Gala and Lauder Have a Festival at Edinburgh Marathon
January 1st, 2005Gala Harriers and Lauderdale Limpers had a great turn out at the Edinburgh Marathon on Sunday, with 60 runners taking part in the full marathon and the marathon relay. Best individual performance was from Neil Aitchison who ran agonisingly close to breaking the 3 hour barrier, with a time of 3.03. Next in was Gillian Miller from Lauderdale, with a highly respectable 3.38, followed by Katy Anderson in 3.58, who suffered over the last few miles, especially with the steady uphill climb and cobbled streets.
Tina Hulton and Anne Lawrie trained together and crossed the line together in a time of 4.55, with their other training partner Susan Howell finishing her first ever marathon in 5.25.
Karen Renton and Anne Purves both had to pull out when well into the race due to an injury in Karen's case and badly blistered feet for Anne.
Gala and Lauder put out 10 teams in the relay race, with each club running an elite team. Both clubs put on a great show with the Gala 'A' team of John Borthwick, Rob McCrirrick, Tony Lunn, Struan King and Ron Logan recording 2 hours 36 minutes to finish 3rd team overall and the Limpers 'A' team of Neil Craig, Mark Bryson, Leahn Parry, Sally Barr and George Runciman, finishing 5th in 2 hours 48 minutes.
Graham Cappper, Graeme Murdoch, Gillian Duncan, Alan Gordon and John Patterson, finished 8th in 2.58, for the harriers, with Eileen Nicol, Iain Bell, Will McDermott, Rosi Capper and Dave Nightingale claiming 15th spot in just over 3 hours.
Other harrier teams finishing were Graeme Jones, Euan Lindores, Alastair Laurie, Caroline McDermott and Robin Murray in 18th place in 3.01 and Angela Foss, Derek Fraser, David Hunter, Leanne Haining and Kate Seel, finishing in 3.03 in 24th place.
Lucy Alkin-Young, Gary Alexander, Fiona Dalgliesh, Davy Darroch and Andrea Pogson completed the harriers teams finishing in 3.08 in 33rd spot.
Lauderdale had another three teams running with Graeme Sutherland, David Young, Graeme Richardson, Colin Tucker and Craig Wilkinson running for the (Old Limpers) and Gillian Bryson, Lorna Mitchell, Tania Bridges, Claire Middlemiss and Susan Sutherland running for the Lauderdale Ladies team.
The final limpers team of Graham Masey, Andrew Lang, Phil Lasby, Janice Robertson and Dave Blaszk completed an impressive turnout for the border clubs.
Both clubs retired to the Cafraemill Hotel for a BBQ and refreshments after the race and many thanks must go to Graeme Sutherland and Rosi Capper for organising this and to Susan and her staff at the hotel for putting on a fantastic spread.
The race calendar is getting busy over the next few weeks with Round One of the Borders 10K race series taking place at the Peebles Beltane 10K road race on Sunday 19th of June.
The Two Pubs race is on Tuesday 21st June, starting at the Lauderdale Hotel at 7.00pm.
The harriers 800 metre track races are on Thursday 23rd June followed by a weekend running festival, with The Eildon Two Hills race on Saturday 25th and Gala Harriers hosting their own Fun Run, 10K race and Round Two of the Borders 10K series at the Braw Lads Sports on Sunday 26th June.
Everyone should be pretty fit after that lot!!!
