PH Racing Club’s QA 5k took place recently for the sixth time and proved a major success. Once again there were five graded 5k races on the night, each comprising of approximately seven and a half laps of the perimeter of Dunfermline’s Queen Anne High School. While this might not be the most scenic of routes, it is one that seems conducive to fast times and this was the case again this year.
The races got progressively faster throughout the evening, but we will start with Race 1 where the overall winner was unattached athlete Finlay Lovell in 18:38. If you are reading this FInlay, membership is available via our website! Second place went to Thomas Neilson from our neighbours Pitreavie, who timed at 19:26. There was a close battle for third place, and first female, in this opening heat with Falkirk Vics duo Katie Bennie and Lucy Morrison separated by a single second, crossing the line in 19:43 and 19:44 respectively. There was another unattached Lovell, Mark this time, as third male in 19:57, and third female was yet another Falkirk Vic in Karen Kennedy, whose 20:11 gave them a clean sweep of the women’s podium places.
There was PH interest in this race with Mark McLean running 19:58 ahead of Sarah Paterson (20:52), Mark Western (21:06), Dave Morton (22:10) and Clare Graham (23:45).
Onto Race 2 and this time there was an Edinburgh AC head to head for the top places with David Andrew winning in 17:57 ahead of clubmate Iain Young’s 18:04. Daniel Hale of Fife AC won another club battle to finish third in 18:15. In the female race it was a Gala Harriers 1-2 with Ava Richardson finishing in 18:32, seven seconds ahead of Molly Trewartha. Third female position went to PH’s own Evie Menzies in 19:02.
Evie has been getting better and better in training and lots of us were keen to see her racing her mum, Julie! It was looking close for the first few laps before Evie pulled away, but Julie was not far behind, finishing in 19:17. Elsewhere for PH, Jordy Hutt and Bob Irving have also been improving and had excellent runs of 18:23 and 18:28. Ally McDonald had a good run, finishing just ahead of Evie in 19 minutes dead, while Martin Butcher also ran in this heat, finishing in 19:53.
Race 3 was close, with the top three runners separated by only six seconds. First place went to Pawel Pomorsky of Corstorphine AAC, in 16:38, ahead of Lothian’s Chris Lamond who ran 16:39. In third place it was great to see Barry Smith make his PH debut in a PB time of 16:44. Zoe Bates of Aberdeen AAC took first female in this race in 17:07. Yvonne McNairn of Giffnock North finished second in 17:21, just a second ahead of Central’s Tuscany Wright.
As well as Barry, there were four further PH athletes in the race. Graeme Doig put in a run of 17:39 and Stuart Meiklejohn (18:02) finished just ahead of Gayle Lindsay (18:09). Kristin Lownie pushed hard and managed a time of 19:04 despite ending up with no one to run off.
The penultimate Race 4 was also exceptionally close, the overall winner Joshua Mirtle of Strathclyde Uni’s time of 16:03, just two seconds ahead of second placed Michael Richardson of Dundee Road Runners. Jack Honeyman of Central took third, also in 16:05.
With no women in Race 5 the overall top females were expected to come from Race 4, and this proved the case with Katie Rourke of Gala Harriers taking the title in 16:10. Anya McLean of Garscube Harriers was runner up in 16:21, with Lasswade’s Amy Frankland taking third in 16:42. Well done to these three who took home prizes of £250, £150 and £100 for their efforts!
The first PH athlete in Race 4 was our July Run of the Month winner, Peter Gibson, who put in an early marker for the August award with a new PB time of 16:26. Aaron Bennet also dipped under 17 minutes, crossing in 16:55.
In the final event, Race 5, there was another tight battle for the top spots, and prize money the same as above! Top spot eventually went to Angus Smith of Corstorphine AAC in 14:21, with Central’s Aidan Thompson only a second back. Central teammate Hamish Hickey was a further four seconds behind, completing the podium in 14:26.
There were numerous other superb performances across all races with lots of PBs and happy runners. Thanks to everyone who raced and supported on the night. Most importantly, thanks to all our volunteers, without whom the races could not have gone ahead, and especially to race director Dan Monaghan for putting on such a well organised event.
This year we had chip timing for the first time, expertly provided by Perfect Timing Scotland. You can find the full race results here. We were also again well looked after by Graham and Gregg of You Can Sport, who help build the atmosphere with their commentary, announcements and music. Finally, thanks to Graeme Baxter for providing us with race photos, as well as everyone else who posted images online.
PH Racing Club 