Luke McNeil continued his takeover of men’s PH Racing Club records with a superb run at the Alloa Half Marathon on Sunday, finishing as runner up in 1:11:03. This took almost a minute off the previous record, held by Ben Hukins since the inaugural Kirkcaldy Parks Half back in 2019, though he still remains the club’s over 40 record holder.
Luke had lead early on in the race, eventually won by Linlithgow AAC’s Sam O’Neill, but fell away slightly in the final 5k. He is already looking to dip under 71 mins in his next half marathon race. Here he is being cheered on by dad Billy, possibly an even faster runner in his day, but currently recovering from a recent operation.
The race was also the fourth event of the PH Racing Club Championship which meant that Luke secured another maximum 50 points to add to the 50 he took as first PH athlete, and overall runner up, at the Devilla 15k Trail Race. Not many would bet against Luke retaining his title, though Ben Hukins has also made an excellent start with maximum points from the two cross country races, and Wright Beveridge currently leads the way as the only member to have run all four events so far.
Unusually for the club there were no masters runners among the first six PH finishers with a number of other good performances. Dan Monaghan had to dig deep to beat his PB, clocking 1:15:39, as part of his preparation for next month’s London Marathon. Aaron Bennet had a good run of 1:20:39, when he eventually got started after arriving a bit late, and this bodes well for his marathon debut soon in Manchester.
Another who is marathon training is Ethan MacLeod, and after running 1:26:21 he is looking good for the Moray Marathon in a couple of weeks. Just behind was Alexander McDonald who ran 1:26:27, well under his 90 minute target in his first half marathon. Ally has been to almost every training session since he joined the club in the autumn so this goes to show that the training does work. Peter Gibson was next home, finishing in 1:27:04 as he works his way back from recent injuries.
As ever there were also some fine runs by our masters runners, Wright Beveridge, Kevin Hughes, Mark MacKenzie and of course Malcolm Hammond who was the 1st V75 in the race, timing at 1:41:04. Dave Morton was another who managed to miss the start and worked his way through 900 runners – he only had another 900 and odd to go when he finished.
On the ladies side was 50 Club Championship points for Clare Graham for her run of 1:50:45, which puts her in the lead after four events. It was also great to see Judy Turner back racing on Saturday after 15 months of knee problems. She took on the Blast Running 20 Along The Forth on Saturday and completed this undulating multi-terrain 20 mile race in 2:56:35.
Well done to all and thanks to Ross Bennet, Alan McLaren and the Alloa Half Marathon itself for the race photos.
PH Racing Club 