Relay top form for athletes

Published 12 Aug 2010 09:30 0 Comments

Share this

JULY 24 saw Helensburgh AAC’s stalwarts and newcomers converge on the Isle of Arran for the round Arran road relay.

With a mixed team of three male and three female members, five of which had just returned directly from holiday where training had admittedly ‘gone by the wayside’, this was always going to be an uphill challenge in more ways than one.

On the day nine teams had entered the mixed race, with 23 teams in total at the start line at each stage; nine men and five woman teams included. Having sailed and flown within 24 hours of the start from far flung destinations such as Borneo, France and Tobermory, all runners lined up at Ormidale Sports Pavilion in Brodick to be conveyed via chartered buses to their respective changeovers on the 57.5-mile course around the circumference of the island.

The event organisers, conscious of the overall distance and safety issues of this long staged relay, designed the event such that all six stages are run simultaneously (as much as is possible given the practicalities of transporting 138 runners to each of the six starts).

So each stage is run as a separate race and all three categories (mixed, male and female) results are calculated by the organisers (Irvine AC) at the end of the race. This is how the Mixed race unfolded:

Running the 11.5-mile leg from Blackwaterfoot to Pirnmill, Michelle Hetherington finished sixth overall and first woman proving she is truly back to her best. Michelle’s time of 1.13.58 was 21s ahead of Deborah Gray of Bellahouston the second lady finisher.

Michelle finished just four minutes behind Kelvin runners’ Robert McFarlane, thus handing over the mixed team in second place to Paul Thompson.

In a race he himself described as ‘a procession from the start’, Paul finished an excellent third overall in his 10.5-mile leg from Pirnmill to Bogullie in 1.06.08, just four minutes behind Alex Hendry of Central’s overall winning all men’s team.

Paul managed to move the mixed team up to first place by finishing 12 minutes ahead of Kelvin runner’s Joe Lennon. Showing the grit and determination of her second placing W55 at the Edinburgh Marathon, Jan Fellowes’ 11.5-mile run from Bogullie back to Brodick maintained Helensburgh in the lead position with a three-minute lead over Linlithgow who had moved up from fourth to second.

At this point it was noted (again after the event) that two of the mixed teams had only one female runner. So Helensburgh were at a distinct disadvantage having held onto first place with two female runners already having run and newcomer Erica Cromar facing male runners from both Linlithgow and Arran on this first 7.5-mile South leg from Blackwaterfoot to Lagg Inn.

Erica finished in 56.23, first of the ladies in the Mixed race and third lady overall, but the Mixed Team dropped to third as the two male runners forged ahead on the 7.5-mile undulating course, opening up a gap of two minutes on Helensburgh’s Sonia O’Sullivan look-alike.

Andrew Stafford’s 1.31.05 for the 8.5-mile leg from Lagg Inn to Whiting Bay was enough to hold onto fourth position as Teo Van Well of Linlithgow stormed through for Linlithgow with their three man-three woman team to justifiably knock Helensburgh into fourth place in this now highly evident mixture of mixed team races.

The final 8.5-mile leg from Whiting Bay to Brodick, which comprised two tough uphill sections Campbell Cromar, running his first outing in a Helensburgh vest (thankfully an XXL donated by Kevin Johnstone who pulled out due to injury) managed to pull back seven minutes on Kelvin Runners’ Anne Marie Cullen, with a time of 55.53 but it was to no avail as Helensburgh settled for that loneliest of positions, fourth.

Once again the event was fantastically well organised and the fine weather contributed to a thoroughly enjoyable weekend in a majestically scenic part of the country.

All agreed to go back to The Ranch and persuade the other members to work hard to turn out full teams in both the men and women’s events next year.

This article appeared in Helensburgh Advertiser 05 Aug 10

Follow @helensburghadv

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our Sport archives.