Dumfries Sports Club

On Saturday, September 13, Paul Hart won the silver medal at the 2008 Scottish 100K championships.

His finishing time of 7hr 44mins 57secs gave him a new personal best by some six minutes over his performance in the Anglo Celtic Plate for Scotland earlier in 2008, and is a 25-minute improvement from his debut performance at this distance which gave him the gold medal in 2007.

However, with the prospect of the 100K potentially featuring in the Commonwealth games and a Commonwealth Championship pilot event in 2009, Paul knew the competition this year would be tougher.

As the starters gathered for the race briefing in North Inch Park, Perth it was clear that his main competition for the title would come from Alan Reid (Peterhead AC) and David Gardiner (Kirkintilloch Olympians). The conditions were cool and damp, ideal for ultra-distance running.

From the start Alan Reid decided to set the pace and immediately started to pull away from Paul and David who were running together in second place at a more conservative pace of 7min 10sec miling. The course consisted of 42 laps of 1.5miles each around the park and apart from one small rise was flat for the remainder of the loop.

As the race developed after 20 miles, Paul found himself being lapped by the race leader Alan Reid who was still setting a very fast pace while David Gardiner was matching Paul stride for stride in second place. In ultra racing pace judgement is critical and this proved to be case here, as within a few laps Alan started to slow down dramatically allowing Paul and David to un-lap themselves.

Through the middle section of the race Paul and David continued to run strongly and by 40miles overtook Alan to take the joint lead in the race.

Having run together for 40miles the battle was now on for the race win! David was the first to suffer, allowing Paul to open up a 50m lead for one lap until he recovered and they were neck and neck again.

They continued to match each other stride for stride at an unrelenting pace until when close to 50miles Paul suffered stomach pains forcing him to slow down slightly. This allowed David to open what proved to be a winning lead as he maintained his form for the remaining 12 miles.

David Gardiner was the race winner in 7hrs 36mins 14secs.

Paul had to dig deep to continue through his bad patch, but rallied in the last three miles to reduce the lead by two minutes and provide the crowd with a sprint finish as he dipped under 7hrs 45mins to finish in 7hrs 44mins 58secs. Alan Reid was third in 8hr 26mins 7secs.

Both Paul and David achieved the Scottish Athletics Commonwealth qualifying time of eight hours for the 100K and are hopeful of selection for the Scottish team in 2009.

After the race, a very tired Paul said: “Although disappointed not to have defended my Scottish Championship title from 2007, I am delighted to have achieved an average pace for the 62miles of 7min 29sec miling, run a PB, and been involved in such a great race.

“I would also like to thank the support I have had from Dumfries Running Club and in particular Les Hill and Vicky Little who helped supply me with energy drinks and gels during the race and gave me encouragement when the going got tough.”

Dumfries and Galloway Standard