Spring’s warmer temperatures and increased daylight make training for endurance runners a much more pleasant experience compared with the cold and dark of winter and the club’s runners have been taking advantage of the improved conditions.  I’ve have listed below a selection of performances.

Marathons

Boston, Madrid and London all featured athletes from our club.

James Stewart, who ran 100k in 7 hours 25 mins at Perth on 24^th March, stepped down a distance running  2 hours 39 mins for 15^th place at the Madrid Rock ’n’ Roll marathon, on 27^th April. Gerry Craig crossed the Atlantic to run Boston on 15^th April in 3 hours 17 mins. In London on 28^th April, Rhian Dawes making her marathon debut ran 3 hours 5 mins and Alex Potter, a London regular ran 3 hours 13 mins. Amanda McFarlane and Grant McGregor from our road running group both ran 3 hours 48 mins

Half Marathons

Claire Thompson ran 1 hour 28:57 at Alloa on 31st March

10K Road

Sarah Potter was our fastest athlete running 35.59 at Dumbarton on 16^th May. Becky Dunphy ran a PB 38.14, Sandy Gardner dipped below 40 minutes for the first time running 39.33 with Alex Potter running 39.36 and Mark Ashby 42.03

The previous week at Helensburgh Donna Finlayson ran 45.04

10,000m Track

At Crownpoint on 19^th April Sarah Potter ran a PB 35.47 in the BMC organised race.

5K Road

The Scottish 5k Championship took place at Cramond, Edinburgh on 3^rd May. Max Milarvie ran 14.54 for 12^th place. Ross Whitelaw ran 16.09, Graeme Laing 17.23, Holly Little 18.19 and Sandy Gardner 18.29

Parkruns

Our local parkrun at Victoria Park continues to be well attended each week by our athletes. Notable recent performances include Craig Johnstone (17.33), Finlay Waters (18.08) Saul McGlennan (18.16) and Sholto Kinghorn (18.47).

Elsewhere in the Glasgow area Claire Thompson was 1^st Female at Pollock on 18^th May, Becky Dunphy, 1^st female at Tollcross on 11^th May, Louis Sharp ran 18.06 at Springburn on 11^th May and Finlay Waters was first finisher at Drumchapel.

Our club’s athletes ran parkruns at various locations around the UK and abroad in the last few weeks including Ganavan Sands, Oban (Andy Law), Victoria Dock, London, (Louis and Ella Sharp), Harrow (Saul McGlennan), Plean (Sandy Gardner), Southport (Mark Ashby), Keswick (Finlay Waters), Kew Woods (Mark Ashby) and Stockholm’s Haga parkrun (Robyn Connolly).

Ralph Connolly

Now that summer is drawing to a close, the focus of the club’s endurance runners switches to cross country with the district, regional and national relays in October now fast approaching. There are though still plenty of road running events most notably the Great Scottish Run at the end of September. Hopefully this year will see a good turnout of cross country runners across all age groups.

Listed below are a number of the notable endurance running performances from the last few weeks.

MARATHON

Lewis Priest finished 2nd on his marathon debut at Fort William on 29^th July. With the route described at scenic and undulating (i.e. hilly) and much of it on forest trails his time of 3 hours 1 minute 10 was most impressive.

10K ROAD

Rhian Dawes was first female in the Sandwich (Kent) 10k on 24^th June in a time of 41.13 and on 19^th August Donna Finlayson completed the Paisley 10k in 44.40

OTHER ENDURANCE

Gerry Craig placed 4^th in the John Lucas Memorial Round Strathaven ultra-run completing the 50 mile course in 7 hours 10 minutes

PARKRUNS

Club athletes took part in various parkruns in the UK and abroad during the summer months. Sandy Gardner travelled the furthest (over 4,000 miles) to Florida for the Clermont Waterfront parkrun beating the 2,800 miles that Thomas Connolly and I travelled to run in the Volgograd parkrun, Russia.

Closer to home, Claire Thompson strung together a series of excellent performances finishing first female at Pollok (30^th June and 7^th July), Portobello (14th July) and Drumchapel (21^st July). Becky Dumphy was 1^st Female at Tollcross (28^th July). 

Andy Law was 2^nd male at Ganavan Sands, Oban (4^th August) and Robyn Connolly was 2^nd female (18^th August). Saul McGlennan was 3^rd at Harrow (25^th August). The fastest time posted was Paul Lennie who ran 18.49 at Victoria Park on 18^th August and with Peter Jardine running 19.02 at Springburn on 14^th July and myself running 19.03 at Springburn on 4^th August we are hopeful that we can get a strong Vet 50 team competing this year.