The cross country season got off to an excellent start for PH Racing Club with a bronze medal for the men’s masters team in the East District Relay Championships at Mossilee Farm, Galashiels.
Lead off man Johnny Cassells got the team off to a good start timing at 17:25 for what was a very hilly 4k route. Wright Beveridge made up a few places, clocking 17:38 before handing over to Scott Love on the third leg. He made up a couple more positions, running 16:58, before anchor man Robert Sellar brought the team home in 16:29, earning a bronze medal to add to his collection of national and district medals. For the other members of the team it was not such a regular occurrence and so was very welcome!
That first weekend in October was an exceptionally busy one for racing. By the time the XC team took to the course in Galashiels, our team of Dan Monaghan, Stuart Meiklejohn, Martin McNellis, Scott McDonald, Ben Hukins and Arron Leitch were almost finished covering the full length of the Fife Coastal Path in Scottish Long Coastal Relays. The race had started at midnight and, after a superb first leg from Dan Monaghan, the team were in pole position, but this gradually slipped away after some great running by other teams and some navigational errors by our own. Fourth position overall was a credible performance for a team that had a few last minute changes. Thanks to Stuart for organising and particularly to Martin and Arron for stepping in to complete the team at very late notice.
The penultimate event of the PH Club Championship was the following day’s Great Scottish Run Half Marathon in Glasgow. Fastest for PH on the day was Graeme Doig who ran 1:17:26, and in doing so bagged his first 50 points of the championship to show he would surely be in contention for the championship if he could conquer his aversion to cross country and ‘trail guff’. There were no major changes in the club championship places with most of the main contenders not there, but Aaron Bennet, running his first half marathon in 1:23:03, tightened his grip on third place.
John Crookston enjoyed a great run to finish in 1:26:58 and secure a V60 silver medal in the Scottish Half Marathon Championship. Not to be outdone, Ed Norton took home yet another national gold in the V70 category. We have lost count of how many of these he has won over the last year but he certainly has a lot of titles to defend, starting with the Short Course XC in Kirkcaldy next month.
There was also the small matter of the London Marathon that Sunday where John Hammond was the fastest of the PH contingent, finishing in 2:39:50. This was just over an hour ahead of dad John, whose time of 3:43:26 is equally impressive for a guy in his 70s! There was a great PB of 2:49:24 for Philip Waring who got gradually quicker throughout the race to beat his time from Loch Ness last year with another negative split. Mark McLean didn’t manage a negative split but he did run 3:05:40 which is the best result achieved with a club place so far.
Sticking with the major marathons, the following week saw new personal bests for Bryan Innes and Alan McGowan at the Chicago Marathon. Bryan recorded his first sub-3 time of 2:56:40, while Alan was pleased to knock a mere two seconds of his previous best, clocking 3:11:34. Meanwhile, back home on Bryan’s stomping ground, Judy Turner finished second female at the Lochore 10k in 43:08.
Last weekend the first meeting of the East District League took place in Hawick, meaning a second trip to the Borders in a fortnight. Things didn’t get off to a great start with massive delays on the M90 causing most of the women’s team to miss the event. Louise Lessels was the only one who made it and she had a solid run to finish the two laps totalling 6.4k in 32:08, placing her 8th in the masters race. With a lot of penalty points added the team have an uphill battle now but, perhaps due to the location or others having travel issues, this was common to a lot of teams so all may not be lost.
With the men’s race starting just over an hour later everyone to travelled managed to make it and even get the gazebo up during the few minutes of heavy rain that Louise had to contend with. Fastest of the men was Aaron Bennet in 33 mins for the 8k course, consisting of a shorter lap of the Hawick Moor race course followed by the two large laps run by the women. Next home was Scott Love, who also completed the previous week’s Chicago Marathon, in 34:30. He, along with Wright Beveridge (34:42) and Michael Lindsay (34:49) were the counters in the masters competition where PH are the defending champions. These placings were enough to put the team third after one race with local boys Gala Harriers the runaway leaders.
In the men’s senior competition there are six counters which therefore included Mark McLean (35:21) and Alan McGowan (36:16), both ‘fresh’ from their recent marathons. Well done also to Andrew Kinninmonth, running his first cross country race for the club, and no doubt adding some points to rival teams who had finishers behind him. The men’s team now sit in sixth position in the league with two race to come.
Finally, well done to debut marathoner Steve Adam who took on the Amsterdam Marathon on Sunday and ran a superbly paced race, increasing the pace throughout to finish in 3:48:40. “It got surprisingly easy for the last 10k” is not a phrase usually associated with marathons so there is definitely more to come for Steve!
Well done to all who have been racing and training and thanks to the various course organisers, and measurers of course. Thanks also to Adrian Stott for the Galashiels presentation photo, Michael Philp for the Galashiels race photos and Alex Corbett for the Hawick race photos.
PH Racing Club 