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Gala Harriers athletes have been competing in big city marathons and hill running international races during the last 2 weeks. The first Gala runner in action was Fergus Johnston, who was taking part in his first marathon in Paris. Despite sweltering heat and chaotic water stations, Fergus battled battled through the field to finish in a time of 3hrs 16mins. This was a very creditable performance as his preparation for the race had been hampered by injury.  

There were 9 of runners from the club who had trained hard for the Flora London marathon and Mini marathon. In the Mini marathon, representing the East of Scotland, Gala had 2 runners taking part, Hannah Jones in the 11-12 years age group and by Alice Haining in the 13-14 years bracket. With youngsters from all over Great Britain competing, the girls found some very serios competition. Hannah, still in her first season, completed the course in 17mins 53secs in 56th place. Alice was 22nd in a time of 16mins 11secs. Both girls enjoyed the event despite the heat and hope to be back again next year.

In the marathon itself, the first runner on the road for Gala was Carole Fortune, taking to the streets of London at 9.00am with the elite women’s field. Carole ran a steady race, on her own for some stretches, getting round the 26 miles 385 yards in 3hrs 25mins 38secs to finish 52nd in her age group. With temperatures beginning to climb, the rest of the Gala athletes would find the race very demanding. With the men in particular finding it a battle against the conditions. Martin Clarke was the first Gala man home in 3hrs 15mins 05secs followed by Derek Fraser in 3hrs 23 mins. Dave Nightingale and Jason Roberts were separated by 5 seconds at the end, Roberts finishing his first attempt at the marathon in 4hrs and 53secs, just pipping Nightingale.

The ladies faired better with Rachel Fagan taking 7 minutes from her previous best to finish in a superb time of 3hrs 12mins 45secs. This placed her 152nd female, 46th in her age category and will give her a place in the elite field for 2008. Not only is she ranked number 1 Gala Harrier in the marathon for 2007, she is ranked at 8 in Scotland. Katy Anderson followed Fagan home in a new PB of 3hrs 32mins 08secs and was delighted with taking nearly 30mins from her previous marathon.

With the Edinburgh marathon now just 4 weeks away, Fagan has set a time which should act as a real incentive for the rest of the club to attack.

Euan Jardine travelled over to Knockdhu in Northern Ireland to compete on an entirely different surface. He was competing in the Home International Hill race. Against a high quality field Jardine ran 10 seconds quicker that he did in 2006 to finish in 7th position in a time of 36mins 53secs. Despite not being selected for the Scottish team, he was 3rd placed Scot in the race.

Last Thursday saw the up and coming juniors from the club running in their first track races of the season at Tweedbank. Races were over 100metres for the U11 age group and 200metres for the rest of Gala youngsters. The athletes who had continued to train over the Winter were to the fore, where there were several excellent performances. This bodes well for the Summer season where hopefully the athletes will compete in the growing
number of events available.

Posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 6:57 am and is filed under Race Reports.
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