Roger’s Stirling success
Strathearn Harriers at inaugural marathon
Fifteen Strathearn Harriers ran in the inaugural Stirling Marathon on Sunday.
Runners included hardened marathon veterans like Roger Goddard, Will Manners, Wendy Taylor and ladies captain Nicola Watson, as well as debutantes like Lauren Fairweather, Richard Collingwood and Sonja McFadden.
The race, newly established by the Great Run organisation, saw more than 6000 runners from all over Scotland and beyond tackle a route stretching from Blairdrummond to Stirling.
Cheered on by crowds lining the streets, the race was won by Scottish international athlete Andrew Limoncello in 2.25.01.
The women’s race was won by Lesley Pirie in 2.47.36 and there were notable appearances by Zola Budd and Liz McColgan.
For the Harriers Roger Goddard led the way with 2.54.57.
Will Manners achieved his goal of a sub-three hour race, finishing in 2.59.18.
Andrew Aitken was next with a time of 3.30.14, with Wendy Taylor finishing in 3.35.07 as first Harrier woman.
The second Harrier woman across the line was Nicola Watson in 3.56.56, less than a minute ahead of Cathy Tilbrook in 3.57.50. Cathy’s run came the day after she took sixth place ranking in the Scottish Orienteering Championships at Gullane. Nicola and Cathy both attained a Good for Age qualifying time for the 2018 London marathon.
Lauren Fairweather saw her time agonisingly recorded officially as 4.00.01, although her own watch recorded 3.59.58.
A glitch wi t h the technology on the Great Run app left friends and supporters of Janine Grant disappointed as her finishing time went unrecorded. The technology finally came good to give her a time of 4.32.51.
Wendy Taylor’s sister Susan Saunders was running her second marathon in the space of five weeks, raising money for the daughter of a friend with communication needs. To date Susan has raised £1320.
Andrew Brown raised £ 1540 for Strathcarron Hospice.
Earlier in the week, a group of Harriers headed to Perth for the annual Kinnoull race, an established fixture in the club championship.
The race is a short, sharp, four-mile hill race, organised by Perth Strathtay Harriers.
The first Strathearn Harrier home was Aaron Dawson, who improved last year’s time by a minute to clock 29.10 for 16th position.
Wattie Mackay made a welcome return to racing after a long lay- off due to injury to finish with 30.24, 24th overall and second in the MV50 section.
The performance of the day came from Greta Dargie. Making her debut for the club, she ran a superb race to finish as the fifth woman overall and third senior woman in 34.27.
Other club runners were Tony Wayte (35.03), Andrew Scott (37.21), Iain Thomson ( 38.52), Nicola Watson (43.01) and Julia Greenlees (43.33).