Killie Athletes Do Great In Chester

The news story below comes courtesy of Scott Martin:

Last weekend a number of local athletes headed South where the now established Chester Marathon and Metric Marathon were being held.

The races are rather unique, in the sense that after 8 miles the course heads over the border into Wales for the next 7 miles, before crossing back into England with the last few miles coming back into the city and the finishing line at Chester Racecourse where hundreds of supporters awaited the tired athletes.

For the past couple of years the race has Incorporated the British Masters Championships, and also the English and Celtic Race challenge and with these quality races within the race the standard was very high at the sharp end of the field, especially in the various age groups.

Making her debut over the Marathon distance was new Kilmarnock Harrier Jennifer Beattie, and with an original target of getting below 4 hours under threat due to two weeks of injury problems, happily for all concerned it was to be all right on the day as she smashed her target with quite a bit to spare as she finished to cheers from her watching parents who had taken the trip to support their daughter.

Also easily breaking her target in her first Marathon in a number of years was former Ladies Captain Paula Wilson. Paula came home just ahead of Jennifer to rapturous applause from her partner Scott Russell who had earlier completed the metric Marathon, and everyone from the club was delighted for her as she also gained Silver with her time, in the Kilmarnock Harriers Club Standards scheme.

The last of the Killie trio competing in the Marathon was another former Captain Scott Martin, who was trying to take advantage of the fact that he had recently moved into a new age category. Scott ran well, although despite leading his age category at one point, he finished narrowly outside the medals. This was tempered by the fact that in the UK Rankings for the Marathon in 2018, he now finds himself sneaking into the top 10 which is a testament to the training guidance from his long term coach Jim Young, who indeed coaches the 3 marathoners in the field from Killie.

Marathon Times were – Scott Martin 2.46.50, Paula Wilson 3.54.09, Jennifer Beattie 3.54.16.

75 minutes after the Marathon started, it was time for the Metric Marathon to begin, a fantastic concept as the distance was 26.2 kilometres as opposed the the Marathons 26.2 miles.

4 Kilmarnock Harriers were involved in this, including Scott Russell who was competing in the colours of his first claiming club Ayrodynamics.

First Harrier to cross the line was Kirsty Alexander, who like a number of athletes on the day, smashed her target. In a distance which equated to around 16.3 miles, Kirsty not only finished 7th female overall, but was in the prizes for her age category in a welcome return to endurance racing.

Current ladies Captain Amanda Bryden was using the race as a build up to her upcoming Dramathon race this weekend, and like her teammates Scott Russell and Les McDerment had a hugely respectable race, with Les showing his strength having raced the previous day over a tough course.

Times in the Metric Marathon were – Kirsty Alexander 1.58.54, Scott Russell 2.01.54, Amanda Bryden 2.25.45, Les McDerment 2.30.40.

A huge well done to everyone involved and more local athletics news is at www.kilmarnockharriers.com