Sunday 30 October 2011

Allan Scally Relay

Activity on Garmin Connect | Results

My 5th relay in 5 weekends after the McAndrew's at Jordanhill, West District Cross Country at Drumpellier, UKA British Hill Relays at Kettlewell, and the Scottish National Cross Country Relays at Cumbernauld.

I'd only run the Allan Scally once before, and that was way back in 2004 on a different course when I ran 27:42. Having seen the times from last year, I was expecting to run around 28:15 this time. I'd put myself on Leg 4, however there was some confusion with regards to a mass start that was just about to send off the final few runners, so the results for Leg 4 currently show nonsense for several of the runners.

I took over from Ciaran just before the mass start, and then started chasing down runners, with large gaps and increasingly wet and rainy conditions. I passed around 6 runners, and was caught by 1 runner from the mass start. I think it was Matthew White of Dundee University who I then tried to chase around the rest of the route. It was pretty torrential by the time I finished in 28:20, but sportingly the rest of the team - Don, John and Ciaran had all waited for me to finish before we jogged back to Bannerman High School in Baillieston.

Link to photos

Scottish National Cross County Relay (men)

Here are a few shots from the men's race at the Scottish National Cross County Relays:
Link to photos

Friday 28 October 2011

Scottish National Cross County Relay (women)

Here are a few shots from the women's race at the Scottish National Cross County Relays:
Link to photos

Saturday 1 October 2011

McAndrew Road Relay

1st October 2011
Results | Photos
The traditional opening race of the Glasgow winter road and cross country season.

I hadn't run the McAndrew Relay since 2006 when I clocked 18:46. I was fairly sure I could beat that time, but didn't know how much effect donating blood on Wednesday evening was going to have.

Niall ran Leg 1 in 18:12, coming in about 25 seconds adrift of Garscube and Calderglen Vets.  I set out chasing Garscube and Calderglen, but made no ground on them, and was passed quite early on by Craig Ruddy who ran the fastest time of the day with 15:32. Once I reached Queen Victoria Drive after 1 mile, I could no longer see any runners in front, and also wasn't caught by anyone during the next 2.3 miles, so it was a bit hard to stay motivated.

I imagined that even with a poor run I would go below 19 minutes, but finished in 19:08 feeling horribly washed out and out of sorts, so decided immediately not to bother with the SVHC Half Marathon tomorrow.

I'm hoping that I might be back firing on a few more cylinders by next weekend for the West District Relays and Pentland Skyline.

Johnston and John Quinn ran solid legs on the final 2 stages with 20:51 and 20:29 respectively.