CLUB OF THE WEEK Strathearn Harriers
We caught up with Tony Wayte of Strathearn Harriers to find out a bit more about the local running club’s activities and successes over the years.
Tell us a bit about the history and background of the club.
The club’s actually been in existence since 1984, when it was founded by a keen group of local runners who wanted to take part in races around the country and who felt that they wanted to represent their local area rather than join a Perth or Stirling-based club.
For our first two decades we were pretty small and low-key with around 20-30 members and we were only for adult runners.
However, the membership has grown, the range of activities and events we organise and participate has ballooned and, in 2010, a new junior section of the club was established.
At that time, most of the juniors were the children of senior club members, but the junior membership has expanded well beyond this group and in fact we’re now finding some of the junior members are getting their parents involved in the seniors’ section!
How many members does your club have?
We now have around 140 members overall including 55 juniors, with members ranging in age from 9 to 75!
Tell us about the leagues you compete in.
We take part in a wide range of local, regional and national competitions .
These include cross-country events in the winter, hill races mostly in the summer and road racing throughout the year.
We also organise our own intra-club events which gives the whole club the chance to get together in more informal running events.
Last year there were Harriers represented in over 100 races, at distances from two miles up to 40 miles.
We have our own championship series of races through the spring and summer to find men’s and women’s club champions.
We try to give our juniors the widest possible experience of athletics with opportunities to take part in cross-country, road, hill and trail races, and track and field events too.
We have our own annual intra-club track championships each summer using the grass track at Dallerie – thanks to Morrison’s Academy for that!
Is there a social aspect to the club as well as a sporting side?
Very much so! Our social secretary is one of the most important members of the club committee!
The main social event is the annual ceilidh and prize-giving usually held in February, but we try to ensure that there are lots of other events held throughout the year.
These vary from year to year, but have included fancy dress relays, bake-offs, away weekends to Gairloch and Badaguish, whisky tasting,‘beerienteering’, Easter egg hunts, karaoke, quizzes, away-day runs to different locations –with a good lunch afterwards of course – and others.
We’re quite good at combining social activities with running, most notably with the pre-Christmas Mince Pie Run and the New Year’s Day from the Royal Hotel in Comrie.
What principles does the club represent and promote?
We all love running and particularly love running in beautiful Strathearn.
We want to encourage and help people to run and improve, whether to achieve their goals competitively or maybe just to make their recreational running more enjoyable.
As a relatively small and rural club, we have frequently punched above our weight in regional and national events both in our senior and junior sections.
We are keen to develop this and to play our part in the development of athletics in Scotland.
We also think it’s important to be friendly and welcoming to all, and to show respect towards the wider community.
We feel strongly that running can be a source of health, wellbeing and personal achievement.
So we try to support the running development of each individual member, whatever their abilities and aspirations.
Are there any particular difficulties the club faces? As with all walks of life, we have had our world turned upside down by recent events.
Fortunately, running is one of the few exercise activities that are currently allowed so we are lucky we can continue our sport – albeit in a very lonely way!
That said, we’re a creative bunch and have already started a number of virtual initiatives which keeps the club together at this tough time.
The Harriers Isolation Challenge Cup (HIC-Cup) is a series of four virtual races over 5k, five miles, 10k and 10 miles over the next few months.
A virtual pub quiz happens every other Thursday evening via video link and is a great chance to have a drink together and have a bit of social contact.
A daily photo challenge takes place via our Facebook page and involves working out from a photo submitted by a club member on their daily run at the exact location that the photo was taken National Virtual Road Relays is organised by Scottish Athletics and replaces their real road relays which should have happened at the end of March.
Instead, clubs from all over the country will be submitting their best times for teams of six running either 5k or 10k to see who has the best overall time.
What have been the club’s major successes?
The club is very proud of one of our former junior members, including Sol Sweeney, who has raced internationally for Scotland and GB and is now part of an elite training group in Glasgow which includes Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie, among others.
Each year, we organise three races – the Strathearn Marathon in June, the Crieff 10K in July and the Simon Wake Comrie Hills Relay in September which are well attended by people from across Scotland and beyond, and are renowned for their excellent and friendly organisation.
We have won our own relay event on three occasions and have finished in the top 10 of the Devil’s Burdens Hill Relay, which regular attracts well over 100 teams from all the best clubs in Scotland.
We have won age category silver medals at the national road race relays and the cross-country relays and have picked up numerous individual prizes in races from 5km to 50km and beyond.
How can people get involved with the club?
In the current circumstances, we would encourage anyone who is interested to email enquiries@ strathearnharriers.org.uk.
While the lockdown lasts, we are offering a nocommitment trial period for senior membership for £20, which would allow you to get involved in our virtual activities and then, when life returns to normal, you can choose whether to continue as a member or get a full refund if you decide it’s not for you.
For parents of under 16 year-olds, the Junior section meets at 5.30pm on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
For more information email juniors@strathearnharriers. org.uk.
Alternatively, see www. strathearnharriers.org.uk – which includes information about all club activities.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
In addition to promoting the many benefits of running, we also try to give something back to the community more generally.
Each year a proportion of the proceeds from the Crieff 10k and the Strathearn Marathon goes to local charities as selected by the club membership and, this year, we asked runners in the Crieff 10k to bring donations to the Crieff foodbank.
This was very successful and we received some very generous donations.
Our Simon Wake Comrie Hills Relay, named after a much-loved club member who lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in 2008, gives all its proceeds to research.