Senior Roundup 8th October 2022

Another week, another batch of success stories from our senior/U20 athletes stretching from road,
to XC field, to hills and fells! The main event this weekend was the Ayrshire XC relays, with our
ladies team hoping to defend their title from last year and the senior men hungry to reclaim the
trophy from Irvine this year. A total of 4 complete and 1 partial men’s teams and 2 complete and 1
partial ladies teams participated in this event held around the playing fields and farmer’s fields
around the AAA. The weather leading up to the event was grim, leading to standing water on parts
of the course which always adds a little something extra to the racing, but the sun came out and we
were treated to a reasonable afternoon weather wise!

For the ladies, the A team of Laura Haggarty, Jennifer Beattie and Lynsey O’Connor fought hard to
retain the title but Ayr A team proved more than worthy adversaries and the girls had to settle for
silver on this occasion. Laura also ran the second fastest ladies time of the day (14:31) – well done
Laura! Our ladies B team did brilliantly to finish 10 th . From the team of Jackie Duncan, Gillian
Wishart and Lauren Little, only Gillian has ever had a go at XC before so huge well done and thank
you for putting a toe on the line and representing the club so well. It was brilliant to see these ladies
smiling their way around the course and hopefully they will be back for more. Due to some illnesses
the C team was very unfortunately reduced to just a solo runner on the day, so huge kudos to Jacqui
Sandler for stepping up to the plate and heading out in the charge that is the first leg!

The men definitely had a score to settle this year, and so it came to pass with some excellent racing
throughout the event. A slight change in tactics saw Craig Ferguson take the A team out, followed
by Jamie Nix, Jonathon Downey and anchored by Martin Brown. The team were sitting in 2 nd place
for the first 3 legs following some really strong performances, leaving Martin to head out on the
hunt on the last leg and to take the win for Kilmarnock (20s ahead of second placed Irvine). Martin
also ran the fastest lap of the day in 12:17. However it was not all about the A team – the B team of
Scott Martin, Robert Lindsay, Brian O’Connor and Neil Todd finished a fine 4 th , the C team of Mike
Corson, Mark Alexander, Nick Carter and Alasdair Murray were 8 th and the D team of Russell Duncan,
David Anderson, Wilson McPhail and Stewart McAllister were 10 th . Well done also to Murray
McDonald and John Parker who ran as a partial E team. It was great to see so many turn out to have
a go this weekend, hopefully we can keep this momentum up in the coming months!

Not finding the course at Kilmarnock hilly or muddy enough for their liking, we also had a team
representing Kilmarnock at the British Fell and Hill Relay Championships at Broughton. The team of
Colin Glencorse, Roddy Pugh, Jack Pugh, Tommy Begley, Alasdair McCallum and David White finished
a very credible 55 th open men’s team and 123 rd overall in a really strong national level field – well
done guys, it looked rough going in the pictures!

Finally this weekend we had some athletes enjoying the sights of Amsterdam whilst taking part in
the Half Marathon and Marathon events. First up was the marathon, and first home for the club
was Steven Robson, running a fine PB of 3:04:52. Also running a cracking PB was our Club
Chairwoman Amanda Bryden who broke the 3:30 mark for the first time in 3:27:39 – brilliant running
guys! In the half marathon we had Paula Wilson and Connell Drummond participating. It was great
to see Paula back out competing and she was delighted to complete in 2:01:28. Connell meanwhile
enjoyed his first race in a new age group, completing in 1:27:58.

The next event on the calendar is the National XC relays, entries are closed for this but we are
hoping to field a few teams. Entries are now open for National Short Course XC on the 5 th of
November which is an individual XC race over 4km and will be held at Kirkcaldy this year – see

Scottish Athletics Events for details and to enter (you must be SA registered). From a winter points
admin view I am hanging fire on the new league table as there is still some discussion about some of
the dates – there is potential for another Ayrshire event this side of Christmas but watch this space!
From a summer points perspective the league tables have now been updated to reflect Parkrun and
Half Marathon times submitted as requested. If anyone has any queries on this let me know ASAP.
The marathon times will be added at the end of this month and prize winners announced at that
stage.

Summer table is here – summer points league (1)