Fourteen PH athletes were among the 1000 or so lucky enough to get a place in last Friday’s Black Rock ‘5’, which sold out in a couple of minutes this year. The race, which is actually a little under 4.5 miles, starts on the road in Kinghorn before hitting the beach and taking runners round the Black Rock at low tide. The water levels were quite low this year but the rutted sand and hill on the return still sapped the energy as much as ever.
Once again, the first finisher for PH was Luke McNeil, 16th in a high quality field with a time of 24:31. This puts defending champion Luke out in front of our Club Championship with a perfect 250 points from the five races he has completed so far. Andrew Wright (main picture) enjoyed a battle with 1st woman Morag Millar and ended up as 2nd V50 in the race, timing at 26:23.
Stuart Green was the 3rd man home for PH in a good time of 28:56, ahead of Mark McLean who managed 29:23. Wright Beveridge finished in 30:53, just four seconds ahead of Mark MacKenzie. John Crookston was 5th in the V60 category in 32:11 and it was great to see Billy Stewart back racing and crossing the line in 34:17.
Malcolm Hammond finished as 1st V70 in 35:28 which is apparently the fastest time for an over 70, at least since they started keeping specific records – not back for an over 75! There were only two women there for PH so well done to Clare Graham and Lauren Bennet who had good runs and scooped big points in the Club Championship, as did Robert Milton and Murray Thomson.
Meanwhile Ben Hukins and Andy Davis, along with some sailing teammates, were taking part in the Scottish Island Peaks Race which took place from Friday to Sunday. This was Ben’s third attempt at this event, and best yet, finishing in 50 hours, 14 minutes and 19 seconds, including sailing time between the start in Oban, Mull, Jura, Arran and finish in Troon, as well as their runs on each island. This put them in 4th place in their class and 19th overall in the race.
Sunday was a quieter day on the racing front but we had another V70 winner in Ivor McIvor who finished in 33:09 at the Balbirnie Nuts Trail Race. Well done Ivor and everyone else who has been racing recently.
Thank you to Gordon Donnachie and David Burgess for the race photos.
PH Racing Club 