Running: Three underline bid for Scottish place

Feb 27 2009 by Susan Bryden, Dumfries Standard Friday

AS A carefully chosen event for athletes for upcoming ultra distance races, Paul Hart, Marcus Scotney and Les Hill, all members of Dumfries Running Club, travelled to the Draycote 35-mile race, near Rugby in the English midlands on Sunday hoping to catch the eye of the Scottish selectors.

The weather was overcast with a strong wind blowing across the reservoir providing testing conditions for the 100 entrants on the five-mile loop around Draycote reservoir which the runners had to circle seven times.

Paul Hart and Marcus Scotney were in the leading group right from the start and after 15 miles were in first and second positions with Paul leading as other runners were unable to keep up with the unrelenting pace.

As they passed the 26-mile mark, Marcus then eased into the lead and maintained his form to win the race in an excellent time of 3hr 46mins 55secs followed by Paul finishing close behind in 3hr 48mins 44secs for second place, with the third place runner a full 10 minutes behind.

To put that into some kind of perspective, this meant that both Paul and Marcus were under six and a half minute mile pace for the entire 35-mile distance.

Completing the excellent performances by Dumfries Running Club, Les Hill showed a welcome return to form after injury running with steady pace judgement to finish in sixth place for a time of 4hr 17mins 40secs winning the first vet 50 prize.

These performances would not have been possible without the help of fellow club member Sandy Shankland who braved the cold wind to provide Marcus, Paul and Les with energy drinks and food on every lap.

Following these impressive displays both Marcus and Les are hopeful of Scottish team selection along with Paul (pre-selected) for the Anglo Celtic Plate 100K international race in Galway at the end of March.

Maryport 10-mile race

On the same morning, nine members of Dumfries Running Club travelled to Maryport to join 103 others taking part in the hilly Malcolm McDougall memorial 10-mile race.

With a testing yet scenic route on a clear and almost warm February morning this would provide a good benchmark to measure progress for races later on in the season.

Halfway round the rural route tired runners were encouraged by a beautifully clear view across the Solway to Criffel from an unusual perspective.

Best performance came from Steven Smith who underlined his promise with an excellent third place overall in 59.52mins and there is every chance he can improve on this very fast time.

Gareth McIntyre also ran well in 11th place in 65.07 and Stephen Mohan was delighted with a time of 69.48. Frustratingly, if there had been a team prize available, these three would have been in first place overall.

Donald Anson, who has been quietly increasing his training, was pleased to finish in 85.10 as was Paula Neill in 86.12mins, virtually the same time she achieved at the Brampton race in November.

Jo Needham, in serious training for the Edinburgh marathon in May, knocked five minutes off her personal best in 88.33 and Alex Grant ran very well in 91.05.

The star of the show, however, was the modest Bill Love who knocked a phenomenal 11 minutes off his time from last year in 93mins.

As Bill himself commented: “The older I get, the better I used to be….”. Susan Graham, in heavy training for the London marathon, used the race for pace judgement and finished very smoothly in 104minutes, looking so comfortable that she could have completed the course twice with ease.

Hong Kong marathon

Craig Malcolmson, one of the Dalbeattie offshoot group of Dumfries Running Club, took part in the most exotic event recently by completing the Hong Kong marathon on Sunday, February 8.

On a whim, he foolishly entered the race at two days’ notice and spent a long time wondering how he was going to manage to complete the event in 65 per cent humidity, despite not running a step for the previous month. At 5am on the day of the race, however, he was up, Dumfries Running Club vest on, raring to go.

After taking a ferry and a taxi to the 8am start, he spent the next three hours 54 minutes on the hardest road race he has ever done, negotiating an undulating course with at least four kilometre long tunnels trapping heat and sapping energy from his legs.

In all, he finished 1,123rd out of 10,000 marathon starters and with a very well-organised 10k and half marathon as well, 55,000 in total took part on the day.