Depleted Gala squad still put on a good show
November 19th, 2003Gala Harriers took part in the prestigious 8 Stage Road Relay on Sunday and finished a respectable if lowly 16th place. Gala Harriers took part in the prestigious 8 Stage Road Relay on Sunday and finished a respectable if lowly 16th place. The oldest club relay race in Scotland has traditionally been run between Edinburgh and Glasgow but this year was controversially changed to Edinburgh and Falkirk for safety reasons. The shorter course was still as tough as ever and still attracted most of the top clubs in the country, with City of Edinburgh coming out on top in a combined time of 3.56.46 for the 45-mile course.
Gala had a late invitation to the race and their team selection suffered due to the short notice for some athletes. Club coach Neil Renton started for the harriers and ran a respectable 30.36 for the first 5.5-mile leg of the race, before handing over to Euan Jardine and then dashing off to attend a coaching course in St Andrews. Euan had one of the longest and toughest runs in leg 2 and completed the hilly 7 mile route in 41.58, to hand over to Struan King. Struan suffered badly from blisters and almost limped into Blackridge village at the end of leg 3 in 45.04 to hand the baton on to Martin Clarke. Martin was all too keen to show Blackridge a clean pair of heals, having seen the village signpost on route to the changeover.’Welcome to Blackridge’ it read ‘This is a handgun free village’. Martin made it to the outskirts of Airdrie without being shot at and handed over to Fergus Johnston in a time of 29.14 for his 5.5-mile leg.
Fergus ran well in his 6.5 mile leg between Avonbridge and California village but his time of 41.44 left Tish Affleck with a mountain to climb if she was to catch the next athlete ahead of her. Tish is a very strong hill runner but the hills she faced on her 4.5- mile leg would have brought tears to a glass eye but she battled on to record 28.35 and hand the baton onto club captain Ron Logan.
Ron had just returned from his exploits in the Himalayas and was still feeling the effects of his 100 mile race there but still ran an excellent time in leg 7 of 28.03 over his 5.5-mile route.
Suzanne Carson finished things off for the harriers in the last leg around Callendar Park in Falkirk, recording one of the faster times of the day in 25.09, to leave the club in 16th place in an overall time of 4.30.23.
