GREAT GLEN RELAY 2006

      The 22nd running of the Great Glen Relay, a 66 mile relay race from the centre of Fort William to the Inverness Athletics Stadium proved to be the most exciting race thus far.  There were a record 25 teams that got under way in this year's event.

    Our Ladies team and two mixed teams were the first to get underway at 8 O'clock and it was Kenny Douglas who led the way out of Fort William and onwards to Inverness.

    A number of teams next departed at 09:00 and the next Harriers teams off were the Veterans (and Robert) along with James Hume's team of youngish pretenders along with Inverness Harriers twenty minutes later.

    At the rear of the field were the main rivals the Forres Harriers A Team along with Hunters Bog Trotters and a composite team under the name of The Six Pistols.  These teams were packed with runners of an exceedingly high calibre.

    Such was the quality of the teams, each had a number of International Class runners in their squads and the course record of 6:01:47 set in 1995 by Inverness Harriers was in jeopardy of being finally broken.

    As the main contenders sped off along Fort William High Street it was apparent that the pace of the race was going to be ferocious right from the start.  Half way into the stage, up on to the path beside the Caledonian Canal, Harrier Ben Livesey had gradually moved into the lead by 100 Metres ahead of Graeme Bee of the Six Pistols.  Increasing the pace all the way along the Canal Path towards the end of the Stage, the advantage had grown to 200 Metres at the change over.

    Ben handed over to Stage 2 runner Andy Ross in a new record time of 25:33, which had previously been set in 1995 by Inverness Harrier Alan Murchison.  Andy Ross set off in determined mood but was soon chased down by the Pistols Dan Whitehead who went onto equal the Eric Riddle's Stage Record of 23:47.  A hyped up Andy stuck to the task and handed over to Kyle Greig at the end of the Stage with the Harriers now 30 seconds behind The Pistols.

    Kyle exploded up the short incline at the start of Stage 3 and had soon overhauled Stevie Boyd. Into the final few hundred Metres and Kyle was sprinting like a demon, increasing the Harriers advantage to just over a minute, ahead of the Pistols with Hunters Bog Trotters a further 2 minutes behind at this stage.

   Scottish Marathon  Champion Simon Pride had the task of running the longest stage of the day along the shores of Loch Lochy and completed it in a time of 41:07 which was just 7 seconds behind the stage record.  Chasing him all along the route was Andrew Wright (Six Pistols) who also finished outside the record in 41:08.  It was now the turn of the Trotters to make their mark in this race when former Welsh International Steeplechaser Don Naylor scorched along the route to record a new stage record time of 40:48 and haul his team back into contention in this race.

    With a minute and a half advantage, it was a worried Paul Rogan who set off like a scalded hare, up on to the demanding Cross Country leg along the old railway line to Aberchalder Swing Bridge.  Chasing him down was the Pistols Henry Blake, the inform Blake gradually chased down the determined Rogan and sprinting side by side towards the finish the Harriers had now just a 2 second lead.

    Graeme Bartlett and Graeme Campbell fought it out all the way down Stage 6 to Fort Augustus.  Graeme started off strongly, determined to keep the Harriers in contention and despite suffering from a stiff hamstring brought on 2 weeks previous at Strathpeffer.  Fighting through the pain barrier he handed over to Kyle at the half way point with just 1 Second separating the leading two teams.  However the Trotters were beginning to fire on all cylinders as another stage record fell by just over a minute with Ray Ward clocking a time of 25:57 to leave his team 3 minutes behind the leading two teams.

    Dan Whitehead proved to be the strongest runner on the brutal climb up out of Fort Augustus and opened up a lead of 400 Metres on the Harriers and Murray Strain of HBT was also motoring when reaching the change over at the top of the climb, he had brought his team to within touching distance of the second placed Harriers team.

    Andy Ross set a blistering pace on the downhill section of Stage 8  and soon had Steve Boyd in his sights.  Running extremely hard all the way to the change over point Andy had regained the lead and handed over 300 Metre advantage to Graeme Bartlett.  At this point Andy had just set a new Record time of 27:06, but it was short lived as 1 minute 21 seconds later Phil Mowbray (HBT) finished the stage 5 seconds faster in a time of 27:01.

   With only 2 minutes and 13 seconds separating the top 3 teams going into the undulating stage 9 it soon became apparent that Graeme was in some serious discomfort and before long Andrew Wright had caught and passed Graeme on the way to recording a new Stage record time of 28:17.  Ominously Hunters Bog Trotters were getting ever closer to the Harriers.

    Paul Rogan set off on Stage 10, 600 Metres down on the leader, after a setting off it was apparent that the previous effort on Stage 5 had taken it's toll and was really fighting hard to keep his team in contention.  Half way through the stage Ian Wellock (HBT) caught and passed Paul.  For the second time in the race the Team Captain reacted to the challenge and fought valiantly to keep on the tail of the passing runner.

    Off onto Stage 11, Henry Blake set off with a near 3 minute advantage over the Trotters and the Harriers.  This proved to be an explosive stage, with the Harrier's Ben Livesey and the Trotters Don Naylor literally sprinting away from the start in pursuit of the leader.  Again it looked as though Blake was suffering from the efforts of Stage 5 and it was soon obvious that the two chasing athletes were making big inroads into his lead.  Approaching the village of Dores, Livesey somehow managed to move up a gear and flew up the incline towards the changeover point where a pumped up Simon Pride was waiting. 

    Ben reached the end of the stage in a time of  26:58 obliterating the previous stage record out of sight and in the process handing over to Simon in pole position with an advantage of 9 seconds.  In hot pursuit for the Pistols was Graham Bee and Ray Ward of the Trotters was a further 16 seconds adrift.  Simon set off at a steady pace with the gap remaining the same for the first couple of miles.  Into the closing stages and Simon really opened up to cross the finish line in a new stage record time of 27:22 and giving the Harriers a cumulative time of  5:57:13 to claim a new event record by over 4 minutes. 

    As it was, the first three teams all broke the six hour barrier and produced one of the closest races ever in the history of the event.

    As I have said previously, I regard this as one of the best events on the Scottish Athletics Calendar, and a big thank you to Graham Whyte and Nancy for organising it all.

FORRES HARRIERS A

THE SIX PISTOLS

HUNTERS BOG TROTTERS

FORRES HARRIERS B

FORRES HARRIERS C

FORRES HARRIERS D (Mixed)

FORRES HARRIERS E (Mixed)

FORRES HARRIERS LADIES

Full Results

Stage Records

What The Papers Had to Say

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