Senior Race Roundup 6th October 2022

We are now in the very final throes of the summer season and well into the autumn marathon block,
and as ever our senior athletes have been delivering some outstanding results out on the roads. We
start on Sunday the 18 th of September, where Ross Granger and Stewart McRoberts travelled
through to Musselburgh for the Scottish Half Marathon. Ross ran an excellent debut in 82:15 and
Stewart put in a sterling effort as part of his final marathon preparation in 1:54:10.

The following weekend was the calm before the storm, but we still had athletes out representing
around the country. Neil Todd has a great run at Dumfries Half Marathon to finish 11 th overall in
90:47, and Andy Taylor completed Linlithgow 10k in 52:06.

Last weekend however has been the big target for a lot of our athletes, with the club represented at
Loch Ness, London and Glasgow and some fantastic results reported back! Stewart McRoberts
travelled north to take on the Loch Ness marathon, and completed this scenic but tricky course in
4:40:27 – well done Stewart!

We had 5 Harriers make the (at times rather stressful) journey to London to take on the last October
version of this Marathon post COVID before it goes back to the traditional April date next year. First
home in 2:50:20 was John Speirs, and first lady back was Lorna Baird in 2:57:25. I am led to believe
that this is the first time the 3 hour mark has been broken by a Kilmarnock lady for the marathon, so
huge congratulations to Lorna – what an achievement! Next back in her debut marathon was
Jacqueline McConnell. Jacqueline’s journey to this marathon has been a long one as COVID spoiled
the first attempt and then baby Rose came along, but all the hard work was rewarded by a 3:49:58.
Kirsty Mackay was next home in an excellent 4:09:13 and Louise Baillie rounded up a set of great
results in 4:14:23 – all those early morning long runs were worth it ladies, great effort!

However, despite the great performances going on elsewhere, most of our senior endurance
athletes had their eye firmly on Glasgow for the great Scottish 10k and Half Marathon. It is safe to
say that all of the training that has been going on over the summer with these races in mind paid off,
and there were loads of PBs and happy smiling faces at the end of the day.

In the 10k we had 5 Harriers taking part, and first home in a huge PB of 35:43 and a top 50 finish was
Ross Granger. Next back was sister Lynsey O’Connor who also ran a PB in 39:09 and just outside the
top 100 overall. We then had Christopher Chance in 44:09, Sasha I’Anson in 47:52 and Izzy Caufield
in 48:14. Sasha and Izzy also got the chance to meet Eilish McColgan on the day – it was great to see
pictures of our young athletes with such a fantastic role model!

In the Half Marathon we had a total of 28 athletes completing the race – what a great turnout! It
was really exciting to see some Harriers at the top end of the field, with Martin Brown finishing a
fabulous 10 th overall and agonisingly close to going sub 70 in a fantastic PB of 70:04. Not far behind
in 17 th overall was Craig Ferguson who has been having a great season in 72:00. Rounding up our
athletes in the top 100 of this huge event and 3 rd man back for the club was David Sherrington who
finished 95 th in a new PB of 79:33. First lady back for the Harriers was Amanda Bryden in 1:42:02
with Viv Lambert 2 nd lady home in 1:48:33 and Michelle Goldie rounding up our top 3 ladies in
1:48:54. Huge congratulations to ALL of our athletes who took part on the day, it was great to see so
many blue and white vests!

Looking forward, the XC season starts this Saturday with 4 men’s and 2 ladies teams entered at the
West District relays in Glasgow. Entries are already closed for National relays on the 22 nd , but we are
still taking names for Ayrshire relays on the 15 th – see club Facebook page for details or speak to your

captains. Since the listing of the winter races was published, there have been a couple of changes –
Ruby’s 5k will not be taking place this year. However there have been two new races added as part
of the newly formed West District XC league https://westleague.org.uk/ – you will need to be an SA
member to run these. We are also still looking for athletes to submit their HM and Parkrun times
before the 16 th of this month for the summer points league – again please see club Facebook for
further details or speak to your captains.

Winter Champs – winter provisional