Mhairi MacLennan admits she has no idea how she’ll fare when representing Scotland in the Great Britain European cross country senior women’s team trial at Liverpool on Saturday.
The Inverness Harriers club member has taken part in just one race and one parkrun since ending her track season in July, but Scotland’s selectors have shown faith in the Edinburgh-based athlete, who has been a consistent performer at international level in recent years.
The Scottish cross country champion’s only serious competitive outing this season came earlier in the month when she finished 13th in the British cross challenge race at Milton Keynes.
MacLennan said: “It’s always an honour and privilege to pull on a Scotland vest and, although I haven’t competed much, I have a track record of producing good performance when it matters.
“But it’s difficult to know how it might go at Liverpool. Until I went to Milton Keynes, I was hoping I’d have a real chance of making the GB team for the European championships in December.
“But I had a bad race there, although I had some personal stress a couple of days beforehand which had an impact on my run. My head just wasn’t in it.
“However, I know the performance isn’t representative of where I feel I am at the moment. I know from the times I’ve been getting in training that I’m close to being the fittest I’ve ever been. I’m obviously not race fit, but I’ve put in a lot of hard work.
“So I might go there and find I’m not as fit as I think I am, or the opposite might happen and I’ll have a great run. The pressure is off me to some extent as there’s no great expectations on me.”
Looking further ahead, MacLennan has her sights fixed firmly on the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
At one point she was contemplating launching a bid for marathon selection, but is now leaning more towards 5,000m or 10,000m on the track.
MacLennan said: “The marathon is too soon for me. I haven’t even run a half marathon yet, although I’m planning to do one in the first few months of next year.
“I’m going to Spain for a training camp in January and I’m looking at a 10,000m in Portugal at the beginning of April with the aim of getting a quick time on the board early on in the season. Then there’s the British championship 10,000m at Highgate in May.
“The intention is to train for 10,000m plan and see what happens at 5,000m.
“I run better off endurance work, so if I train for 10,000m I might also run faster over 5,000m. My 5,000m PB is closer to the Commonwealth qualifying standard than my 10,000m PB, so we’ll see.”
Keith needs top five finish for European place
Megan Keith is expected to clinch her place on the Great Britain women’s under-20 team for next month’s European cross country championships in Ireland when she competes in the national trials at Liverpool tomorrow.
The 19-year-old Inverness athlete, who is studying sports science at Edinburgh University, has already put down a strong marker by winning two British Cross Challenge series races this autumn, at Cardiff and Milton Keynes.
She’ll be aiming for another win as she has already beaten most of her main rivals, although another contender for top spot, Herne Hill’s Phoebe Anderson, is returning from university in America to stake her claim. The top five finishers will gain automatic selection.
Keith leads a four-strong Scotland side in the race and she feels ready for the challenge.
She said: “It’s amazing all four of us are at Edinburgh University, which is quite impressive.
“I’m ready for the race and the aim is to make the team, so now I have to go out and do it. It has just been a usual training week so I haven’t done anything different.
“I haven’t decided on my race strategy yet, but I usually like to go out hard. However, it will depend on the conditions as it might be very windy.”
Strathpeffer’s Hamish Hickey (Central AC) bids for selection at under-23 level tomorrow while Sean Chalmers (Inverness Harriers) competes in the senior men’s race.
Elsewhere, John Newsom and Catriona Fraser-Lennox bid to maintain their unbeaten records when the third of this season’s six North District cross country league meetings, hosted by Insch Trail Running Club, takes place at Lyne of Skene, Aberdeenshire.
North pair look to make Scotland debuts count
Kirsty Purcell (Aberdeen AAC) and Tom Graham-Marr (Aberdeen University) make their Scotland international debuts in tomorrow’s Great Britain European cross country championship trials at Liverpool.
Purcell, 18, is to compete in the under-20 women’s race alongside fellow Edinburgh University sports science student Megan Keith (Inverness Harriers), who, although one year older, is much more experienced at this level.
Graham-Marr, a 20-year-old third year psychology undergraduate, is to run in the men’s under-23 race, which is combined with the senior men’s competition.
Purcell said: “I am very pleased to be selected as I hadn’t expected it.
However, I knew there was a chance as I finished fourth in the Scottish 4k championships at Lanark and the team was picked after that.
I’ve run for Scottish Schools before, just once, in 2019, but this is the first time I’ve been picked for Scotland, although I’ve come close on a few occasions.
“I’ve run Liverpool once before, so I know the course. I ran there in 2019 in the combined under-17 and under-20’s race, so I know what to expect.
“But it’s my first Scotland vest, so it will be a new experience and my aim is simply to do my best.”
Graham-Marr is also relishing the prospect of wearing the blue vest for the first time, especially as he was surprised to get the call.
He said: “I didn’t see it coming so I was surprised. But I’ve improved quite a bit over the past couple of years since Michael Wright started coaching me.
“Obviously it’s my first Scotland vest so it will be a new experience.
“The under-23’s are in the same race as the seniors at Liverpool so it will be a big field and I’ll just try to run as well as I can. I have no specific expectations, but I’ll learn from it and hopefully I’ll qualify for this race again next year, when I’ll be aiming to place higher.”