HARRIS RACE DETERMINES HEB 3 OUTCOME

The N& C Recruitment HEB 3 half marathon series came to a conclusion on Saturday with a record number of runners completing all five of the Hebridean races and not just the required three!  Conditions on the day were good for ..... well drying the washing, but not for running! The combination of sun and wind the classic situation for dehydration for distance runners and add to that the brisk north east breeze headlong onto the runners for 10 miles and the 4 mile climb from Luskintyre to the top of the Bays? Outcome, well, results that were down on time across the field and race placings not as may have been predicted based on the previous four events!

Ben Kemp of Portobello who had won all the races in the series except Skye looked pre-race favourite to win and indeed took straight to the front of the field from the gun at the start at Borve. A pack of six runners followed closely including Alasdair Smith, Inverness, Andy McMahon, SRAC and point1 Callanish Stones Marathon winner Ivor Normand of the Hunters Bog Trotters; the three were main contenders for the veterans category for the HEB 3. For Normand only a very good run would result in victory over SRAC’s McMahon and Smith hoping this would not be the case in order to take second place from Normand! This made for interesting racing in itself. But the introduction of veterans Willie Richardson of Irvine AC and Anthony Wilson of Scottish Veteran Harriers not at all interested in Heb 3 placings, but Harris Half individual results added to an all ready intriguing race!

While all this was going on among the following group, local attention was much more focused on the efforts of local girl Allison Campbell making her debut in the Harris event and right up there with the male leaders. Following her superb win at the Scalpay/ Tarbert 10K, she certainly looked in the mood to run well and was not fazed to be in among the front runners. Mile after mile of hard effort running into brisk winds, challenging climbs and rising temperatures towards the end of the race Allison coped with it all. She crossed the finish line in a very respectful time of 1hr 29mins and 2 seconds! That was less than a minute behind Alasdair Smith in third place and almost three minutes clear of the second lady, Julia Henderson of Helensburgh, winner of the opening HEB 3 event in Stornoway in May.

All the runners taking part ran in tough conditions and can content themselves in the assumption that everyone’s times were hampered on the day. Ben Kemp Harris champion again for 2008 ran way outside his best time previously achieved in Harris, though his fitness and strength are not in doubt, with four from five wins in the HEB 3 series! Therefore it is very encouraging for Harris’s Allison Campbell and the local running network to see her become the first local to win the Harris race in less than one and a half hours! On another day and on another course that time will be obliterated!

The day’s biggest surprise however was in the team event, which in the end came down to less than ten minutes between the top three teams! SRAC, HBT and Helensburgh all wanted to win, not least for the £200 prize donated by sponsor N&C Plant Hire! HBT had been three times previous winners and had a small lead on Helensburgh, incidentally – an all ladies team! SRAC somewhat outsiders, but still not giving up without a fight! Over three races and five venues the team of three clocked up times of between 13 and a half hours and thirteen hours 45! This is how Jim Bruce described the team event at the prize giving, but when declaring a close winning margin of two minutes 8 seconds, not to team event leaders HBT, but to the girls of Helensburgh, the hall erupted! Another first to the HEB 3 and well done Helensburgh’s “fairest”!

Thanks to all helpers on the day and to HEB 3 sponsors N & C Recruitment.

A complete list of Heb3 finishers follows (please email stornoway@gmail.com if you have any queries on these)

Heb3 2008 Results