Three Harriers headed up the M9 to the beautiful village of Birnam in Perthshire to compete in the Birnam Trail which incorporated the Scottish Athletics Mid-Trail Championships; a race that attracted the best trail runners from across the country.
The 10km course was a challenging and technical route where runners needed to keep their focus throughout whilst dealing with the 1,000+ feet of elevation over the short distance. The Harriers were in luck as Neil Lafferty kindly recce’d the course the day before, providing a detailed account of the course. It was very kind of Neil to leave 24 hours before the race was due to start just to help his team out in this way.
There was a buzz around the race as top runners including National Cross Country champions and GB athletes Alice Goodall and Jamie Crowe mingled with the runners. The Harriers knew they needed a quick start to gain places before heading through the narrow forest section. With plenty of obstacles on this 1km section having a line of sight was going to be key. Andy McCall set off quickly and found himself in the top 15. As the race progressed uphill, Andy knew he would have to work exceptionally hard if he wanted to earn a top 10 finish. Approaching the first descent Andy started to trade places with various runners until the 5 km mark where he found himself in a tasty battle with Edinburgh athlete Myles Bax. Myles’ strength on the uphills was relentless as he passed Andy with ease before Andy would again overtake Myles on the descents. As both athletes focused on their own battle, they were completely unaware of Alice Goodall’s intentions to pass both runners. Alice joined the battle of the hills making every climb look easy as she sailed past McCall only to be frustrated as Andy would zoom past again on the downhill section. With 1km to go and a short, undulating, forest section to navigate it was all to play for. Myles made a decisive break on the last climb with Alice doing all she could to keep the chase on. Eventually Myles got the better of the duo whilst Andy managed to hold off the fast finishing Alice for 9th place (38:59).
With an outstanding start to his time in the club, John Logan was looking forward to his first taste of a National race. Having secured podium places at trail races across the country, John has experienced first hand the varied terrain that trail running offers. After a quick start John settled into the race and found himself battling it out with a very experienced group of runners. As the race progressed John knew a top 20 finish was on the cards but which place could he take knowing that every place would count for the team prizes? Only 9 seconds separated 14th to 18th which included the likes of Nicholas Gemmell and Richard Cooper. In a dramatic sprint finish John got the better of Cooper to finish in an incredible 16th place (42:07).
A quick head count with John across the line we knew it was going to be a nervy finish for Kev Craig to see if the Harriers would secure a National Team podium position. We didn’t have to wait long as Kev crossed the line in 27th place (43:46). Having found his running form again, completing weeks of high mileage, Kev ran a brilliant race feeling strong on the hills and technical terrain. After a nervy wait to hear the results we were sure that Kev’s run, finishing ahead Edinburgh’s 3rd athlete, would be enough to secure 3rd team. As Sharon announced the results the trio were delighted to receive the bronze team medals at a National event. This was to be both Kev and John’s first National medal and Andy’s first senior National medal, the last was when he was competing as an U20.
