The weekend prior to Christmas is generally a quieter period, most choosing to wrap presents rather than race. For Paul Dudchenko, it was an opportunity to squeeze in one last hill race before the festive break, racing the Kirk's Craigs Christmas Cracker in the Ochils last Saturday. A 6.5 km out and back up to Kirk's Craigs. And like any good hill race, it featured a great spread of cakes and pies afterwards. Paul finished in 52m 50s, earning 31st place out of 83 finishers.
On Boxing Day the Club turned out in good numbers for the annual Festive Handicap race hosted by Lothian Running Club at Beecraigs. Runners had the choice of one or two laps, albeit a slightly changed route, but the same number of times up Cockleroy - a race not for the faint hearted. Nevertheless, some fantastic times over both the 7km and 14km routes.
In the 7km race (Chip time), Lynne McGill in 32:40, Paul Emery in 33:15, David Dalmau in 33:25, Brian Couper in 38:52, Jill Horsburgh in 40:02, Graham Burrows in 41:05, Jennifer Newton in 42:11, Alex Wood in 45:32 and Gillian McDonald in 50:39. In the 14km race, Grace Molloy finished in 1:02:39, Martin Maginnis in 1:04:38, Gerry McArdle in 1:06:31, Ian Boxall in 1:07:42, Neil Anderson in 1:11:51, Ian Fyfe in 1:14:04 and Rachel Waugh in 1:43:33. The full race results includes your Race time which is your handicapped finish time and the Chip time which is how long you took to complete your 7km or 14km run.
At the Saturday morning parkrun, the Club had 13 runners across 5 different venues across Scotland and Wales. The biggest Club turnout in Falkirk with lone runs at Plean, Oriam, Loch Leven and Wepre, near Connah's Quay in Flintshire, Wales. You also made use of the bonus parkrun on Christmas Day, again 13 runners across 5 different venues. Full results available here:-
Photo credit: Frances Wood
Roddy has posted more photos here.
