Running: On Rotherham recce

Oct 17 2008 by Our Correspondent, Dumfries Standard Friday

WHILE most sensible mortals were asleep, 16 members of Dumfries Running Club gathered at 5am last Saturday to travel down to Rotherham for a recce run in anticipation of the 50-mile race in and around the town.

Eight club members are planning on tackling the whole route and there will be two relay teams of four for the event held on December 13.

With navigation and map reading necessary in order to keep runners on the straight and narrow, a practice run on several sections was vital so that runners gained confidence and became familiar with the routes to be travelled.

With the weather behaving itself, many completed two or three sections at a steady pace and hopefully race day in December will go as smoothly.

After an overnight stay near Wakefield, the party travelled to Howden on Humberside on Sunday to take part in the inaugural 10k race on a very flat rural route.

Out of a field of 201, the Dumfries club was by far the largest. The weary runners used the first couple of kilometres to shake off fatigue and postpone any tiredness till after the finish.

Paul Hart was in the lead for the first half of the race but was caught by eventual winner Andrew Masterman after 6k and was delighted to finish second in 36.19.

Sandy Shankland also ran very well in seventh place in 38.26 narrowly in front of Mhairi Douglas who ran very strongly in 39.42 as first woman but was an agonising 12 seconds short of the time she was aiming for to gain a gold award for the distance.

Gingerly testing himself in his first race for several weeks due to injury was Les Hill who was 17th in 41.53 and Stephen Mohan and Peter Hill had a battle in 25th and 26th place with Stephen, in 43.19 two seconds clear.

Jo Zakrzewski was delighted to finish in 42nd place in 45.59, five places and 50 seconds in front of David Breen.

Richard McDougal was 63rd in 48.46 seven places ahead of Dawn McDonald in 49.30.

Marian McPhail, who much prefers longer distances, was 133rd in 55 minutes. Thanks are due to en route cheerleader Dougie Brown, Vicky Little as jacket holder, Susan Gallagher as key holder and Frank Skachill as jelly baby man and chief Doonhamer publicist all of whom were repeatedly asked why so many Scottish runners had arrived in a small village in East Yorkshire.

On the same morning, the Pier to Pier Blackpool to Fleetwood 15k race attracted a field of 181 including four Dumfries Running Club members.

After a fire earlier this year at Fleetwood it would have been more accurate to call the event Pier to burnt out stump.

The best performance came from a former DRC member, Beth Massey now running for Barnsley who was second woman in 63.57.

Of current members, three of whom were still recovering from last week’s Loch Ness marathon, Jim Grierson did best in 47th place in 68.40, five places and 25 seconds in front of fast finishing Mike Trant.

Alex Grant 145th in 86.50 and Bill Love, 157th in 89.57 both thoroughly enjoyed their run and all were delighted with the race.