Someone Old, Someone New at Scottish parkruns

1 NOV2009

Some 364 runners took part in the two Scottish parkruns on the last Saturday in October, the more established Glasgow event attracted 198 competitors, whilst the younger Edinburgh parkrun attracted 166. Pitreavie AAC's Jeff Farquhar was the first athlete across the Glasgow finish line with his club mate Alex Keenan earning second spot in Edinburgh, behind Falkirk's Anthony Devlin.

Glasgow

Despite Glasgow being the harder course it attracted the fastest time of the day with Farquhar (V50-54) running the 5k in 16:44, an age grade score of 88.15%. It was veterans one, two and three in Pollok Park as Bellahouston Road Runner Liam Conway (V40-44) achieved a course PB of 17:20 to claim second and Cambuslang's Dave Thom (V45-49) finished third in 18:15, also a course PB.

Age was no barrier in the women's race with the first female athlete to cross the Glasgow line being Bellahouston Harrier Erica Christie (V50-54) in a time of 20:10, an age grade score of 87.19%. Clydesdale Harrier Marina McCallum (V35-39) earned second in 20:26. The two Scottish Veteran Harriers were followed home by Giffnock North's starlet Chloe Cowan (J14) running a course PB of 21:04 to claim third, just five seconds ahead of Clydesdale's 12 year old Roisin McShea.

Edinburgh

Running in his first Edinburgh parkrun, Falkirk's Anthony Devlin (V35-39) won with a time of 17:07, an age grade of 79.16%. Pitreavie's Alex Keenan (S30-34) completed the seaside 5k in 17:18, just three seconds ahead of Campbell Hutt (S30-34) of Carnegie Harriers in third place.

It was newbies to the fore in the women's event with first time parkrunners earning first and second places. Hunters Bog Trotter Eilis McKechanie (S30-34) was the first woman across the Edinburgh finish line, her time of 19:06 representing an age grade score of 77.57%. Second place went to Edinburgh AC's Lyndsey Fraser (S30-34) in 19:38, whilst Portobello RC's Mary Hunter (V40-44) earned third with a new course PB of 22:18.