Best of times boosts MacDonald for London

Nicola Macdonald hit top form when dominating the women’s division of yesterday’s Kinloss to Lossiemouth half marathon.

The Metro Aberdeen club member, pictured, led from the start and went on to win in fine style, recording a personal best time of 1hr 19min 52secs, which gave her 25th position overall from a field of 275 runners.

That’s a threeminute improvement on her previous fastest performance, achieved when finishing third in last year’s Great Aberdeen Run.

Macdonald’s result gives her a boost in the buildup to April’s London marathon.

She said: “I was hoping for a PB today but not by such a margin.

“I’ve been doing a lot of mileage as I’m training for the London marathon and I was worried my legs would be a bit heavy.

“It worked out well. I had a couple of guys to run with most of the way and it was good to have that as they probably pulled me along to getting under the 1:20 mark.

“It’s a real confidence booster for my London preparations. I hope to run under 2:50 there.

“My best time at the moment is 2:57, which I did when winning the Loch Rannoch marathon last year but that was quite a tough course.

“Hopefully London will be better.

“I’m looking forward to the great atmosphere. There will be a lot of my clubmates taking part as well, so it should be good.”

Former 400m specialist Jen Harrison (Aberdeen AAC) was runner-up in 1:25:47, while Peterhead AAC’s Tanya Sneddon took third spot in 1:26:45.

Shetland’s Charlotte Black won the 40-49 age group prize when finishing fourth in 1:26:32.