Wednesday 30th September

Unfortunately due to restrictions, we cannot meet as a group this year. So it is proposed that the following format is adopted in order to get some sort of AGM and bring this season to a close.

Leading up to the 30th September we’ll invite members to email in anything they would like to have brought up under Any Other Business (AOB) to greenockglenparkharriers@gmail.com

This will be discussed by the committee , minuted, and a reply sent. This will all be put together with the President, Treasurer and Secretary’s report and emailed to all members on the 30th September.

As far as setting the fees for next season Yvonne Prager (Treasurer) proposes keeping the fees the same as recent years.
Senior £50
Junior £50
Family £100
2nd member from same household £30
Early bird (paid before 31st October)
Senior £45
Junior £45
Family £95
2nd member from same household £25

Fees will be due from 1st October bank details to follow.

I hope you will support this format and we can move forward and plan for season 2020/21

The current committee is listed below. There has been a couple of changes recently. There are two vacancies at the moment. One for the treasurers position, Yvonne Prager has decided to step down after 4 years as Treasurer and 8 years before that as President. Graham McGrattan is also stepping down as Clubhouse Manager (with someone showing an interest in the position). Steven Watson stepped down recently as Membership secretary with Liz Ness taking over. We would like to thank everyone for their hard work over the years. If anyone is interested in the Treasurers position please get in touch.

Robert Dolan – President
Yvonne Prager – Treasurer (vacant)
Stevie McLoone – Secretary/Coaching rep
Alison King Welfare – Officer/Assistant Secretary/Covid Co-ordinator
John Stevenson – Mens Captain
Elaine Medinelli – Ladies Captain (newly filled position)
Stephen Hanley – Communication Secretary
Liz Ness – Membership Secretary
Stephen Reid – Kit Manager
Graham McGrattan – Clubhouse Manager (Stepping Down, someone showing interest)
Claire Melville – Social Convenor
Alan O’Rourke – Ordinary Member
Lorna Coyle – Ordinary Member

At long last we are able to return to Ravenscraig stadium for training, commencing Tuesday 15th September 2020. Times are slightly different than usual, and there are some restrictions been put in place. ***Please note that there will be NO toilet facilities available.

Tuesday

Junior training – Ravenscraig Stadium 6.15 to 7.15pm (upto 7.45pm for sprint group). Meet outside the stadium – no entry prior to 6.15pm.

 Thursday

Junior training – Ravenscraig Stadium 6.00 to 7.00pm (upto 7.30pm for sprint group). Meet outside the stadium – no entry prior to 6.00pm.

Saturday

Junior training – Ravenscraig Stadium 11.45am to 12.45pm (sprint group speak to Kenny M. for your times). Meet outside the stadium – no entry prior to 11.45am.

We have taken advantage of the Covid shutdown to refurbish the Orangefield clubhouse. The work is nearing completion, with expectation that we can start using it again by the 1st October 2020.

Unfortunately there will be quite significant restrictions in order to comply with Government guidance. This will include:- clubhouse limited to TWO users at any one time: Coming changed for your session: No use of the showers. Users Wiping down equipment on completion of session: Toilets can be used, and users to follow all current Government guidance.

There will be a booking system in place on the clubwebsite. Members may book a single 1 hour gym session up to 1 week in advance**. The Gym will be available 24/7.

**If an adjacent slot is available 24 hours prior to your current booking, you may book a back to back session.

Please note: You will need to Contact committee for a new key, as lock has been changed on outer door.

We are delighted to once again begin taking on new senior members to Greenock Glenpark Harriers. We have had our popular Monday and Wednesday senior training sessions up and running now for the last month, and we are now in a position where we can open these sessions up to new senior members and free trials.

If you are interested in joining the club or coming along to one of our training sessions, then please drop us an email at greenockglenparkharriers@gmail.com

Our senior training sessions run on Monday and Wednesday nights at 6.20pm. These sessions are for all abilities, please do not feel that you are not fast enough for these sessions. That will never be the case. Currently, Monday nights are in Greenock Cemetery and Wednesday will be in the Battery Park until the clocks change. Pre-booking for sessions is currently essential so that we comply with track and trace. More information on this will be passed on if you email in.

We are currently offering membership for free until the start of our new season next month, so now is the perfect time to come along and give it a bash!

Unfortunately, our popular Couch to Club Runner group on a Tuesday night will not return until Spring 2021. It was always the plan this year to stop this for winter due to too many cancellations last year, and poor visibility on the Esplanade. The lockdown easing just came too late to run a full block before the clocks change.

However, we hope that the runners who were attending this will give one of our other sessions a chance for free in the next month, and we guarantee that you’ll love it! You wont find a more welcoming bunch of folk than the Harriers on a Monday or Wednesday night.

We recently received an old Harriers picture  taken during the Great War. We are very grateful to Peter Hayden who’s grandfather is featured, for the photo and the background story. (see below)

Whether it is the Run5 Donate5 Nominate5, the 2.6 challenge or a different type of contest, there has been a great deal of virtual running ideas keeping people busy in the last month or so. Even within the club, we’ve had our virtual Docherty Cup door to door race, the Scottish Athletics 15 minute challenge and this weekend we will have our virtual Willie Jukes 5 mile race. The charitable success of the Docherty was recently publicised in the Greenock Telegraph. The GGH 125 Strava segments have also proven to be very popular in getting some competitive juices flowing.

One thing that we have noticed as a club is that there are a lot of people out there running, taking full advantage of the daily exercise. Maybe it is because the local gyms are shut? Maybe it is the lack of structure team training sessions? However, we are sure there are a number of people who have tried running for the first time. Maybe you even enjoy it? Maybe you’d like to keep it up after this situation calms down?

Well if that is the case, then perhaps a little more information on Greenock Glenpark Harriers is what you’re after. Under normal circumstances, we offer runner focussed training sessions for ages 9-90. We compete at a national level and we have 11 of our own unique club races from 1 to 10 miles. We also have a newly initiated and already popular free beginners group which meets once a week, with the name “Couch to Club Runner” which does exactly as advertised.

Obviously, we cannot offer these services now. We will be hoping to be up and running as soon as we can. However, if you are just getting into your running and you have any questions, then why not drop up a message at any of the below:

@ggharriers on Twitter
Greenock Glenpark Harriers on Facebook
greenockglenpark on Instagram
greenockglenparkharriers@gmail.com

Maybe you want to know what sort of training you could be doing to allow yourself to run further/faster? Maybe you want to know good local routes to run? Or maybe you want to know more about us as a club? Anything at all, drop us a line and we’ll get back you. In the mean time, stay safe and enjoy your running!

Harry McGill put in a fantastic performance to win the Scottish schools National cross country championships. Representing Largs Academy he came from behind to win by 8 seconds over Glennifer HS Lewis Hannigan

There were also a dozen young harriers representing their schools at the Hopetoun estate in South Queensferry, with large numbers in each of the races. There were excellent runs from the youngsters over the testing, hilly course, especially from Shaun Wiseman, band Ruby McGill placing well up the field.

Age Group D girls: Sophie McGinty 124^th

Age Group D boys: David Docherty 52^nd; Euan Johnson 66^th

Age Group C girls: Katie Johnson 86^th; Sophie Campbell 110^th; Gabby Henderson 143^rd

Age Group B girls: Ruby McGill 39^th; Abbie Tosh 77^th; Olivia Trainer 115^th

Age Group B boys: Shaun Wiseman 40^th; Jude Dolan 74^th

Age Group A boys: Harry McGill 1^st

On day 2 of the National Indoor championships at the Emirates Arena it was the turn of the under 15 athletes, with Ava Beaton and Sophie Campbell competing the 1500metres. Sophie was pleased to have improved her previous quickest time by two seconds (6.13minutes); while Ava’s 5:23 was enough to take her through to the final.

In the 800m Katie Johnson, surprisingly running for the first time indoors, set off in in determined fashion chasing one of the 2 automatic qualifying places. It was a pace she couldn’t maintain, and she slipped back to 4^th in 2:42min, but she should take great confidence from her speed over her opening 400m. David Docherty was next up and good solid run (2:31min) saw him record a 5 second PB. Harris Morrison was drawn against the clear favourite Central AC’s Connor Bell. A very quick 200m saw the pair quickly open up a gap on the rest of the field for a very comfortable progression to the final (2:12mins).

In that final it was again Bell setting the pace with a pack of 4 chasing the remaining 2 medals. Harris had kept himself in contention in 3^rd with a lightning first lap of 29 seconds, but with no let-up in the pace his rivals were gathering on his shoulder going into the last lap. Unfortunately despite being  faster than his heat, Harris couldn’t hold on and narrowly missed out on a medal, in a time just a second off his best(2:10mins).

In Ava’s 1500m final she turned in another solid performance to place 10^th, although disappointed, she can look forward to the summer track season after an injury laden winter.

Scott Hannaway takes 3rd in the 400m Final, Picture by : 4J Studios National Indoor Age Groups 2020 (C) Bobby Gavin

Glenpark’s young athletes were in the best of form with 5 out of 6 recording personal bests at the National Indoor Championships at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.

Under13s Summer Taggart and Sophie McGinty got proceedings underway in the 800metres, with both drawn together in the first of 4 heats.  They pair went out hard hanging on to the tail of the leader, and were rewarded with lifetime bests; Summer (2:45) slashing 17 seconds from her previous best and finishing second , and Sophie (2:49) improving by 4 seconds holding on for 4^th.

Next over 1500metres were Erin McEleny and Maria McCabe. Maria in the first heat, bravely battled round the 7 ½ laps after a niggle in the warm up flared up early during the race, but despite her pain she ground out a new best of 6:02 improving by 4 seconds.  Erin followed in the quickest of the girls heats, she was holding on to the pack, but the very fast early pace took its toll and she faded in the closing stages, nevertheless it was an outstanding effort just outside her best. Also competing was Euan Johnson who was drawn in the quickest boys’ 1500m heat. He too went out quickly with the leading pack, but despite drifting off he managed to improve his best by 3 seconds to 5minutes 28sec.

The final race involved Under 20 Scott Hannaway, who had earlier won his heat to set up a much anticipated 400m final. And it didn’t disappoint; Scott who had kept within touching distance of Kilbarchan’s Stephen Johnston for a lap and a half, put in an attempt to strike for gold in the last bend, but it wasn’t to be, as he couldn’t quite get on terms, only to then see Glasgow’s Niall MacLean slip by in the last few strides, with less than 4 tenths of a second separating the 3 medallists.  It wasn’t all disappointment for Scott as he clinched Bronze in a new lifetime best of 49.32 seconds.

The 10th and final round in the GGH Junior XC League took place at Tower Hill with 20 juniors turning out in the cold and windy conditions. Despite the weather and boggy underfoot conditions there were some excellent times in the 2km time trial. Congratulations to Overall winner David Docherty and to all the age category winners Beth Docherty, Summer Taggart, Ava Beaton, Abbie Tosh, Grant Munro, David Docherty, Harris Morrison, and Shaun Wiseman. The most improved athlete over the long winter contest was Euan Johnson.