From Brampton to Carlisle for runners

Nov 21 2008

AN INDICATION of the growth in numbers of Dumfries Running Club was shown last Saturday at the 57th running of the Brampton to Carlisle 10-mile race.

In all 34 club members took part in a field of 600 in the longest lasting road race of its type in Britain.

With a very strong field of runners from central Scotland to the north of England past winners include Olympic medallists Steve Cram, Mike McLeod and Charlie Spedding.

With a biting headwind for almost the whole route very fast times were difficult to achieve but the fastest time of 58mins in 18th place was obtained by Steven Smith, the 93rd and newest club member for 2008.

Close behind Paul Hart finished in 59.03 in 23rd, two of only 42, including Radio Scotland DJ Bryan Burnett running for Bellahouston Harriers who got under the hour.

Sandy Shankland had a strong run in 70th place in 62.53, 10 places and over a minute in front of Jonathan Dale in 64.04.

Ian Brown, disguised in the black vest of his second claim club Tynedale, did well in 64.43 edging out Lisa Finlay by 19 seconds and Sebastian Pflanz by a further 22 seconds.

Mhairi Duff fell agonisingly short of her gold standard award time in 151st in 67.16 but finished ahead of Kevin Breen by over 45 seconds.

Simon Mortlock and Stephen Mohan had a neck and neck battle in the latter stages with Simon on top in 68.57, 21 seconds in front of Stephen, and the fast improving Sian Finlay very close in 69.30.

The consolation for the Finlay sisters and Mhairi was that they won the prize as the second ladies team overall.

Peter Hill did things the hard way by running from Carlisle to the start as extra training for the round Rotherham race in December but it didn’t affect him at all as he was 228th in 70.53, eight places and just over 30 seconds in front of Craig Malcolmson.

Dumfries Cricket Club’s Graeme Cross did well in 73.14 ahead of an improving Chris Adams in 73.42.

In a four-way struggle, Jim Grierson showed a clean pair of heels in 74.33, nine seconds in front of David Breen and a further 20 seconds ahead of Mike Trant with Richard McDougall completing the quartet in 76.24.

Maureen Dickson has not been able to do as much training recently as she would have liked and was delighted to finish in 81.41 ahead of the trio of Rab Wilson in 83.04 who was 10 seconds in front of Peter Hutcheson and a further 20 in front of Gael Moffat who had a fabulous run in 83.34.

Sandie Donald was delighted to achieve her goal of completing well in each of the club’s grand prix races for the first time ever in 84.25 ahead of Marian McPhail in 85.56 and Donald Anson and Paula Neil in 86.30. Newcomer Alan Manson did well with the step up in distance in 87.18 and Alex Grant finished brightly in 90.40.

Bill Love and Jo Needham ran together most of the way in 93.11 and thoroughly enjoyed the race as did Christine Clemie in 99.39 and Susan Graham in 108.29 even though the strengthening wind made things more difficult for runners in the latter stages of the race.

Particular thanks are due to Billy Graham for on course support and Les Hill who ran back from the Sands Centre against the flow of runners offering encouragement at the stretches where the end of the race seemed a very long way away.