Published: Thursday, 28th January, 2010 11:14am
Runners' Devil's delight
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The "Burgh Babes"
TWO Helensburgh Amateur Athletics Club (HAAC) teams travelled east to the Kingdom of Fife for the annual Devil's Burden four-stage Hill Relay Race.
The snow and ice has meant a slow start to the 2010 running calendar with many races being cancelled. The races consists of four legs, with two solo runs and two paired runners covering the challenging 19-mile course up and over 4,700 feet of ascent of the still snow-covered tops of the Lomond Hills, starting and finishing in Falkland village.
Team Burgh Devils were led off straight uphill by Jan Fellowes, a very late and game substitute, and Sarah Walker to finish the 4.4 miles leg in 57.02.
Andrew Stafford and Andrew Henderson followed for the Burgh Boys in a time of 1.35, with time to take photos from the top. The Devils passed over to Robin Steacy, who ran the 3.5 miles second leg in 34.58.
For the Burgh boys Ross McInroy picked up the baton and completed this solo leg in 37.34. The third and probably the toughest leg climbed 1850ft and covered 6.4 miles through varied terrain, including a good deal of snow.
Iain Walker and Chris Moses were the tough guys for the Devils and completed the third leg in 1.14.34. Making up significant time for the boys, the evergreen Damien Theaker and Paul Thompson posted the ninth fastest leg time of day to fly in at 1.07.45, less than a minute behind the Devils.
Two of Helensburgh's fastest women picked up the last leg for both teams, Claire Heasman ran the final 4.8-mile trail leg from Strathmiglo to Falkland in 31.16 to bring her team in 45th place and the fifth mixed team.
Less than two minutes behind came the boys' guest girl Michelle Hetherington in 32.38 for 48th place out of 120 teams. These were very respectable placings for both teams in a highly competitive hill race with experienced hill running teams from all over Scotland competing.
This was only the first race of the weekend for Claire, Jan and Michelle, who had the Scottish Veterans' Road Relays to contest the following day.
The Scottish Veterans' Road Relays were originally due to take place on January 17 but due to poor underfoot conditions were postponed to the 24th.
This had a detrimental effect on the HAAC turn out for the event, with only one female team being fielded instead of the intended three female and one male team.
Nevertheless, the Burgh Babes team proved their worth on the 3 x 3.8-mile legs around the lake in Strathclyde Park and showed no ill effects from their previous day's excursion in the Devils Burden Hill Race.
Michelle Hetherington led the team off strongly, coming home in second place in a time of 23.36 minutes, only a few seconds behind the lead athlete from Victoria Park City of Glasgow and ahead of competitive teams from Clydesdale Harriers, Motherwell, Kirkintilloch Olympians and Springburn.
Jan Fellowes worked hard on the second leg, completing her lap in 26.26 minutes and, although dropping back to fourth place, kept the team in contention for a podium finish.
On the final leg Claire Heasman quickly caught the Motherwell athlete to move the team into third position and gradually reeled in the Clydesdale runner, overtaking her in the final half mile to overturn a 1.5-minute advantage to bring the Burgh Babes home in silver-medal place behind Victoria Park City of Glasgow.
Claire's efforts in running a leg time of 22.31 minutes also earned her the prize for the fastest female lap.
This all augurs well for the Scottish Masters Cross Country Championships in Forres on 6th February when the Burgh Babes will be gunning for a team podium finish once again.
