Kirkcudbright Half Marathon and Beeches Run

The past few years have seen hot sunny conditions for the Kirkcudbright Half Marathon, and this year, the 34th edition held last saturday, was no exception. 

17 Dumfries Running Club members joined the field of 168 over the half marathon distance with only two completing the 11.2K Beeches run, while yet more were out on the course offering much appreciated encouragement.

The course is a testing undulating one, with a short sharp hill in Twynholm. There is no chance to let tired legs fade at the end as the last couple of miles are rather exposed along the High Street into Kirkcudbright. This year there were added extra difficulties as the very warm weather and the still air especially on the climb to Twynholm meant a lot of runners struggled badly and the late 1pm start meant all runners were out on the warmest part of the day. Many thanks are due to Les Hill, Bob Green and Doug Brown who cycled sections of the course and handed out water to some tired and thirsty runners.

The fastest club runner was Richard Beck who was third overall in 83.53, twenty seconds in front of first woman Lisa Finlay who had completed a nightshift the previous evening. Alan Baxter was 5^th in 86.31 two minutes ahead of Kevin McCaig and the trio of Richard, Alan and Kevin retained the first mens team trophy. Stuart Gillespie had a very strong run in the conditions in 16^th in 97.52, a minute ahead of Simon Mortlock. Mike Jardine continued his good recent form in 102.21, a few strides in front of David Burns and Ranjit Thomas produced a steady performance in 105.57. Graham Beckett found the latter stages to be difficult in 108.12, one minute in front of Anne Macfarlane and a further minute ahead of Neil Moffat. Anne was the first over 50 runner and was awarded the inaugural Harry Marland trophy in memory of the man who had developed the race over the past three decades. Craig Kerr ran a steady race in 116.16 and Sheila Graham and Stephen Mohan ran most of the race together in 121mins and Sheila, Lisa and Anne collected the prize as the first female team. Sean McGleenan ran well in 127mins as did Saty Burns who was only sixty seconds behind.In the 11k race Franc Karpo was fully 5 minutes down on last year in 48.36 and Louise Craig completed her longest ever race and did very well in 77.04.