Saturday 5th April 2025
A beautiful April afternoon greeted 52 Glenpark Harriers on Gourock Promenade as the club held its longest race of the season, the 10 mile Docherty Cup. The race is an out and back conceding handicap course heading off from Gourock, out through Lunderston Bay and turning at Inverkip. With a fresh easterly wind pushing runners along on the outward stretch, competition was fierce in both the championship and handicap races as we head toward the business end of the club season. While the wind never posed the same kind of problems as the 2024 race, the loop back from Bankfoot would prove challenging and the race provided some outstanding running across every field – and it was pleasing to see a large number of female runners this year. We also welcomed IAC’s John Bell to the race this year – John would prove to be too strong for our club runners, going over the line first from a scratch start.
Handicap Race: The race got underway with the first runner the evergreen Charlotte McKay heading out at 2pm, running the Docherty for the first time after being persuaded to give it a go by Cheryl Thomas, and she was followed by subsequent groups going off at set intervals thereafter. The handicap committee outdid themselves this year, and it was impossible to predict who might be over the line first with lots of speculation on who would be the bookies favourite for the win. The standard of running would also make for an exciting race, with an edge-of-the-seat finish – only seven seconds separating first from second place.
Handicap events are always hugely anticipated as they are a great leveller, and the Docherty Cup arguably more than most. Today’s victor was a relatively new member of the club, Aaron Fullerton, crossing the finish line first with HC 1:44:56, ahead of veteran Jim Cuffe HC 1:45:03 in a sprint finish. Jim actually had a decent lead going into the last few hundred metres, but Aaron managed to pull him in for an outstanding finish, one of the closest in recent years – agony for Jim in the end, but that’s racing for you! William Taylor’s HC 1:45:21 superb effort managed to move him up to third place, one of the notable runs of the day, was followed by Michael McLoone in HC 1:47:07 and another strong run from Graham McGrattan in HC 1:46:13 put him into fifth place.
Ladies Race: There is usually not much of a question of who would be the favourite for any ladies race these days, such is the strength of current ladies champion Jill Cox – and so it proved on the day, with Jill crossing the finish comfortably ahead of second place with a time of 1:04:16. A great performance once again from Jill, she was followed by Melissa Wilson who recorded 1:17:44. This was a big step up in distance for Melissa, but she put in an amazing effort and edged out Fiona Macfarlane into third with 1:18:07 and who was still feeling the effects of the recent Hyrox event; these were the only three ladies to manage the sub 80 minutes. There were also great runs from Jennifer Rooney 1:20:53, Heather Lafferty 1:22:03 (another post-hyrox runner), and Vice Captain Cheryl Thomas 1:24:57.
A great showing from the ladies overall with ‘sensible paces’ from those with upcoming marathons – we’re looking at you Cheryl, Jill, Rebecca and Eilidh!
Mens Race: The men’s championship is really hotting up at the moment, with several runners hitting top form and making a claim for the title. At the sharp end of the mens race, Club Champions Neil Lafferty and Dylan Crawford were joined by Andy McCall and Lewis McCrae off scratch – all four men have taken a club race this season and all four would have a reasonable shout for the win. In the early stages Dylan took the race to the others, leading out over the first 1.5 miles, but by 2 miles Neil closed the gap and set a steady pace with Dylan sitting in. The fast pace suited Andy who started off in a steady pace, shaking off Lewis who was beginning to struggle early on. Dylan had faded a little on Neil at the Lunderston Bay point with Andy closing the gap – by the time the group had left the bay, Andy had caught up with Neil and the two men traded places until after the turn where Neil kicked in to lead going down the hill section.
Andy has really been coming into form lately and managed to close the gap again, kicking on from the Lunderston Bay exit into the wind and holding it for a terrific win in 56:31. Neil finished in second with 56:51 and a superb run from veteran Paul Monaghan pushed him into third overall, going under the hour with 59:20 on the clock. Two more runners made it home under the 60 minute mark; Dylan in fourth with 59:26 and another fantastic effort from the continually improving Chris Mooney in fifth position with 59:40.
Other excellent performances came from Kev Craig 1:02:26, Andrew White 1:03:18 battling hard around the course, and Mick McLoone also running extremely well for his second 10 miler inside a week. It was also great to see Andrew Osborne wearing a racing vest again, and he had a great run on his comeback with 1:04:03. John Hampsey is another runner going well across the season and he had another fine race today, crossing the line in 1:04:44. Owen Atkinson continues to come back from illness and produced a respectable time of 1:05:40. The usual suspects William Taylor 1:04:51, Stephen Harrison 1:06:18, Colin McKnight 1:07:55 and Matthew Deegan 1:12:48 starting off together once again but split early on, with William going out hard to break the other men early on in an effort to try for the handicap win.
A huge thank you to all the volunteers who made the day go off so smoothly,
and to the Spinnaker Hotel for sponsoring and hosting the post-race festivities!
