Tuesday 26th May 2026 – Senior Races (Male / Female)
A beautiful, warm and sunny evening saw history made on the Esplanade as Greenock Glenpark Harriers held their annual one mile club race, The Chisholm Mile. Regarded by many as one of the toughest events on the club Calendar, the race saw a record field of 116 athletes toe the start line. For the first time ever, the huge turnout meant the club had to take the unusual step of splitting the start into two groups to help ease congestion on the busy promenade, with male and female races taking place. 71 male athletes and a record 45 female athletes raced as juniors and seniors go head to head across the lung-bursting distance. Not only were attendance records set, but the female race recorded the quickest field ever assembled with the top 9 ladies all going under 6 minutes.
Top Three Ladies
As expected, current ladies champion Jill Cox dominated the ladies field, smashing her previous best time on this course to take the win – the second time Jill has taken first place in this race. Her time of 5:17 is the 5th quickest female time on the course, and the 3rd quickest Harrier. Only Shelby Morrison in 2013 (5:14) and Emily Pollock who set the Harriers ladies record in 2010 (5:11) have gone quicker in a GGH vest. Kilbarchan’s Under 14 girl, Kira Mitchell, took a massive 20 seconds off her time from last year to finish 2nd place (3rd last year) – an outstanding run from the youngster. Rounding off the female podium was Cambuslang’s Marie Kane in 5:31.
Top Three Men
In his first season with the club, Dee Waka continues to improve and is now seriously challenging for the championship. Dee made it two wins from his last two club races, having recently won the Willie Jukes Dunoon Road Race. Dee set out at a blistering pace, completing the first 400m in 56 seconds and setting down a real marker for the chasing pack. The Rothesay man went on to take the win with a fantastic time 4:30. The u20 athlete is still finding his feet with running but his form this season shows there is a bright future ahead. The chasing pack were pushing each other hard and it came right down to the wire with Stephen Trainer setting the pace early on. Trainer is currently sitting top of the championship table and knows that every race counts as Waka can still snatch the victory from Stephen in the final races, with just points separating the two after Stephen’s early season form. Trainer pulled the race back in toward the closing stages and held on to finish in 2nd place (4:37), just ahead of the fast finishing Lewis Khan by one second. Lewis has recorded some excellent times across the 5k distance recently and his time of 4:38 was just rewards for his training efforts. Khan finished in 4th place last year and went one better this time out, with an 8 second improvement.
Chisholm Tales!
With over 100 runners taking part, there were some great efforts across the field. The battle for the top three places in the male race was extremely close, with Andy McCall pushing Lewis Hard for the third spot and going over the line one second behind the third placed runner; in the end, the top 10 male runners all recorded sub 5 times this year. Jamie McEwan, another runner showing great potential in his first season as a club runner also ran extremely well in 4:47 for 6th spot, just a few seconds behind Vice Captain Daniel Doherty who is coming into excellent form of late. Daniel recorded his quickest time since 2017 and not far off his PB. Stephen Hanley timed his run perfectly, stealth tactics engaged as he watched the V50 pair of Steven Campbell and Paul Monaghan go shoulder to shoulder just ahead of him, timing his finish perfectly for 4:57 and nipping in ahead of Campbell (4.59) u18 Charlie Flynn (5.00) and Monaghan (5.01). The two V50 men have it all to play for in the championship table and it’s another category championship that looks like going to the final day.
Captain Stephen Harrison had a decent run behind Oliver Reilly (5:05) for a new pb of 5:19, holding on ahead of a fast pack of Duncan Anderson (5:23), Daniel Solloway (5:25), Michael McLoone (5:26) and Adam Real (5:31). It’s good to see Owen Atkinson heading back to fitness after a long spell out, although he described his 5:43 effort as “horrible – hated it!”; and another runner who has shown some remarkable progress this season is Stephen Reid, who said he was “over the moon” after getting a new PB of 5:45; previous fastest time dated back to 2017. “I enjoyed chasing after guys I thought I had no business being close to!”. Gerry Gallacher also recorded a new pb on the evening, despite describing the race as one of the harder efforts!
In the ladies race, Ashley Anderson (5:38) finished fourth in her first attempt at the distance, showing how well her dedication to training is working out this season. Ashley was sporting a new, streamlined look in her race apparel this time out, after forfeiting a bet in the previous handicap race. The crop top she was forced to wear might have been suitable for the weather, but its a lesson learned not to bet against the HC committee! There was a great finish between the returning Marian Monk and ladies Captain Lynne Harrison – Lynne was pushing hard and looked like she had the legs to outsprint Marian in the last few metres, but Monk showed her race experience and closed out the inside line Harrison was looking for as the ladies headed into the funnel, finishing one second ahead in 6:36. Lynne was still delighted with her new time, a new pb over the mile.
Sarah Jane Whalen remarked she was happy to get under 8 minutes after running a hilly parkrun at the weekend, with legs that were a bit tired but that she enjoyed the fantastic night for running and the dolphins making an appearance at the finish. Leona Donnelly had a great race, after joining the club from last season’s Absolute Beginners Group. She said, “I had no idea how to pace myself for a mile race. Went in with no plan and hoping to do it around the 8 minute mark. Was delighted to come in quicker than that and surprised to see that I maintained an even pace for the full mile. Not bad considering I was running 12 minute miles before I joined the Absolute Beginners last year. A well organised, enjoyable but tough wee race in the sunshine!”
Another Absolute Beginner, Julie Morrison said, “Having joined after the beginners sessions last summer this was my first official club race. I might have picked the hardest race and hottest day for this but it was an amazing experience to be part of. Great support from everyone who encouraged me to sign up and celebrated my run at end. PB’s across 1k, 1/2mile and 1 mile.”
A final shout out to Jennifer Rooney – Jennifer hasn’t had her troubles to seek in the last year, and this was her first race back after a lengthy spell on the sidelines. She said, “This was my first time racing since having major open abdominal surgery 24 weeks ago. I was absolutely delighted to not only be fit and well enough to take part but also completely gobsmacked to have run just 4 seconds slower than last year! It was great to be back in my GGH vest! Also a special day for me as it would have been my grandpa, George King’s, 100th birthday (although sadly we lost him 4 years ago at the age of 96). He was a prolific runner in Greenock in the 1950s, although sporting a Greenock Wellpark Harriers kit, and he would have run the esplanade more times than I can imagine. His marathon PB of 2.34 was set at the Scottish Marathon back in 1955 and beat the previous Scottish record, though he finished second to Joe McGhee of Shettleston AC. It was a great way to remember him, and his daughter, my mum, thanks GGH for having her run as a guest too!”
JUNIOR RACE
Glenpark Juniors Shine in the Sun – a fantastic showing of 46 juniors made up 40% of the field this year, the first time since 2010 when we saw 48 juniors who make up 54% of the field that day.
In the 2nd biggest turnout of Glenpark Juniors for the Chisholm, there were many excellent performances throughout, with none more than Dee Waka who as described earlier totally dominated the race from start to finish. Behind Dee came the trio of under 18s, Josh, Charlie and Jonathan, all mixing it with the club’s top men – great performances from the youngsters!
In the women & girls race Kilbarchan’s Kira Mitchell was best junior taking the overall runners-up spot behind Jill Cox, while behind them there was a tremendous 3-way tussle to claim the top Glenpark junior finisher. It was Stella McCabe who prevailed, working hard to just hold off sisters Lauryn & Lucy McLaughlin with only a few seconds separating them. Also impressive were Iona Quigley & Caldhea Hair, both placing in the overall top 10.
Twelve of the top twenty finishers were junior runners this year in the ladies race. The quality in the training groups is improving year on year, with big jumps in performance being produced, as demonstrated by the large number of PBs on last years race, all down to the hard work by the young athletes and a wee bit of help from their coaches.
A special thank you to Club President Alison King for all the hard work behind the scenes organising the race, and to all the volunteers on the evening who made it happen. Thanks to Andy McCall and Stevie McLoone for contributing to this report.
RESULTS
