Saturday saw the end of the Scottish XC season and Harmeny had a number of athletes running.  Notably, Charlotte MacPhie had a fantastic race, coming 18th in the U14 race for Firrhill.  Charlotte has shown great improvement this year and is in great shape going into the road and track&field seasons.  Archie Lynch was 60th in the U14 boys. Also running for Firrhill High school, Finlay Ross capped an amazing season with another victory and sealed qualification for the SIAB International in Dublin later this month.  In a remarkable show of consistency, Finlay has won all 3 East District League meetings (and 9 in a row over 3 years), and has now seen off the best in Scotland 3 times: Inter-District champion, National XC Champion and now National Secondary School XC champion.  Well done Finlay and best of luck in Dublin!

We signed up for the Northumberland Coastal trail series back in November as a winter training motivator and to catch up with friends based near Newcastle. I was drawn to the marathon as a challenging goal but one that shouldn’t dominate life like last year’s Ultra training. Our running friend Will was up for the full marathon too. Julie went for the half. I trained hard for this with the objective of being fit enough to enjoy it all rather than endure it. A mixture of Wednesday headtorch and Sunday morning Harmeny club runs, solo jaunts, interval sessions and occasional parkruns.  I also tried to be smarter than last year, tracking fitness, fatigue and form, with Stravistics to help taper properly to carry good form into it. I even cut out cake and rationed cheese to lose some weight in the three weeks beforehand! Early

Thanks to everyone who came along to the Scottish Athletics Indoor League events over the last couple of months. We’ve had a great response from everyone and were able to enter teams in every age from U11’s to U20’s which is fantastic. Well done!   The results when they are available can be found here: https://sail.athletics-uk.org/ or on The Power of Ten.    

Well done to Finlay, Alasdair and Nathan for their efforts at the Inter-district xc in Stirling at the weekend. Finlay won the u13 boys title for the second year in a row. Congratulations! The results can be found here: http://events.scottishathletics.org.uk/events/20711-17908-scottishathletics-inter-district-xc-championships  

Hi Folks - another year over and it was a historic one for Harmeny - and 2019 promises more of the same. Below is a full update with all of the information that you need for the term ahead….. Regular Training Nights Training will start on Wednesday 9th January (and finish on 4th April with a week break 11-15 February), except for the 3.45-4.45pm session at Balerno High School. At present we don’t have an insured coach for this session and this will be looked at early in the new term with the Active Schools team. Monday nights at Balerno High have now changed and will be event and competition focused. Everyone who previously attended a Monday at Balerno (6-7 or 7-8) should have received an email and MUST respond to secure a place in either one of our new sessions or an alternative evening.

The club have been awarded 2 places for the Virgin Money London Marathon. Should you wish to apply for one of these places, please answer the questions below BY SUNDAY 23rd DECEMBER and email me at harmenysec@gmail.com. All applications will be considered by the end of the year. Some guidelines: The process for selection is by elimination based on your answers to the questions below. If you feel you may be eliminated early, please still apply as this will help your application in future years (see question 5). Volunteering for the club (including juniors) can mean marshalling, helping organise social events, doing some admin, leading runs etc.. Please give me a shout if you are unsure how to fill it in. 1. Are you a first claim member Of Harmeny? 2. Did you apply in this year’s VMLM ballot and fail? 3. When is the

3 picked for East of Scotland XC Team Huge congratulations to Alastair Wallace, Finlay Ross and Nathan Denis who have all been selected to represent the East District in the upcoming Inter District XC Championships in Stirling on 12th January, racing against the North and the West.  It’s a huge accomplishment by all the boys, reflecting their commitment and hard work.  Well done boys.  The timetable can be found here with the race taking place at 10.25am. http://www.scottish-athletics.co.uk/media/fixtures/20711-1544521839/drafttimetablegsxcv3..docx

It was a busy weekend for Harmeny with the final Grand Prix event taking place at Edinburgh parkrun on Saturday morning. 30 runners took part and this was followed by coffee and cakes at a local cafe. It was lovely to be able to sit and chat afterwards and everyone agreed we should do this more often.   Further north in Aberdeen we had 8 junior and senior runners taking part in the East District XC Championships which is the qualifying race for the Inter-Districts in January. There were good runs all round with Alistair achieving an automatic place coming in 6th position and strong runs from the others. Unfortunately Ethan had to pull out mid race due to injury – get well soon Ethan! The 3 senior runners took on the challenging 8.6k course – the distance equalised for both men and woman, and

The 2018 Harmeny 7R Half Marathon results are available here: 7R-Race-2018-Results.pdf If there are any errors or omissions please let us know

On my way back from Nepal. Manaslu Trail Race done !! What an amazing adventure, absolutely loved it !!! Still buzzing having completed it. 😊 Difficult to summarise in a few words what it was like. Fantastic trails with so much stunning scenery, an unforgettable experience. Lots of climbing and also very long technical descents. Very glad to make it back in one piece with lots of near misses 😊 Felt a bit of a novice at the start with many of my fellow runners with lots of multi stage / 100K+ ultra running experience from all around the world. Very remote once we got up the trail a bit. The only way in or out was by foot. Tough start and I was quite slow on the first 2 stages (ran out of water before the checkpoint on the first stage ☹) but got stronger and finished

We had a great turnout today for the Broxburn XC and Grand Prix with full teams for senior women and men.  Well done to everyone who took part. From the provisional results it looks like our u11 and u13 boys have extended their leads at the top of their respective league tables. A special mention goes out to the u11 boys who scored a remarkable 8 points in their race with 1st,3rd & 4th positions. For those not familiar with cross country , 6 is the very lowest and best score that can be achieved and 20 would typically be considered an excellent score. Well done boys! http://www.salroadrunningandcrosscountrymedalists.co.uk/Archive/East%20District%20League/Results/East%20District%20League%20Results%20index.html

I am delighted to announce that our new club shop is now open for business! Harmeny AC in partnership with leading sports brand Joma and The Football Nation are now able to supply a range of Harmeny AC branded kit with vests to follow shortly. The kit features our new club badge or logo with a range of matching leggings and shorts available if required. There is likely to be additional items added in the future and I will let you know when that happens. Training tops have Harmeny AC printed on the back and rain jackets and tracksuit tops can have additional personalisation if desired. All these items come in sizes from age 8 to adults XXL and can be delivered to your home or collected from The Football Nation in Lothian Road, Edinburgh. https://www.thefootballnation.co.uk/harmeny-athletic-club-shop  

  Following the success of the recent 'Assistant Officials' Course at Balerno High School, the club are hoping to repeat the success by hosting a COACHING ASSISTANT COURSE on 19/20 January 2019 at Currie Community Centre. This is a hugely important step in the club's development and it's hoped it will be well attended. It's a full weekend course and allows those completing the course (there is no test/exam) to lead athletics sessions under the Supervision of an Athletics Coach (Dave, Derek, Lorraine, Jane, Graeme or Me). We intend to start a rota, assuming we get enough volunteers, who can support the coaches once every 3 or 4 weeks at our sessions. This course gives you everything you need to be able to do that.  Read all about it here: https://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/coaches/qualifications/uka-coaching-assistant/  The club will pay the fee of £195 for Harmeny Members in return for a

Grand Prix Alert !!!!! Just a reminder that it is the second East District XC league match in Broxburn in just over 2 weeks time. (Match 1 race report here: http://harmenyac.org/uncategoriz…/east-district-league-xc-2/ ). This event is part of our annual club Grand Prix so make sure you get along to claim all those valuable Grand Prix points. See the attachment below for a course map,full list of race distances, age categories and start times. Race times are: U11 Girls 12.00 noon U11 Boys 12:15 pm U13 Girls 12:30 pm U13 Boys 12:50 pm U17 Boys 1:05 pm U15 Boys 1:45 pm U15/17 Girls 1:50 pm Senior women 1:10pm Senior Men 2:15pm There are no declarations or entries for these events, just turn up on the day. The only requirement is that all runners are first claim club members and current members of Scottish Athletics, so check your membership

Sunday morning was dry as we waited to register in the queue of the usual gluttons for their dose of sore muddy legs! I enjoyed the bottleneck on the trail up Caerketton forcing me to walk up although at the back of my mind was I had to get to West Kip, the 9th summit, before the cut off time of 2hrs 15 mins. The churned up Drove Road, due to forestry operations, made Hare Hill seem easy terrain in comparison which is usually boggy. Running! through the heather I glanced at my watch at 2hrs15m to see a few runners on the kips who would have missed the strict cut off time. The descent of Hare Hill it was a bit slippery as one guy demonstrated bum sliding down, not quite the same speed as Lomond of Fife I was relieved to witness. After

Stirling University 20th October 2018 We had a great turnout of junior and senior athletes for the first East District race of the season and I’m delighted to report we had some excellent results too. Both our U11 and U13 boys teams are sitting first in their respective leagues with some superb running from all the boys. The U11 boys had 4 finishers in the top 14 and the U13’s had 4 finishers in the top 11. And both our U11 and U13 girls were able to field a full team coming in 10th and 8th placed respectively.  Our sole U15 boy did a great job easing his way through the pack after a slow start to finish in 13th place. The adults had a good turnout too with 7 men and 2 women competing over the dry course – what a change from last

Once again a sunny day for our 5th Annual Harmeny v Corstorphine cross country race. 82 competitors fought hard for the medals on offer and we had some fantastic performances from the club members, waiting list hopefuls, friends and siblings.  Our local councillor Neil Gardiner was on hand to present Gold, Silver and Bronze medals to the first three with all finishers receiving an engraved medal – thank you Neil for taking the time to come and support us. Look out for an email from harmenyxc@gmail.com (add it to your safe sender list now) for details about the forthcoming East District XC match in Stirling on 20th October. Results can be found here. HAC v CAAC XC Sept 2018

Skyrunning World Championships September 19, 2108 Yearly I like to have a main race to build up to and this year it was The Ring of Steall Skyrace and what a choice! Thank you to Donald Sandeman who convinced me I could do it after many said WHAT!! After running the Glenshee9 in 5hrs 35 mins I predicted between 6hrs 30 and 7hrs max to complete relying on others’ recces for insights to the terrain, all I knew that it was 2500m, 4 Munros including one Sgor an Iubhair recently downgraded from a Munro to a subsidiary of Sgurr a Mhaim. The world’s finest mountain athlete was at the front of the start-line, Kilian Jornet, who took 20 mins off the previous record finishing in 3:04 when I was still on my way to Checkpoint3 at Glen Nevis! I wrongly started at the very back

Harmeny were represented South of the Border recently at the Mini and Junior Great North Run. Set against the backdrop of the iconic Tyne Bridge, Rebecca was first off in the 1.5k mixed race; her first time representing Harmeny she finished 5th girl. Kieran was a very credible 57th in the boys 9-10 age group 4K in what was a competitive and congested race of 850! The atmosphere was great and both want to return next year to collect more ‘bling’. Well done to you both!

What a beautiful day and setting for the Scottish Trail Championships held at Falkland Estate in Fife this month. I’m delighted to report that the girls U11 race was won by Natsai Nyabadza and the boys U11 race was won by Fergus Ross. We also had another couple of Top 10 performances and all the runners had a great time. Well done to all who attended!    

U12 SUPERteams Report Terrible weather didn’t hamper the spirits of our 20 young athletes who came prepared to take on the challenge of SUPERteams last weekend in Perth. Each group of 4 did a 75m sprint, turbo javelin, long jump and 4x100m relay.  Everyone gave it their all despite the wet and cold conditions and we had some very fine performances particularly the following: Noah Ralph scoring 99 points for 2nd overall in Javelin, Boys A team 92 points for 9th in relay. Archie Lynch 90 points for 11th in Javelin, Stella Lumsden 89 points for 12th in Javelin, Harmeny Girls A were 19th and B were 41st   Harmeny Boys A were 9th, B were 14th and C 37th, Well Done Everyone! Full results are here. http://events.scottishathletics.org.uk/events/20237-17697-fpsg-scottishathletics-u12-outdoor-superteams