ROAD RUNNERS

Winter is on the horizon and the cross country season now in full swing.

And Perth Road Runners made the short journey west this week to take part in a popular fixture on the calendar, the East District League.

This was the first league match of the season and there was a great turnout from the club with nine women and 12 men participating.

Following a successful event, both the men and women’s masters teams currently sit in third overall and have aspirations of climbing the standings.

For the men, Duncan Ryan was first home, followed by Stuart Robertson and David Knight.

Lorraine MacPherson was first female vet with Sam Newington and Tessa Ward completing the ladies masters team.

The senior women finished ninth while the men were in 12th place. This was also Mike Souter’s first foray into cross country and he finished in 35:40.

Further afield on Sunday, six green vests travelled to Amsterdam to run the fast and flat marathon.

Martin McEwen, Garry Smith and Sean Toole finished the 26.2-mile test with Sean gaining a new personal best time of 3:24.54.

Paul Stewart, Caroline Malloy and Megan Anderson ran the half marathon. Caroline achieved a new personal best time of 2:02.06.

Pete Ritchie, meanwhile, added to his impressive marathon tally, completing his 77th event on Sunday in Lisbon with a time of five hours and 37 minutes.

Saturday morning was parkrun time with 32 road runners lining up in a field of 230 on the North Inch in Perth.

Jimmy Fotheringham was first home and seventh overall in 19:48, while Gillian Edwards was first female in 22:28.

On the tourism trail, Laurie Carruthers continued her tour of Australian parkruns by finishing fourth female at Port Macquarie.

Elsewhere, Lou Ella Cole finished Dalby Forest and Fabienne Thompson completed York.

As usual, the club meets at 6.25pm on Tuesday at Bell’s Sports Centre for their weekly club run. New runners are always welcome. around the country.”