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.

GGH   Junior XC league will go ahead on Sunday 16th Feb at 11am. The worst of the storm will have passed, but it will be chilly and windy so wrap up well and make sure you wear your spikes☄️🌧🌪⚡️ See you all at Tower Hill. *This is the 10th and final round of the league so its double points for everyone😁

There was a fantastic turnout of Greenock Glenpark Harriers for the annual Renfrewshire 5 mile road race last Sunday. This event always seems to bring with it some West of Scotland weather challenges, and this year was no different! However, it didn’t stop 57 seniors from braving the wind a rain. A super turnout from the club in our 125th year.

The opportunity for a fast and flat 5 mile race always brings out a string field. Kilbarchan’s Olympian Derek Hawkins cruised to victory in 24.36. Derek and his reflection was perfectly captured by our photographer just prior to the masses splashing their way through one of the large puddles. It was a Kilbarchan one two, with Holly Thompson winning the ladies race. There were also comfortable wins for Bellahouston Road runners and Inverclyde AC in the ladies and mens team competitions respectively.

Sue Hewitson was first Harrier female with a good run in 33.2, just missing out on v40 bronze too. There was a silver in the v50 category for Fiona Cushnaghan and also a silver in the v60 for Charlotte McKay. Well done girls! Marian Monk is steadily making her way back to top racing form, as she outfought Claire Monaghan for 2nd Harrier. The ladies team were pushed out into 4th place and sadly missed out on a medal. It was good to see Fiona MacFarlane and Cheryl Thomas pushing the top 3 ladies very close, almost getting themselves in as a team counter.

Shaun Lyon finished as the top male harrier and was 8th overall in 26.10. Run of the day has to go to Neil Lafferty. He has been flying in recent weeks with storming runs at the vets relays and at parkrun, but he took a good few scalps with his brilliant time of 27.06 for 2nd Harrier and 12th overall. This also saw Neil claim a v40 bronze, brilliant run Neil! Neil was narrowly ahead of Paul Monaghan and Stevie Campbell. Andy White and Daniel Doherty made up the six counters for the male team to claim a brilliant silver medal.

There were also medals for Danny McLaughlin, with a v60 silver. The solo gold medal of the day for the club came to Andy White, who strolled to victory in the v50 race in under 28 minutes. It wasn’t as fast as Andy’s run here last year, but his training is going well ahead of an other assault on the London Marathon.

Marathon training was paying off further down the field, as Oliver Reilly continued his great form to claim 7th spot on the team in just over 29 minutes. Similarly, Robert Dolan also ran a big 5 mile PB (with a 5k PB thrown in during the race too). Sandwiched between these two were the returning Chris Mooney who held off Stephen Hanley’s charging sprint finish. It is good to see former club champion Chris making a return to racing after 12 months of injury woes, and he followed this race up with a cracking 17.18 at parkrun yesterday.

Duncan Anderson made a return to racing after a quiet winter, and picked up where he left off at the tail end of last year by dipping under 30. There were good runs for Kevin Craig, James Doherty and Liam McFadden, who have recently joined the club. Another new face Stuart Clark really surprised himself with his time, and really felt the benefit of the Harriers training and the quality of the field on show.

There were two graduates from our Tuesday night Couch to Club Runner sessions taking part in the race. Emma Sinclair has ran 10k races since joining the club, but perhaps not in this sort of weather! Jennifer Boyd took part in her longest race, and indeed longest run to date and was delighted to get round in well under 50 minutes. Hopefully we see a few more graduates as the season progresses.

A big thank you to all of the race volunteers and marshals for helping out in such terrible conditions. The times for our runners are below (noting that there is still a slight issue with the ladies times)

Results: Shaun Lyon 26:10, Neil Lafferty 27:06, Paul Monaghan 27:16, Steven Campbell 27:19, Andrew White 27:53, Daniel Doherty 28:48, Oliver Reilly 29:12, Chris Mooney 29:15
Stephen Hanley 29:16, Robert Dolan 29:21, Duncan Anderson 29:51, Kevin Craig 30:17
Michael McLoone 31:17, John Stevenson 31:23, Owen Atkinson 31:33, Sean Marshall 32:15, David McCorkindale 32:46, Sue Hewitson 33:27, Danny McLaughlin 33:47, James Doherty 34:46, Stephen Reid 34:59, James McFadden 35:08, Liam McFadden 35:30, Stuart Austin 35:42, Richard Jow 35:44, David Holmes 35:51, Alan O’Rourke 35:55, Ian McKee 35:57, Eric Lindsay 36:07, Marian Monk 36:11, Calum Gorry 36:12, Stuart Clark 36:16
Robin McAuslan 36:18, Claire Monaghan 36:19, Fiona MacFarlane 36:40, Cheryl Thomas 36:45, James Campbell 36:56, Scot Hill 37:22, Frank McMahon 37:51, Lucas Bezian 38:08
Lisa Boonsanong 39:12, Debbie McKenzie 39:18, Lynsey Mooney 39:35, Gerry Gillespie 40:09, Kenny Scott 40:21, Stuart Crawford 40:36, Fiona Cushnaghan 40:54, Heather Lafferty 40:55, Boyd MacKenzie 42:19,Elaine Medinelli 43:28, Angela Nelson 43:33, Julie Smith 43:49, David Carruthers 45:29, Jennifer Boyd 47:42, Emma Sinclair 50:04, Charlotte McKay 52:10, Simon Hutton 52:31