Three is the magic number for Lothian Running Club ladies

May 6 2010 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

THERE was a one, two, three for Lothian Running Club girls this week as three of the club’s athletes filled the first three places in the female race at Saturday’s Edinburgh Parkrun.

Sarah Inglis made it two wins out of two at the event covering the 5k course in cold raw conditions along the Cramond/Silverknowes waterfront in 17 minutes 04 seconds. This placed her third overall and first female.

Sarah was followed home by her sister Mhairi who was making her park run debut.

Mhairi finished 17th overall and second female crossing the finish line in 19:36 to go straight into the sub-20 club.

Making it a clean sweep of the top three placings was race regular Lana Turnbull.

Lana, who was taking part in her 14th park run, came home in 28th and third female in 20:55.

Making up the club representation was Mike Turnbull who completed the course in 33:17 for 126th place.

In keeping with the number three trend this week, three of the club’s female athletes contested the Edinburgh to North Berwick 20 mile race, again on Saturday.

Conditions were less than ideal as the runners had to contend with a cold stiff headwind for much of the route which follows the coast from Portobello on past Musselburgh Racecourse through Direlton and on to North Berwick to the finish on Beach Road.

First of the club trio to complete was Mary Inglis who just failed to get inside the three-hour mark in finishing in 3 hours 2 minutes 37 seconds. This put her in 183rd place.

Four places and less than a minute further back in 187th was Julie Toner in 3:03.15.

Mags Turnbull who seven days earlier ran the gruelling 53-mile ‘Highland Fling’ race, came home in 3:17.59 for 208th place.

The trio of club runners finished 14th, 15th and 17th in their age group category.

Lothian Running Club had four runners in the line-up of just under 8000 for Sunday’s Bupa Great Edinburgh 10k at Hollyrood Park.

There finishing positions were: Richard Docherty (281st), Richard Moir (582nd), Neil Graham (947th) and Ian Hall (227th).

In the junior events, brother and sister Andrew and Amy Lickley contested their respective 9-11 years 2.5k races.

Amy (10) was a fine fifth out of 156 in a time of 10 minutes 56 seconds, with Andrew (9) who fell at the start, 21st boy out of 175 in 11 minutes 21 seconds.

Further afield, the club duo of Tosh Brannan and Herbi McLean contested the tough 22k Stuc A’ Croin Hill Race at Strathyre, Perthshire.

Tosh came home in 59th place with Herbie 142nd and third MV60.

A special mention also to Ross Milne who produced a fine run to finish in 67th place in the recent London Marathon.

Ross completed the 26 miles 385 yards in 2 hours 29 minutes 48 seconds.

The club’s John Malcolm was also among the masses getting round in 3 hours 43 minutes 53 seconds which placed him 6824th.