PH’s men’s masters team made a triumphant start to the cross country season with a gold medal at the East District XC Relays in Livingston on Saturday. The event took place at Dechmont Law with teams of four each taking on an undulating 4k course. The course was pretty waterlogged after the torrential rain and there was a very tight and slippy hairpin turn right before the changeover which caught a few runners out.

The masters A team was lead off by Mark Ryan who contributed the 6th fastest masters lap of 14:31 to put the team right in contention. Late substitute Robert Sellar completed his lap in 15:10 before handing over to Michael Combe who was fastest for PH, and 5th quickest masters runner overall, timing at 14:08. It was then down to Paul Kieran on the anchor leg to overhaul Corstorphine AAC, which he duly did with a lap of 14:32, 7th best masters time of the day. Congratulations to all on another superb performance.

Photo – Michael Lindsay

The senior team of Andy Jannetta, Aaron Bennet, Philip Waring and Stuart Meiklejohn finished a credible 25th with Bennet the swiftest at 14:48, just a second faster than Waring. The masters B team of Alan McGowan, Johnny Cassells, Graham McInnes and Scott Love came in 13th, to find the A team already with their gold medals round their necks. Last but not least, well done to Dave Morton, Wright Beveridge (pictured) and Mark Webster for some good runs in the masters C team which was incomplete after a last minute drop out.

Photo – Kenneth Sutherland

While his clubmates were winning gold in Livingston, Ewan Taylor was taking part in the Aviemore Half Marathon where he came in 3rd, and won the V40 category with an excellent run of 1:22:59 in brutal conditions.

On Sunday, Isobel Robertson had a superbly-paced run at the Chicago Marathon, finishing in a new personal best time of 3:19:22. It must have been great to be involved in this race where the men’s world record was broken, and which also produced the second fastest women’s time ever.

Michael Combe also had a tremendous run in Glasgow the previous Sunday at the Great Scottish Run 10k, where he came 19th overall and 1st V40 in a time of 34:49. The main photo for this article is from that race, courtesy of Bobby Gavin/That One Moment. Meanwhile at the Strathcarron 10k, Andrew Wright bettered Combe’s time with 34:23 to finish 2nd overall. Mark Ryan was just outside the top three, timing at 35:31.

In the half marathon in Glasgow, Peter Gibson was the fastest of the PH men with 1:24:44, ahead of Johnny Cassells, Wright Beveridge and Darren Neilson. Fastest female was Sarah Paterson in 1:34:14 while Judy Turner was 2nd V50 in a time of 1:36:45. Also in half marathon action was Alan McGowan who ran the Cardiff Half Marathon in 1:27:49.

Well done to all mentioned and everyone else from the club who has raced recently. Next up for the club is the first meeting of the East League XC in Kirkcaldy this Saturday, followed by the National XC Relays the following week in Cumbernauld.