Festive fun for Kirkcaldy Wizards on busy weekend of running

McLean was also 48th in the Senior and Masters Women's Race with a time of 41mins 7secs, helping her finish as the third Women's Masters team overall.

This team also consisted of Fife AC ladies Rhona Van Rensburg and Alison McGill, formerly of this parish, who coached and helped found the Wizards. They completed the course in speedy times of 37:45 and 37:07 respectively.

It was also a successful day for coach Michelle Johnstone, who was in fabulous form to complete the course in a time of 45:16, finishing 84th overall in the women's race.

Fellow Wizard Ben Kinninmonth completed the Stirling course in a blisteringly quick time of 33:01 which saw him finish 86th overall.

There was also a strong outing for Rory Sandilands, who ran 36:46 to place 167th overall.

It was a successful day for the Sandilands family as a whole, as Katie Sandilands was seventh in the under-17 women's race and Ben Sandilands 10th. His team also won a silver medal in the under-20 men's race.

Andy Harley produced a superb performance to cross the line in a time of 39:57 and finished 215th overall.

There were also successful outings for Sean Brown and Paul Harkins. Sean finished 231st with a time of 40:57 and Paul finished 245th in 42:35.

Back at the Great Edinburgh Christmas Run 10k, Andrew Ritchie was fastest Wizard in 43:38 and placed 23rd overall.

Selina Skivington and Jim O'Neill finished 148th and 149th overall with a time of 56:13, with Carol Kirk 213th in 1:01:16 and Cara Murdoch 223rd in 1:02:57.

Meanwhile, at his home event, Wizard Douglas Murray completed his 250th Kirkcaldy Parkrun.

Murray, who has now scaled the dreaded parkrun hill 500 times, was given a special presentation to mark his 250th event by run director Andrew Aird.

A group of Wizards travelled across the water to run in the relatively new Holyrood Parkrun.

Your author Rolf Gunnemann completed the course in a time of 18:57, which saw him finish 10th overall.

There was a close battle to the finish line between ladies Cara Murdoch and Heather Finlayson, with only 17 seconds in it as Cara emerged as the narrow victor with a time of 27:21.

It was also a successful outing for Chris Payne, who made a 40-second improvement on his last trip to Holyrood by running a course PB time of 28:09.

There were also gallant performances by John McIntyre who ran a sub-30 time of 29:51 and by parkrun veteran Derek Adamson, who completed his 272nd event in a time of 35:01.

Wizard Susan Young crossed the pond to participate in a 15km race taking place in New York's famous Central Park. Young completed the course in 1:28:40. She was the 42nd British female out of the 60 taking part and 866th lady of 2,248.

Finally, the traditional Escape from the Capital run – organised every advent by Dave Morton – took place.

Essentially the idea is to get the train through to Edinburgh and set off from Edinburgh Castle, with the runners having the option of choosing different 'escape' points along the Fife coastal path where they can board a train when they feel they have run enough miles.

It is a social run which includes runners from a number of different Fife-based running clubs including PH Racing Club, Carnegie Harriers and Falkland Trail Runners.

Participants from the Wizards in addition to organiser Morton included Craig Stokes, Andy Harley, Michelle Johnstone, Zoey Johnston, Craig MacDonald, Chris Payne, Jill Watson, Julie Callaghan, Laura Roy, Sonia Dean and Wendy McCormack.

This led to some impressive distance accomplishments.

The first group to escape did so from South Queensferry meaning they clocked a distance of just over 10 miles.

Other runners made the journey back to Dunfermline and completed a half marathon distance.

The bulk of the group ran to Aberdour, which saw them complete a run of just over 18 miles.

This was a particularly significant accomplishment for Jimmy Robertson, who in finishing the 18-mile run had completed his longest ever running distance.

After Aberdour, the group was now reduced to four remaining runners, consisting of coach Michelle Johnstone, Zoey Johnston, Susanne Lumsden of Falkland Trail Runners and Steven Barrie of Carnegie Harriers, also formerly of this parish.

With a combination of determination, team work and a stubborn refusal to wait an hour and 20 minutes for the next train, the group ran the full distance back to Kirkcaldy train station.

By the end of the run, the group had completed a distance of 27.5 miles, which meant they had all technically completed an ultra.

This was a particularly noteworthy accomplishment for Zoey Johnston, as she completed her first ever ultra, with her previous longest distance being a marathon.

All in all, a fantastic occasion to help kickstart the Wizards’ first days of Christmas.