Seniors Race Round-Up 23rd – 31st October

It has been another really busy and successful couple of weeks for our Senior Harriers, with athletes participating in various events around the country and doing the club proud!

First off we had a total of 14 senior athletes make the trip to Scone Palace at Perth for the National XC relays.  Unfortunately, injury and illness meant we couldn’t quite field 2 full teams in each category, but what was lacking in numbers was made up in enthusiasm and team spirit, and it was great to see some new faces on the teams.

Fresh from their victory at Ayrshires and with the addition of Lorna Baird, the ladies A team had a fantastic event.  Kara McKenzie led the team out, followed by Laura Haggarty (who posted fastest ladies time for the team in 14:50), Morgan McBurnie and finally Lorna taking on the final leg.  The ladies finished a really excellent 16^th overall in an extremely competitive field.  The Ladies partial B team of Jennifer Beattie, Eilidh Ballantyne and Amanda Bryden all had solid runs also.

In the men’s event, the A team was led out by Craig Ferguson who posted the fastest Harriers time on the day of 12:51, followed out by Jamie Nix, Connell Drummond and Stewart McAllister.  The men’s event was also extremely competitive, and the team finished 72^nd in some very good company.  The partial B team of Paul Black, Stuart Nibloe and Douglas Steele also had good runs, with Paul and Douglas both throwing themselves in at the deep end for their first XC event at Nationals – great to see new faces on the teams!

Fast forward to the 31^st, and 25 Harriers put their toe on the line for the Ruby Young Memorial 5k at the AAA.  The weather running up to the event had not been the kindest so there was a little standing water here and there on the course, but this definitely did nothing to slow down winner Martin Brown who cruised round in 15:27, even overtaking the lead bike at one stage!  He was followed by U17 athlete Jonathon Downey in 16:27.   First male veteran athlete home was David Sherrington in 4^th place in 17:40.  For the ladies, Laura Haggarty was the clear and very popular winner of the trophy in a PB time of 18:43.   It was a Killie ladies 1-2-3 with Lynsey O’Connor taking second place in 20:06 and Jennifer Beattie in third with 20:23.  The prizes were rounded up with Charlie McNulty and Mhairi Ballantyne taking the prizes for U17 athletes – all in all an excellent day for Kilmarnock Harriers, with 8 of the top 10 places being filled with members of the club.

Further afield, Liz and Les McDerment made the journey to Callander 10k.  Les finished in 52:24 with Liz following him home in 54:27 – well done guys!

Looking forward, we have National Short Course XC this weekend at Lanark and are also looking for names for Ayrshire XC at Rozelle Park on the 13^th of November and then looking forward to the West District XC at Balloch on the 4^th of December.