has been noted already is running in the Perth Ultrafest 24 hours race for Scotland. Just two plus weeks to go, Aileen - make sure your back-up team's good-to-go!
The same weekend, Prasad Prasad is running for Britain in the World Mountain Running Championships in Slovenia. It's a 12K uphill only race and Prasad was picked after placing sixth in the trial at Snowdon two weeks ago. Finishing sixth with only six to be picked was cutting it fine but a lot better than last year. This time there was no super fast start - he says he started slow, went out the back door of the leading group but managed a charge in the second half of the race. Only three Scots were picked - Prasad for the Senior Men's team, Catriona Buchanan of Central AAC for the Junior Women and Robbie Simpson for the Junior Men. Robbie was subsequently de-selected for racing when he was asked not to. There is apparently a speeded up version of the race route on the Mountain Runners Association website and it is also on youtube if you want a look.
It will of course be easier to make it to Perth to give Aileen some moral support and it would be good if some of us could go through. It's a nice city for a day out and the Inch on which she is running is almost in the town centre. Go through for the day and take time to give her a shout!

Clydestride Results

The full results for the Clydestride event are now available. The club had four runners and first to finish was John Kennedy who was twentienth in 6:14:10. Aileen Scott was next in thirty second with a time of 6:43:58. Peter Halpin was sixtieth in 7:58:52. 90 people started the event and 85 finished. It is good to see club members taking on these challenges and maybe even better to see Aileen apparently getting over any problems she had in the WHW race. We haven't seen John's name in the results for some time either - welcome back John!

Ultras, championships and highland games!

The club was represented in a variety of events over the weekend. Peter Halpin took part in the 40 miles ClydeStride race which started at Partick Railway Station and followed the Clyde Cycle path out to the Falls of Lanark. His Achilles started to bug him after just over two miles and then he had trouble with his calf after ten and in the end just trailed in (his words) in eight hours. At the Scottish Championships at a wind blown Pitreavie (the head wind was up to 5.5 metres at times) the distance runners found turning into the finiahing straigh like battering into a brick wall. The sprinters had a bad time so Johnathan Farrell maybe had something to thank his injured knee for! Peter Bowman, who seems to have just got taller by quite a bit these days, was only two seconds behind the winner of his heat of the 800 metres when he finished in 2:01. The times are an indication of just what the weather was like for the runners. Then at Thornton Highland Games Tony Dolan was third in the 800 metres and also in the 1600 metres. Two good weekends on the circuit - once he sees the pay packets for the throwers, he'll probably start to bulk up a bit! The Games are good fun, you learn your trade in many ways there and the handicaps make for good hard races for everyone in the field. I am really surprised that more athletes don't make use of them even as preparation for other races whether track championships or, at the end of the season, as preps for the short relays in October. We used to do the 3000 metres team races + the 1600 metres handicaps in August and September to speed us up for the McAndrews and the County Relays as well. It also gets you around the country ................ but this is turning into a travelogue so I'll stop there - well done to all who competed at the weekend!

West Highland Way Race

The West Highland Way race was run on Saturday. There were 160 entries and the first Harrier to finish was Craig Calderwood in sub 24 hours, with Peter Halpin about four hours later. There were a couple of casualties - Aileen Scott dropped out at Kinlochleven and Bobby Shields who was running with Duncan Matheson dropped out at Beinn Glass after a fall at Drymen. The official results are not yet available but as soon as they are, I'll come back to it. Meanwhile well done to all who represented the club in the event and let's hope Bobby's injury isn't too serious!

Scottish Rankings

Back to the www.scotstats.com site where there are still no rankings for any age group other than the senior men and women, it now has the rankings for ultras on road and track. As a result Aileen Scott joins Pamela McCrossan as a second club member ranked. She is the top woman on the track but there are three who have raced the 24 hours race on the roads at Keswick. She managed a longer distance than the third of them and was not far behind the first two. Bearing in mind that she almost walked for the last 20 minutes after having made the Commonwealth qualifying distance, they should be catchable. We await the publishing of the Junior age groups rankings which should add a bit to the club representation.

A word about the history section of the same website - there was no entry for Clydesdale Harriers initially so I contacted Arnold Black who immediately copied the bit at Cliff Brown's original club website (www.clydesdaleharriers.org.uk) I have sent him something to add to bring it up to date but he has not yet managed to do so. It is an interesting website but is only in its early days and maybe needs a bit more time to cover all that we would wish - if any website can do that!

Finally and on a different topic: I only have seven copies of the most recent book of Clydesdale Harriers which includes the three amigos, Bobby Boyd, Cyril O'Boyle and even me! If anyone is interested, let me know as soon as poss because they have suddenly for some reason unknown to me become fairly popular with some from outwith the club and in recent weeks I have sold copies to members of Aberdeen, Fife and Maryhill for instance!

A Couple of High Points

It's traditional at this time of year to look back at the old year and comment on its high and low points but I'll stick to the high spots. The first is what was to me the performance of the year by any Harrier of any age in any event and that was Aileen Scott's win in the 24 hour race at Tooting Bec in London. She came through the marathon in about 4 hours, 100 miles were done in just over 19 hours and in 24 hours she covered 117 miles 610 yards. Quite outstanding. Next year the dates for the race are 25th/26th September at Tooting Bec so how about switching from Brampton to London for the occasion? Aileen has of course also run the West Highland Way Race three times setting a pb every time.
For the men, well for me Prasad's win and record setting in the uphill only Aonach Mhor race was the best single performance - and he almost beat the timekeepers to the finish too. The gondola taking the officials up the hill broke down and they sat there for a bit watching the race before it got back into motion and got them to the finish. His feat of running up Ben Ledi over 100 times in a year is also pretty breathtaking. After a year bedevilled by illness he is hopeful of running in the National.
Among the boysI think that Peter Bowman was the athlete of the year with a series of personal best performances and consistently operating at a high level. With steady regular incremental improvements he will get there. He might not have it all his own way in future though with boys like David Campbell and others all performing well. Tony Dolan is in the unfortunate position that while he seems eminently suited to running the longer distances his competitive outings are restricted by what scottishathletics deem suitable. There are many boys in Scotland with this problem but so long as he keeps working away and developing his speed as well as his strength, we'll see success come our way. Among the girls, the one who caught the eye with her regular competition outings and frequent pb's was Roisin O'Shea and her progress over the longer distances should be watched carefully. Rachel Busby was a bit unfortunate in her year with progress impeded by Sever's Disease but she should come good in 2010. There are also many good girls who, if we can keep them working should do us as a club proud - Claire Reid, Diane Nicholson, Kirsty Alexander, Kirsty Kelly and Beth Atkinson are the main names here.
The most intriguing group of the year is the Men's Under 20's. With the talent of Johnathan Farrell and Ryan Nelson any foursome could do well, add in Ryan Nelson and David Brown if he is fit and there is a group of four that could challenge any Senior group of four in any race on the track or over any distance up to 10000 metres. Then next winter Peter Bowman joins in with them and you have five yougnsters that any club would be delighted to have on board. Roll on next year.

Well Done Aileen!

When I saw the report of the Tooting Bec 24 hour race in the papers on Monday with Aileen Scott (Clydesdale Harriers) as the winner of the Ladies race, I was delighted. Mainly of course because she had won such a prestigious ultra but also because it was an indication that she is prepared to travel to succeed in her chosen branch of the sport - no holiday this with a wee run thrown in! She started the race as she meant to go on - after one and a half hours she was leading the women's race with a distance of 11.5 K, after two hours she was on 13.5 Miles (5 laps ahead of the track ahead of the second runner) and after six hours the second athlete was 9 laps behind while Aileen had covered 38.03 miles. And she kept going away - at 12 hours she was further ahead with 70 miles done, at 18 hours she had covered 93.95 miles (13 laps ahead of her nearest rival) and at 23 hours the distance behind her was 113 miles. At the finish she was almost 5 miles in front of the second placed runner (who had come from Sweden specially for the race) with a total distance run of 117 miles 617 yards. Quite superb!

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