Congratulations to Aaron Bennet and Julie Menzies who are the 2023 PH Racing Club Champions. The final positions of this year’s championships were finalised at the last event, the National Short Course XC Championships in Lanark last week.
It’s a first win for 19 year old Aaron, who has been with the club since he was 13, making great improvements over the last few years. Well done also to Mark Ryan who finishes runner up for the second year and Phil Waring, who makes the podium for the first time. For Julie it is a second straight win and she finished the championships in style with a silver medal in the V50 category at Lanark, timing at 15:40 for the 4k. Clare Graham and Susan Allan completed the ladies’ podium for the club championships.
Ed Norton picked up another V70 silver as he warmed up to represent Scotland in the British and Irish Masters, where Menzies is also selected. Ed was the only club championship age category winner running in Lanark. Well done to the other winners, Robert Sellar (V40), Iain Wallace (V50) and John Crookston (V60).
On the day Bennet had to settle for second place among the PH athletes at Lanark, finishing just three seconds behind in form Michael Combe, who timed at 13:47. Phil Waring enjoyed a victory over Mark Ryan on this occasion, timing at 14:05 to Ryan’s 14:16. Next in was Lanark local boy Peter Gibson, running his first XC race since school and finishing in 14:26, just ahead of Stuart Meiklejohn. Well done to Derek Cosgrove, who was also making his XC debut for the club.
There have been a few other highlights over the last few weeks of the XC season. At the first meeting of the East District League at Beveridge Park, Kirkcaldy, the masters men took an early lead. Paul Kieran and Andrew Wright were the top performers, Kieran placing 4th in 30:16 with Wright just eight seconds behind in 5th over the tough 8k course. Robert Sellar was the 3rd counter. The masters women, running two laps compared to three for the men, also had a good day to sit fourth in the league. First finisher for PH was of course Julie Menzies in 23:05 and she was backed up by Mary Western and Clare Graham.
Due to the age demographic in the club, we tend to focus on the masters, but in the overall competition the men sit 9th heading into the second event in Dundee. The ladies are in 5th thanks to some strong performances by Isobel Robertson, just a week after running the Chicago Marathon, Sarah Paterson and Laura Muncey, who were all running their first XC races for PH.
At the National XC Relays in Cumbernauld there was a superb performance from the womens’ masters team of Clare Graham, Anna Hartmann and Julie Menzies to finish in 4th position and only 26 seconds outside the medals. The mens’ teams completed four legs of the 4k course with the masters A team of Andy Jannetta, Roger Clark, Mark Ryan and Michael Combe coming in 8th. Fastest leg on the day went to Mark Ryan with 15:02. The masters B team finished in a creditable 11th position.
Andy Davis has been much missed at the cross country so far this season but he has had some excellent races on the trails, coming 3rd at the Aberfoyle Trail Half Marathon in 1:24:41, then bettering that a fortnight later to win the Scurry Round Tentsmuir Forest Trail Half in 1:21:25.
Away from the XC mud and trails, but with some large puddles, the penultimate race of the PH Club Championship was a favourite for many at the club, the Path of Condie Half Marathon. This is a tough road half organised by Kinross Road Runners with some steep climbs but a nice downhill finish. Phil Waring took 3rd with 1:20:16 to finish as the fastest PH member on the day, or indeed ever, in the race. Fastest female from the club was Kat Lindsay who was 4th lady and timed at 1:39:39. Martin McNellis was among the prizes, finishing as top V60 in 1:37:15 and their were a number of other excellent performances.
It’s also marathon season with a number of members’ sights set on Malaga in December. Others have already run theirs with Bryan Innes grabbing a PB of 2:54:37 in Amsterdam and Mark McLean setting a season’s best 3:10:08 in New York last week.
Well done to all members racing recently, and thanks to all race organisers and to Bobby Gavin and Gordon Donnachie for the superb race photos.
PH Racing Club 