With the run of XC races well under way, it has been good to see our dedicated and high achieving athletes back on the mud once again, which is defo what can be taken away from this weekend. It saw yet again the women being the stars of the show, securing their 3rd National XC Relays win in a row, with Holly Page swapping for Franko who decided Manchester was a better idea… Another cracking achievement ladies!
Anyway I’m gonna apologise for the lateness of this report. But this one is gonna be a bit of a jumble, mixing all of what has happened over the past 2 weeks. Hint, it also includes some falling down hills and action at another University as well as highlights from National Relays. So what’s not to like really?? More reading, more action and more impressive results to read about!? So I’ll start with the most recent and work my way through, obviously if Manchester is ur thing, might want to skip the bit about Nationals…?
National XC Relays
It really did prove at the weekend that Cumbernauld was really the place to be! On a much firmer course than last year, the scene was set for the women to take the National XC Relay champions title once again. Following on from their success at the East District XC Relays the girls went from strength to strength. The team, comprising of Anna Macfadyen, Holly Page, Rebecca Johnson and Steph Pennycook, all had extremely good runs and it was impressive as always to see the kind of lead that these girls can get on the rest of the strong field of runners on the day!!
Not far behind however was the B team who just like at East Districts also showed an impressive performance, coming 7th overall, showing the calibre of athletes we have in the club! With their team consisting of Constance, Becca , Zoe and Hannah!
We also had a notable appearance from Lydia Blythe who managed (just) to get to Edinburgh on Friday night from her studies in Grenoble. (I highly recommend anyone to have a look at this place! It looks incredible and to say I’m slightly jealous of Lydia is a bit of an understatement! Those views!!) Since being in Grenoble Lydia has managed to start building back up her running and has already had some great performances and she also appeared to have a strong run at the weekend too! Leading off the C team who managed to get their hands on 18th position, which at a national event is very impressive and it’s looking like Scottish University Cross Country will be a good one for the girls this year!!
Onto the Men, which I will actually start off with the two Harie’s which weren’t in Harie’s colours… (that’s right name and shame the lads…) First off on the first leg Max Milarvie, kitted out in his blue colours (V.P. who?), who unfortunately was a victim to the army of spikes at the start and suffered a few wounds which didn’t help his start too well. In his own words he struggled a little bit to get it back together in the rest of his leg, however from an eyewitness (me) Max was flying and established a bit of a lead ahead Cameron Young to bring home his V.P. team a strong position on the leading leg. He’s happy now tho cuz he got his Sugar-free Vimto, keep focused for Leeds next week Max! Smash it! Next of my naming and shaming was Euan Gilham, who swapped his Meadows late-night loops for the 4km Cumbernauld course, who just like Max was flying! And looked very comfortable on his leg and his team also managed to secure a Podium position! Well done Gilham! But Haries vest? [insert cry react]
Last but not least the proper Haries lads, comprising of Hounds and non-hounds however it was said on the fields of Cumbernauld that “anyone can be a hound” #inclusivity [love react]. With Elisha not making it out of his bed until the bus arrived at Cumbernauld, could Elisha make it fashionably late or when the party is over?? Unfortunately neither this weekend [cry react]. Meaning we only managed to get out two complete teams and a team of 3 lads. Not letting this faze them however the guys still gave it their all to show what they were made of with Fresher Pat G leading the three out followed by David and Michal. Further up the field both Cameron Young (Cameroni) and Andrew Johnstone (AJ) put in some great performances for the A and B team respectively on the first leg. With AJ not long back from the past year of injuries that has haunted him, he’s now his strength for the rest of the season! (and I’m glad to say he was not in those inverness colours (yuck!)). Next on the legs were Jack Leitch, Rob Huckle and OFK (rated the sunglasses look). Who all also put in solid performances on their respected legs to get the mens A team to 8th Place. Whilst the B team held AJ’s strong first leg to come 18th out of the 123 complete teams on the day, with Fraser Roach, Alex Muir and Alvaro rounding off the team!
Stirling XC
Now not the uni you thought I was on about folk going to, Manchester who??
But last week a big group of Haries hit the fields of Stirling University to compete at the first East League race of the season. I am gonna keep this one as brief as possible because I know I’ve wrote a lot already (and procrastinated enough too), not that the performances weren’t really good on the slightly adapted course to last year.
Alex Carcas managed to have an absolute flyer, cementing the edge he has over fellow hound Jack by getting that crucial 14 second lead on him for them to come 6th and 9th respectively and being the first two haries home on the day! Also having strong runs were Rob Huckle and Alex Muir who both managed to get in the top 20, whilst Fraser Roach managed to keep a lead on AJ for the two North runners to come 22nd and 24th on the Stirling course.
Whilst in the women’s race our first HOTW fresher came first Harie home in an outstanding 6th place! (must be something in those @fruitsandroutes meals…) And Pippa Hofman not far behind by only 6 seconds to secure herself 8th place!
FRA Relays
We took a men’s, women’s and 2 mixed teams down to sunny Ambleside (Hi Beth) to compete at the annual FRA Relays to show them bright green vests up and down the hills of the Lakes, and see a few ex Haries on the way up and down too.
To start, the A team had a stellar performance to come 4th overall off the back of last year’s silver medal, showing that the top guys have still got what it takes to compete at this level of mountain running! With Alexander Chepelin (Sasha) securing the joint 1st home on the first leg with Keswick runner Chris Arthur! The rest of the guys also had very strong runs getting at least a top 10 finish on each leg!
Elsewhere our Open Team secured 60th place and the Female and Mixed Teams coming 79th and 80th respectively with only 2 seconds splitting it between them on the sprint finish at the end.
Reports were that even though he had completed his run and done a very respectable 41st place on the first leg, David Hedges made his way back into the hills to make the most of his trip down to the lakes, spending a few hours getting that filthy mileage #respect. And if you haven’t seen this boys mileage on strava check it out, he is absolute fire with that mileage!!
And that is me over and out, good luck to all the Haries racing at the Scottish Uni’s this weekend and those that are heading down to Leeds. Apologies if I have missed anyones results on the report, if you have a result you want me to put in the report. Plz drop me a message and I’ll get it in, my strava stalking isn’t on top form at the moment.
Referee 1 : Alasdair Pedley (retired – Gave up on this hopeless cause)