March / April Update

Runners Council – Next meeting is on 5^th April at Riccarton Arms Currie at 7.30 – please come along  for a chat and a drink.   

 London and other marathons Good luck to everyone  running London and any other marathons this month   

New Jogscotland Groups:New groups starting for beginners on Wednesday evenings 7pm at BHS starting 8^th April and on Fridays at 9.30am at Currie Rugby Club Car park. Please tell anyone who wants to start jogging to come along or contact Anne 449 6105 or Carol 01506 880208

 Facebook  forum: We now have a Facebook page which about 40 people have joined, so we will see how this works. 

 A 'Facebook Group' has been set up in the name of 'Harmeny Athletics, Pentland Runners'. You have a forum to chat to other members about finding lifts to races, info from Frank and the Runners Council, nights out and anything else. 

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=46768682967

 If you are already on Facebook and would like to be added to the group please join in or give Norma or Anne your details to 'invite' you.   

 To set up a Facebook page - www.facebook.com

April Bog n Burn – Ian Morrice: The April Bog and Burn will be held on the last Sunday of this month, Sunday the 26th  - details from Iain nearer the time.  The March Bog n Burn was a lovely run ( hill climb/river paddle)  out at Roslin and was enjoyed by everyone, from some of the intermediate runners to the fast guys.  Well done Iain and the weather was brilliant as well.

 Harmeny T-shirts and tops: Get in touch with Norma if you want to buy a Harmeny top, she has a good supply.

 Thu Track sessions return to Saughton: Lights at then end of the tunnel .. or in the case of Saughton, at the end of the straights …unlike the dark bends of Livingston where we decamped over the winter. Unlike Livingston we do not have a deisel generator for the trackside arclight for the trackside building site spewing fumes at the point where runners are gasping for oxygen.  Unlike Livingston there is no geological (or geophysical) anomaly which links the track to the Arctic permafrost. Unlike Livvy there are no cones randomly placed on the track where running repairs are happening. It’s great to be back where the floodlights flood light… it almost brings tears to the eyes … but I think that’s just the windy bend.

So, yes we are back where we belong on Thursday nights, and we have two groups … adult runners aiming to improve 10k / half times and young (12 – aging vet) sprinters.  6.45 – 7.45, but there’s only a couple of spaces available, so if interested get in touch.

… And the juniors? Those parents with children attending will be aware of a totally different side to the club’s activities – which date back over thirty years when the club was formed to provide a sporting outlet for disadvantaged children attending Harmeny School. We continue to provide training sessions three times a week for juniors, and in the summer term we have an explosion of events. So if you would like to see (and help out) here are some dates, times and venues when the club (ie us) are organising teams and /or events.

Forth Valley League:
Wed    22 April          Pitreavie, 7.00 pm
Thu     14 May             Pitreavie, 7.00 (Harmeny & Corstorphine convene this meeting)
Thu     18 May             Livingston, 7.00
Sat      1 Aug               Grangemouth, 10.00

These events only take place with the assitnce of club volunteers. The 15 mins before the event start will be particularly educational (esp for those familiar with the branch of mathematics known anti-chaos theory … order emerging from mayhem).

We also have our own Mini-championship nights for juniors, all at 6.00, at Balerno HS
Wed    13 May             (800m & Shot Putt)
Wed    3 June              (100m & Long Jump)
Mon     8 June              (Water of Leith Mini-Marathon, 4.25 km)
Come along before your Wed . Mon run to help (or even have a join in). For the WoL mini-marathon we need runners and you can run along as your warm up.

If you attend the FVL meetings you will probably see a future Scottish internationalist, if you help out you are part of our sporting future.

Running technique Clinic: Message from Bob Turner I know many of you won't know me from Adam, but I am a member of Harmeny, honest :-).

I am contemplating setting up a running technique clinic in the Edinburgh area.  The format is likely to be over one day, possibly two half days and the costs are likely to be around £100.   Before you completely disregard it as being extortion, read on a wee bit.

 The clinic will be organised and conducted by a level II POSE coach (there are some links at the bottom of the email regarding the coach and the running technique and I think by the time this clinic goes ahead the coach may well be a level III coach).  Since I know the course instructor, who is a GP with an interest in sports injuries, I offered to help out at the Edinburgh end, gauging interest, organising a venue etc.

 I am going to try to not give the hard sell here, I'll simply say that POSE method is a running technique that has been scientifically proven to reduce injury and improve running efficiency and economy.  Aspects of the technique have helped me put in the volume and intensity of training I have over the last 12 months, so far without any injuries. It is especially popular with Tri-athletes due to the different use of muscle groups from 'traditional' running which can help with the transition from the bike to the road.

 Anyway, that's enough of that.  I'll leave you with the information that Mark (the POSE coach) forwarded onto me.

The clinic will be restricted to between 10 and 15 people in order for everyone to get the full benefits of Mark's tuition.

Mark's own website is here,  http://www.efficientrunning.co.uk

Some more information on POSE technique and Mark's own profile on the POSE website:

http://www.posetech.com/pose_method/

http://www.posetech.com/training/archives/000424.html

http://www.posetech.com/services/MarkHainsworth.html

I will be looking for interest only at this stage.  Once I can gather enough interest I will look at organising dates, costs, venues etc and then propose some options to those who have shown an interest.   With a lot of us in full marathon training the clinic will be after Edinburgh marathon, so most likely early to mid June.  Since Mark is a busy GP, the clinic will be at the weekend.

Boab (Turner)

Reports:

 Only one report from Nicky  Freedman-  "I have to tell you that I ran the Nairn 10k on Sunday (1st March) and I didn't (hardly didn't) chat going round,  even though I was running with a friend!   However, I got my chance at the end as there was tea and chocolate biscuits served after the run in the local community centre.  It was a really good run.... the sun was out and the atmosphere was really friendly (about 500 runners).  I clocked 51min59secs on my watch which is a new pb - official times aren't out yet!

 So that was the first outing for my harmeny running t-shirt! "

And copied from Harmeny facebook site  Alan Price reports-

"A Tale of Two Races: Having limped away to the school 3 weeks ago rather than run back up Mansfield Road with shin splints (the consequence of doing 20 miles on a Saturday and then chasing Frank back into South Queensferry the following day, and tripping over a metal fence after 19 of a planned 22 miles the following week), there was really only one way to recuperate - races.

So, March 8th I drove across to Clydebank for the Balloch half. The weather forecast promised floods and locusts for the afternoon and everything else for the morning. The M8 was single file from the snow (although the whiteout in Motherwell had its pluses). Balloch was cold and windy, with 500 runners huddling into the visitor centre to keep warm. I did a gentle warm up, and the shins felt as bad as Wednesday night. I wondered about getting back in the bus rather than run but lined up for the start as it began to snow again. As usual I went off as fast as those around me, rather quicker than I intended - but it didn't hurt. I kept going, the wind was much less than I'd feared, and the sun came out. 52 min at 10k, 83 min at 10 miles, 1h 48 at the finish, 3 minutes off my Edinburgh time last year. So a flattish course (enough bumps to be interesting without being a struggle) and obviously very fast.

Having talked marathons with Neil at South Queensferry, thought about everybody else's times, and how my training was falling apart in the last 3 weeks again I'd decided to aim at 4 h15-4h 20 this time. But I'd done that half marathon time so maybe.... Which is called hubris and now I know better. March 21st, Steinfurt in Germany, which is 15 miles from Munster, or 6h and 5 trains from Brussels where I'd been the previous day. No wind, sunny day, flat course (and it turned out quiet country roads in farm and woodland in the second half of each lap, and very friendly crowds in the town we ran through). I got to the start switched on the Garmin I'd charged Thursday night to see the low battery sign and it cut out after about a minute. So either 26 miles relying on my own judgement of pace or - the balloons. And I had a choice - 4h, 4h 15 or 4 h30. Obviously 4h. I kept with them to 23 km, although I was a bit alarmed when someone said we'd gone through 20 km at 1h 50. Still half way at 1h 58. The first hill of the second lap was at 23-24 km and I lost about 10m but got it back on the down the other side. But it flattened out and goodbye 4h pace. It's quite daunting to want to lie down at 25 km but whatever. I'd got a couple of dextro tabs free befoer hand and had one of those, a banana at the next food station and struggled to 30 km where I had my first walk. More glucose at 30 km, but I think I walked more than I ran the last 10k. The 4h 15 balloons passed me at 35km. I did run the last half kilometre, and finally managed 4h 28, which was 3 minutes better than Ness, but a slightly less glorious PB than Paul's at Alloa. And the photographs were a difficult choice. No legs, because it's easy to see they are not moving. But even in the upper half it's obvious the arms aren't exactly pumping me to the finish. And as for the ones where I'm hidden by the fat guy finishing the half marathon relay the less said the better.

So some lessons learned
1. If you've got shin splints run faster.
2. Don't believe the Runners World race calculators.
3. Take two watches.
And seriously
It helps to have trained for longer distances than the race - easy for halves but I'm not sure I fancy 30 mile long runs.
Start slowly.
Trust your training runs - if you're dying at 16 miles in every long run you probably will in the race, especially if you try to run a minute a mile faster.
Do run-walks in training - you may need it in the race.
And for next time I'll experiment with gels and other sugar spikes. I did feel better every time I had one, but didn't have enough after 30 km.

You’ve all been too busy running to write any reports…  but please send  us some for next month - anyone can write a few sentences about runs as it’s good to read about runs others may not know about and which ones have hills, (or not) and which ones have post race food (or not)!

Results (remember to put your club as Harmeny on your entry forms so we can easily find all your results)

National Cross Country Falkirk 21 Feb 09

Under 13 Girls 
91     Alison Boadhurst           17.13      

Senior Ladies                                           142 Runners
53     Kerry Scott                    34.21
71     Caroline Dunn                 35.34
123   Bev Dodgson                   40.22
129   Fiona Donaldson             41.11      
132   Lorna Broadhurst          42.03     

Senior Men                                               413 Runners
64     Boab Turner                    42.10
89     Paul Houston                   43.16
300   Paul Thompson                52.09
303   Gavin Orr                        52.27
363   Tom White                      56.11          

Cupar 5 Mile  28 Feb 09                        199 Runners
3       Robert Turner                26.05     

Nairn 10K  1 March 09                           366 Runners
215   Nicola Freedman           52.13     

Lasswade 10 Mile 1 March 09               406 Runners
44     Alan Kerr                         65.58
110    Paul Thompson                1.11.25
210   Margie Leitch                 1.20.12
217   Bev Dodgson                   1.20.43
234   Ian May                           1.21.42
280   Fiona Donaldson             1.25.44  

Smokies 10 Mile  1 March 09                340 Runners
64     Lorna Boadhurst           1.23.22
70     Kirsty Stoddart             1.24.09  
119    Lindsay Boyle                  1.29.23  
171    Shona Stewart               1.33.36  
230   Shona Baird                    1.37.55  
237   Pauline White                 1.38.31   
294   Norma Bone                    1.46.58  

Kings Building 5 Mile  7 March 09       208 Runners
141    Lorna Broadhurst          39.51     
145   Kirsty Stoddart             40.42     

Inverness Half Marathon 8 March 09    1122 Runners
3       Robert Turner                1.12.37   

Balloch To Clydebank Half 8 March 09  391 Runners
233   Alan Price                        1.49.13   

Heriot Watt 5K  21 March                  199 Runners
42     Alan Kerr                         18.56     
120   Johnathon Page             22.43     
121    Bev Dodgson                   22.44     
138   Lorna Broadhurst          23.47     
141    Mo May                            24.13     
159   Norma Bone                    26.25     
166   Ailsa Docharty               27.05     
167   Rhoda Ross                      27.35     
170   Gail Crosbie                     28.17     
171    Bob Douglas                    28.17     
176   Alan Flemming                29.02     
181    Roy Sturrock                  29.29     
184   Ann Laidlaw                     29.59     
193   Ruth Shering                  33.16

And handicap results for HW-

                                Race         Handicap    Time         Time
                               Time         Time          Over         Under
Alan Kerr                  0:18:56     0:18:49      0:00:07   
Jonathon Page        0:22:43    0:26:04                       0:03:21
Bev Dodgson              0:22:44    0:21:19        0:01:25     
Lorna Broadhurst     0:23:47    0:25:07                       0:01:20
Mo May                     0:24:13     0:25:29                       0:01:16
Norma Bone               0:26:25    0:26:40                       0:00:15
Rhoda Ross                0:27:35    0:27:37                       0:00:02
Gail Crosbie                0:28:15     0:27:59      0:00:16    

Male winner - Jonathon Page                                      
Female winner - Lorna Broadhurst                              

Alloa Half Marathon  22 March 09    971 Runners
12     Paul Houston                   1.15.53   
197   Paul Thompson                1.33.35  
427   Bev Dodgson                   1.44.16   
465   Ian Smith                        1.46.17   
843   Norma Bone                    2.06.33  
966   Jill Cox                            2.36.31  

Grangemouth 10k 29 March 09            700 Runners
22     Paul Houston                   34.09     
150   Paul Thompson                41.10      
267   Bev Dodgson                   45.18     
301   Ian Smith                        45.44     
362   Jonathon Page              47.26      
370   Alex Gordon                    47.51     
405   Lorna Broadhurst          49.19     
598   Morag Tweddle               56.53     
667   Brian R Simpson             1.00.54  

Club Handicap Races 2009

HANDICAPPERS MUSINGS: The handicap events have already started as you will see from the results of the Heriot Watt 5K elsewhere in the Newsletter.  This event attracted a number of new entrants to the clubs handicap events so I have given them handicaps so that they will be able to compete in future events for a club handicap trophy.  Because the first three events are so close to each other I have not adjusted handicap times based on times at HW! The summer programme is now out so I have put dates by the various events. If anyone requires a handicap please let me know – ideally a race time is best but if you don’t have one we can usually make a reasonable estimate. Current handicaps are on the web-site.      Ian May.

April  4th                    Dunbar 10k 
April 5th                     Edinburgh half Marathon 
May 9th                      Penicuik 10k
June 14th                   Peebles (Beltane) 10k
August 2nd                 Scottish Gas 10k and 5k
Aug tba                                  Club Handicap
September 20th       Stirling 10k
October 25th             Jedburgh ½ Marathon
November                  Cross-country

 Race Dates – but check SAL website for complete listings
Sat 4 April    Dunbar 10k
Sun 5 April    Edinburgh half marathon
Sun 5 Apr      Heaven & Hell half marathon (Venue : Stormont Hall, Perth aerodrome, Scone, Perthshire) 
Sun 19 Apr    Lochaber Marathon
Sun 19 Apr    Gala Harriers 10k and 3k fun run
Sat 25 Apr    Balmoral 10k 5k 2.5k and 1.5k
Sun 26 April  Angus half marathon (at www.eventfull.biz)
Sun 3 May     BUPa Edinburgh 10k
Sat 9 May      Penicuik 10k
Sat 16 May    Loch Leven Half
Sun 10 May    Dunfermline Half
Thur 22 May Black rock ‘5’ Kinghorn 7.30pm

Monday 25 May Rigg race. As we are staging it, we need a squad of helpers to marshall the course and manage registration etc, so please get in touch if you are able to help out.
      
Sat  30 May    Trossachs 10k            A wee gem. Highly recommended
Sun 31 May    Edinburgh marathon 
Sun 14 June   Dechmont Law 10k Undualting course apparently!)
Sun 14June    Beltane 10k & junior 3 k races, Peebles
Tue 30 June JogScotland Challenges (5k) Edinburgh:  Inverleith Park      Split into 2 races (Fun runs) 6pm and 7.30pm pre enter

Sat 25 July   Musselburgh 6 mile road race
Sun 2 Aug      Scottish Gas / Granton 10k & 5k
Sat 8 Aug      Haddington Half
Sun in Aug     Club 10k-&-a-bit pursuit handicap race.
Sun 5 Sep      Great Scottish Run / Glasgow half & 10k
Sun 13 Sep     Linlithgow 10k
Sun 20 Sep    Stirling 10k
Sun 4 Oct      Loch Ness Marathon / 10k / 5k

See the club website for more local races coming up this year. http://www.harmenyac.org.uk/prunners/events.htm

The full Scottish Athletics fixture list for the season is at http://www.scottishathletics.org.uk