This summary won’t do justice to the extensive adventures of the Shettleston hill runners last weekend. Local, national and international venues played host to the club’s ever eager off-road crew.
Thanks to Bill Breckenridge for being our roving news reporter…
The biggest turnout of the weekend was just a torch throw from Shettleston up at dreich Cardowan Moss in Easterhouse. Billed as a friendly ‘grudge match’, local hill running rivals Westerlands Cross Country Club had challenged Shettleston to a muddy 7.5k cross country race complete with an optional ‘beer shortcut’. 24 Shetts, incl 3 generations of the Lennox family lined up alongside Westerlands and West End Road Runners for three greasy laps of the moss. Despite some strong individual performances and a lot of burping Westies came out on top overall, quite possibly a first! Many thanks to Niall and Westies for organising a great event and to Rod Reis and Chris Lennox for operating the shortcut!!
Three Shetts made it a little further from the east end down to the Scottish borders for the Glentress Trail Half Marathon. It was well worth the effort as all three finished at the sharp end. Local borders lad Lucas Cheskin who recently re-joined the club after a period abroad had a great race to finish 2nd overall in 1 hr 26. He was closely followed by Kevin Brydon in 4th place in 1hr 29. Not to be outdone by her partner Jessica Brydon continued her good form also taking 4th place in the women’s field in 1hr 44 (21st overall).
On the other side of the border down in Northumberland Harry Pulham pulled on the blue and gold for the Wooler Trail Marathon. ‘Marathon’ doesn’t quite tell the whole story, 28.5 miles and over 1800m of ascent and descent, no shortcuts here! Despite this Harry smashed the field of over 200 runners storming home in 1st place in an impressive time of 4.10.06, 26 minutes ahead of his nearest rival…Congratulations Harry!
Not to be outdone and perhaps in search of better weather Iain Pender and Tom Owens made it all the way to the foothills of the Italian Alps for the Valltellina Wine Trail. Again their efforts were well rewarded. This autumnal festival of running offers 3 races from 12.5k up to 42k and as the name suggests, is situated in the vineyards near Sondrio.
Iain opted for the 21k race (+900M of climb) and his recent hard work in training paid dividends with an excellent result, finishing in 38th place out of over 900 entries in 1.54.45. Tom however doesn’t get out of bed for anything less than marathon distance these days and went for the full 42k race (+1700m of climb). After undergoing more ankle surgery earlier this year it seems he is returning to proper form again, gliding home in 1st place in 3.19.09 to take away what looked like his own body weigh in red wine! Cheers Tom!
