IT was an excellent weekends racing for Irvine Running Club recruit Paul Lafferty.

Not content with taking first position in the Eglinton Parkrun on Saturday with a time of 18:09, he followed it up with a fantastic sixth position overall in the Run With the Wind Half Marathon in Strathaven on Sunday, taking third prize for his age group category.

Paul’s time of 1:19:23 was a great effort on this tough course which included a largely uphill first six miles followed by an undulating downhill second half on a route which by-passed at halfway a section of Whitelees Windfarm, which is Europe’s largest. Both races were part of Paul’s continued preparation for April’s London Marathon and, on this weekend’s showing, training for this seems to be going well.

A number of other runners took part in the Parkrun at the weekend with Alan Douglas (19:26), Jim Sneddon (21:14), John Surgenor (21:38) and Liz Colquhoun (28:24) who was taking part in her 50th Parkrun all running well.