This year’s George Cummings Road Relay Race took place in quite challenging weather conditions. The heavy rain and very blustery wind made parts of the exposed course pretty tough. However, the race was great fun to do with pretty much all kind of terrain and surfaces packed into the 2.7 miles of course. The mens’ event was won by the home team, Kilbarchan A in an overall time of 54.35 with Giffnock North A winning the women’s event in 47.37. The fastest male lap was done by the British Olympian, Callum Hawkins (Kilbarchan) in 12.08, while Erin Wallace (Giffnock) did the fastest women’s lap (14.50).
This year Maryhill Harriers had two men’s teams entered and our new men’s captain, Scott Coulter had picked two evenly matched teams up against each other. This meant myself and Kevin Campbell going in the first leg, with Scott up against Craig White, then Chris Hever versus Craig Gilmour and James Prior and Chris Gunn doing the anchor legs. As I mentioned above, I found the course great fun. I started at an even pace and then sped up and used that momentum to catch a few groups before joining a bunch of runners I normally run with in other races. We then took turns pushing the pace up the hills before a mad dash down hill to the finish. The A-team completed their four legs first, finishing in 37th place (overall time: 72.02), while the B-team came home in 40th place (overall time: 74.22). Below are the individual placings and times:
A-Team:
66th: Andy Sutherland (15.18)
113th: Scott Coulter (16.25)
175th: Chris Hever (20.50)
168th: James Prior (19.29)
B-Team:
96th: Kevin Campbell (15.53)
116th: Craig White (16.31)
137th: Craig Gilmour (17.13)
180th: Chris Gunn (24.45)
Many thanks to Caroline for the support, as well as the organisers and marshalls for an excellent road race.
