Cross country returns for Irvine club members
THE first race of the Scottish cross-country season took place last Saturday when clubs from the West region made their way to Kings Park on the South side of Glasgow for the district relay championships.
Irvine Running Club had a senior men’s team competing in what is a highly competitive event. With 99 teams lining up the Irvine runners were looking for a reasonably good finishing position as a confidence booster for the county championships this coming weekend.
First off for the club was Alex Allardyce who posted a time of 15:26 for the 2.5 mile loop and handed over to second leg runner Owen McWilliams in 53rd place. Owen has had a good summer season this year and he managed to pull in 12 places to hand over in 41st position with a time of 14:31. Mark Sands took over on leg three and he passed another six runners to hand over in 35th place with a time of 15:00.
Recent addition to the club James Coulter took another five places to finish in 30th position with a time of 14:23 which was the fastest Irvine time on the day.
Tom Begley recently competed in the Kong mountain marathon which is held across two days on the Isle of Arran.
The race is a team event where pairs of runners go off and stay together. Partnering Tom was Alasdair McCallum and at the end of the first night the runners camped at Lochranza. Running almost seven miles on both days across rough and undulating terrain the team were in the ‘B’ category event where they finished 12th and 5th in their age group.
Next up for the club is the Ayrshire crosscountry relay championships this Saturday which are being held in Kilmarnock.
For general information on the club email info@irvinerunningclub.co,uk or for information on the junior section (ages 8 to 16) email Colin.Miller@irvinerunningclub. co.uk.