Leven runners finish in fourth spot on path race

Chris Russell, Alan Davie, Mark McLean, Andy Cargill and Bryan McLaren who took part in the Scottish Long Coastal Relay race around the Fife Coastal Path from Culross to Newburgh.

Teams of six runners set out to complete the full 116 miles from Culross to Newburgh.

Leven Las Vegas Running Club had achieved an excellent third place at the 2017 event and the team of Chris Russell, Alan Davie, Robin Pate, Mark McLean, Andy Cargill and Bryan McLaren were looking to do well again this year.

Starting at midnight and running by torchlight, Chris Russell gave the team an excellent start by equalling his own record time from 2017 for the first stage and handing over at North Queensferry to Alan Davie in first place.

Alan continued his run through the darkness to Dysart where Robin Pate took over for the next stage to St Monans.

As dawn broke Robin passed the baton to Mark McLean for the longest stage of the race around Fife Ness to St Andrews where Andy Cargill set off for Wormit Bay with the LLV team still holding on to second place overall.

On arrival at Wormit Bay, Bryan McLaren took over with a small lead of around five minutes over the third placed team.

Unfortunately the long distance racing experience of the final stage runners in third and fourth place allowed them to overhaul Bryan on the way to Newburgh, leaving LLV in fourth place overall by a slim margin of less than three minutes when Bryan crossed the finish line at Newburgh in mid-afternoon.

The Mad Hatters marathon and half marathon trail races were held in the Lomond Hills with Robin Pate completing the marathon in 11th place and the veteran Peter Rieu-Clarke finishing as first over-70 in the half marathon.

Annie Gibson travelled north for the Aviemore half marathon where she set a new personal best time for the distance.

Several Leven Las Vegas members participated in the Lochore 10k trail race around Lochore Meadows Country Park.

First to finish for LLV was Kevin Hughes in an excellent top 20 position.

Kevin was joined at the event by Gordon Christie, Terry Cullen, Nick Silcocks and Susan Halliday.

Allen Marr continued his return from injury by setting a season’s best time at the Giffordtown 5k road race and competing in the East District Cross Country Relay Championships at Glamis Castle.

At the weekend parkruns there were new personal best times for Teresa Guild, Susan Kirkcaldy and Luke Whittaker at Beveridge Park in Kirkcaldy.