Saturday afternoon saw the third and final meeting of the East Districts Cross Country at Livingston - co-hosted by Lothian and Linlithgow running clubs. Linlithgow providing 10 volunteers – Rhiann Ferguson, Joyce Tannahill, Alex and Frances Wood, Graham Burrows, Gerry McArdle, Roddy Simpson, Lorna Simpson, Roy Fairley and Tamsyn Sloan - carrying out a range of tasks from car park management to marshalling and taking down the course after the event.
In the senior races, Linlithgow was also well represented. For the women, Charlotte Moran was first home in 30:41, followed by Mandy Cazes in 32:19, Jill Horsburgh in 32:47 and Jennifer Newton in 32:53 and Rebecca Evans in 33:10 - the team finished 15th for the season (of 24 teams). For the men, John Redding was first home in 35:48, then Martin Maginnis in 39:54, Paul Dudchenko in 41:33, Neil Barnes in 42:22, Angus Gallie in 44:44 and David Marshall in 46:33 - the team finishing 24th for the season (of 33 teams).
Also on Saturday, Brian Couper was in Tynedrum to run the Tynedrum 24, taking on the 12-hour edition of the event. The tough 50-mile trail lap race takes place mostly in darkness with 150m of ascent and involves a mixture of dirt tracks, rocky paths and small river crossings. After heading off at midday, Brian finished in 11:48:52 finishing 9th overall. Incredible effort.
On Sunday, Michael Watts and Jennifer Newton ran the Nigel Barge 10k race in Glasgow. Michael got a new 10k PB finishing in 38:35. Jennifer and husband Stuart also ran, Stuart’s first in the LAC vest, finishing in 47:02 and 52:05, respectively.
The Club had 11 runners across 5 different parkrun venues across Scotland, England and Australia on Saturday! Neil Halliday secured a new PB at Falkirk (25:09), Ian Fyfe ticked another Scottish venue off his list, running Kelso (22:26). Junior member Clara McKenzie ran her first ever parkun at Falkirk (30:13) - well done. Volunteering this week was Jill Horsburgh who was tail walker at Polkemmet. Lastly, David Main-Reade was in Sydney, Australia and ran Kamay parkun in Sydney (24:02).
See the full parkrun results for this week.
On the coaching front, Frances and Alex Wood will be attending their first ever Officials Course on Sunday 2 February to become Level 1 Endurance and Risk Awareness Officials. With the sport crying out for more officials to run events like Saturday’s XC event, they will be a welcome addition to the ranks. If you’re interested in finding out more: https://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/officials/courses-for-officials/
📷 Paul Dudchenko and Roddy Simpson
