Fife Athletic Club/Kirkcaldy Wizards: Devil’s Burden is not a hellish race for top Fife AC squad

After a four-year absence, Fife AC hosted the Devil's Burden six-person relay race in the Lomond Hills on Saturday, with three Fife AC teams and one Kirkcaldy Wizards team competing.

The Fife AC squad of Glenn Barclay, Ben Kinninmonth, Liam Hutson, Kevin Wallace, Thomas Gambino and Jamie Greig finished 15th out of 112 teams competing from all over Scotland.

Barclay did the five-mile first leg, up Maspie Den and to the summit of East Lomond, in 42:30, before Kinninmonth and Hutson managed the steepest section, leg two climbing 1,623 feet, in 1:02:38.

Wallace and Gambino completed leg three in 1:00:16, before Greig did leg four in 34:36, to give his team a final finishing time of 3:20:00.

Other results for members were: 44. Fife AC - Livin' on a Spare (Open 40+) 04:03:08, leg 1 - Stephen Dickson 00:53:15; leg 2 - Rory Sandilands & Eric Lalande 01:16:36; leg 3 - Andy Harley & Paul Harkins 01:11:08; leg 4 - Andrew Neenan 00:42:09.

75. East Coast Runners (Mixed 40+) 04:39:09, leg 1 - Keith Bonthrone 01:04:32; leg 2 - Michelle Johnstone & Hilary Lalande 01:32:38; leg 3 - Robert Sinclair & Ashleigh Sinclair 01:20:49; leg 4 - Angus Reid (M4) 00:41:10.

86. Kirkcaldy Wizards (Mixed Senior) 04:55:30, leg 1 - Lee Cessford 00:58:25; leg 2 - Cara Murdoch & Katarzyna Szafarz 01:40:48; leg 3 - Karen Richards & Neill Mitchell 01:33:02; leg 4 - Rob Justice (M4) 00:43:15.

Meanwhile, Wizard Dorota Park excelled at the Lipno Ice Marathon in Czechia, a 42km event on a frozen lake with a mixture of mud, sand, ice and rocks, as she completed the race in 5:34:49. In addition, her cousin Julia took the crown of first female.

Back on these shores, two Fife AC ladies took part in the annual Forfar multi terrain race, over country park paths, tarmac, pavement, farm tracks, fields and bogs.

Hilary Ritchie was first female 60 in a superb time of 1:48:20, while clubmate Keren Macpherson finished in 1:50:21.

Pamela Dobson and Jennifer Hodgson ventured south, crossing Hadrian's Wall to take part in the cross border Carlisle to Gretna 10k race.

Dobson produced a resilient performance to cross the finish line in 1:07:54. There was also a gutsy display by Hodgson, who completed the course in 1:11:56.

Kirkcaldy Wizard Martin McHatton took on the challenge of running two laps of Holyrood Park, which incorporated a steep 2km climb twice, at the Edinburgh Winter Warmer 10k.

McHatton acquitted himself strongly, running well to dip under 48 minutes in a time of 47:59.

Taking on an even more daunting challenge, the team of Chris Payne (2:21:31), Julie Callaghan (2:22:38), Jill Watson (2:27:00) and Wendy McCormack (2:32:42) completed the half marathon edition of the Winter Warmer challenge.

This comprised of four laps of the course, which also meant they had to climb that hill four times.

It was a superb showing by all four runners, who showed admirable mental fortitude to complete the distance.