At the Scottish Athletics Annual Awards Ceremony held in early November, we were joint runners up (along with Musselburgh and Whitemoss) in the club of the year section on "Improving Opportunities" category. As well as a small silver quaich, the club was awarded with a cheque for £200, which we aim to invest in more equipment and coach education.

The programme of doing a few different things has started:

Visits to the indoor facilities at Grangemouth: The first of these took place on Sunday 25th November when over two dozen members and a handful of fitness-minded parents used a range of the facilities at Grangemouth.

We will try to organise another session, and will notify those at training as soon as we get a date sorted out. Everyone is welcome!

Monthly medal races: Although the weather at Grangemouth was a bit damp, the older boys were determined to have a race. A very accurate scientific way had been used to calculate handicaps. Unfortunately they for a 800m race, and the guys were only prepared to sprint. Another set of scientifically calculated handicaps for a 100m race was quickly calculated and the race run.

Result 1. Neil Christison (Off 10m) 2. Robert Williamson (5m) 3. Kerr Archibald (Scratch)

Handicaps for the first two will be adjusted down for the next sprint race, whilst those for Neil Campbell (scr), Mathew Stevenson (2) Oliver Kerr (Scr) and Scott Nicholson (-6) will be also be adjusted (to their advantage) !

We were recently contact by Ewen Cameron, the new Athletics Development Officer employed by the City of Edinburgh Council asking us to nominate two boys and two girls for the Edinburgh Under 15 teams for the forthcoming regional qualifying rounds. Sports hall is an indoor competition based on a combination of running, jumping and throwing events. We agreed to do so and also put forward a reserve in each group, based on previous performances over a combination of events.:

Under 15 Girls: Emma Mitchell, Stephanie Lyall and Fiona Dewar (reserve)

Under 15 Boys: Neill Campbell, Paul Brash

Michael Smith was selected as reserve for the Under 15 Boys, but due to an inconsistency in the age group cut-offs, he is too young for the U15 and too old for the U13!! This has been pointed out to the organisers and Michael will be in the U13 boys team.

There are a few pieces of information specifically for parents which we've put together in a single page.

We have had several volunteers for the parents' rota of helpers to assist at training at Balerno HS. Our thanks to :

Jean & Jim Dewar, Dorothy Smith, Karin McKendrick, Lindsey Boyle, Gena Wright, Catherine Campbell, Sharon Thomson and Helen Martin. A rota for the spring term will be drawn up by Lyn Carmichael (449 3727). If anyone else would like to volunteer, please contact Lyn – it really does help the coaches to have assistance, especially with the number of juniors now coming along.

We have also received details of introductory coach training courses, including courses specifically for coaching children, so if anyone would like to take the first steps in coaching, please contact any of the committee members.

We've now compiled a collection of bits and pieces and these have been put together in handbook especially for parents to answer the various questions we are continually asked, especially during the summer when the club competes in various Track and Field meetings. This will be distributed in early 2002 once the Member's handbook is updated.

The Parents guide contains: Directions to stadia; a guide to how track meetings are organised, simple (very!) guide to helping the officials at field events. For the more dedicated (eg committee members) we've also described the tasks involved in Team management and convening a meeting, based on the experience we've gained over the years.

Over the years quite a few adults / parents have asked us about what we can organise for recreational (ie non-competitive) runners.

We realise that organising running groups is quite different from the main objectives of the club, which are primarily based on competition, and cater for a large number of juniors. There is also a perception, probably justified, that athletics clubs are too serious for the occasional jogger.

In order to promote greater participation of recreational runners, we are aiming to set up contact network that will put runners in touch with each other, and hopefully build up local running groups that cater for the different needs and availability of participants. We would help to organise social events, like previous runs across the Pentlands, or to Leith, and if numbers grow we would help to organise transport to some of the more popular fun runs. We've come up with the name "Pentland Runners". This is being done with the support of the City of Edinburgh Council, and is a forerunner of a national campaign to establish running groups as part of a public fitness being sponsored by the Scottish Executive and SportScotland. Although we will help get this network started, participants will not be required to join Harmeny Athletic Club, but we hope that our association and support for this new group will have spin-off benefits for the club.

There already is a small group which meets at Balerno High School on Sunday mornings at 10:00 am, usually after a phone around to see who's coming along, and in the summer there are a few guys from a fitness class who assemble in Malleny Park on Wednesday evenings (8:00 pm) before heading off for a run.

We are checking on the viability of taking out a let for the Games Hall of Balerno High School on Tuesday evenings for a starters group. Another initiative we would like to start is a Water of Leith handicap run on the last Sunday of every month, ie 27 Jan, 24 Feb, 31 March, 10.00 am from Malleny Park.

So now it's over to you. If you want to participate get in touch:

General, and Wednesday evenings: Bob Douglas 449-6105 bob.douglas@dial.pipex.com

Sunday morning group: Anne 449-6105

www.pentlandrunners.org.uk

The current club membership year runs from Oct 2001 to Sep 2002. We are now starting to chase up memberships. A list of those memberships received for the current year is included at the end of this Herald (paper version only). Please ensure that memberships are completed and returned as soon as possible.

Conditions were unusual for our annual visit to Bonnyrigg for the Lasswade Open CC Races on Sunday 11th November. Yes – it was dry and not too cold.

Stephanie Lyall was 1st in 12m 42s in the U13 race over 3000m with 25 finishers. In the combined U17/20 race over 4800m, Marbeth Shiell was 3rd in the U17s in 23m 13s and U20 Kristin Lownie 3rd in 22m 55s.

Again it was a dry day at the Meadowmill Sports Centre near Tranent on Sunday 25th November.

Chris O’Hare was 2^nd in the U11 race over 1500m in 5m 50s with 16 runners. U13 Michael Smith was 6th in 13m 04s with 10 runners over a 3000m course. U15 Shaun Desport was 1^st in 12m 02s over a short 4000m course with 28 runners. U17 Paul McDougall won in 16m 00s and Scott Nicholson was 14^th in 19m 43s over 4500m.

In the U13 race over 3000m Stephanie Lyall was 1st in 11m 39s from a field of 28 runners. In the combined U17/20 race over 4500m, Marbeth Shiell was 2nd in the U17s in 19m 43s and U20 Kristin Lownie 2nd in 20m 12s.

This was an excellent performance by our athletes with 6 of the 8 winning prizes.

The second league meeting of the season was held at a new course in Dunfermline on Saturday 1st December. The course was very soft and the grass playing fields quickly turned to mud. In the U13 race over 3000m, Stephanie Lyall was 3rd in 11m 01s with 17 runners. In the U15s over a 4000m course with 35 male runners, Shaun Desport was 1st in 14m 21s. In the U17 race with 28 runners, Philip Purves was 10th in 23m 38s over 5600m.

Stephanie Lyall, Marbeth Shiell and Shaun Desport were selected to represent the East District at the Scottish Inter District races at Holyrood Park in Edinburgh on Saturday 15th December. This race was also part of the Reebok series, and attracted several top runners from all over the UK.

There was a historic result in the Youths 90m handicap race at the annual New Year meeting held at Musselburgh on the 27th December when George McCorkell became the first youth to retain the title in a very tight finish. Both George and the second placed runner were timed at 10.25s. But what made the final even more historic was that younger brother Fergus and older sister Beatrice also won their heats to qualify, Fergus finishing 5th in 10.39, Beatrice 8th in 10.73. And with Amy Clancy 6th (10.42) and newcomer Finlay Anderson 7th (10.64) also in the final it was a very successful day for Charlie Russell's squad.

A field of 200 runners were surfaced on the first of January for the annual four mile race along the promenade at Portobello. The race was held in still, sunny conditions, with a bit of frost lingering in some areas the sun hadn't reached. Cliff Smith, who is in training for the London Marathon finished 153rd in 30min 44sec, and Bob Douglas finished 169th in 31min 45sec.