THE inaugural Stirling Marathon was held on Sunday and a number of Irvine runners were part of the more than 4300 strong field that took to the start line.

The scenic race started at Blair Drummond Safari Park before winding through the Stirlingshire countryside, before doing a circuit of the city, finishing beneath Stirling Castle. The Irvine contingent were led home by John Miller who recorded a 30 minute personal best time of 3 hours 25 minutes with Colin Patterson also recording a new best to finish next in a time of 4 hours 19 minutes.

There were fine runs for two debutants at the distance with Karen Figgins crossing the line in a time of 4 hours 29 minutes and Wlliam Herman finishing in 4 hours 55 minutes. The race was won by Scottish international athlete Andrew Lemoncello in a time of 2 hours 25 minutes.

The third running of the Antonine 10k Trail Race was held on Wednesday evening at Croy along parts of the Antonine Wall and this extremely hilly race proved to be a tough test for club captain Mark Livingstone. The race started with a downhill start which quickly changed into a long climb to the top of Croy Hill before a sharp decent followed by another long but gradual climb to the halfway mark. A descent to the village of Twecker through the woods provided some relief before the tough 2km ascent of Bar Hill which included more than 150m of incline and another sharp hill before the end made this a course not for the faint of heart and Livingstone was pleased to cross the finish line in 43 minutes 37 seconds to take 11th position.

There was a large turnout of Irvine runners at the Eglinton Parkrun on Saturday morning with Billy Richardson continuing his return to fitness following a heel injury to be first home with a time of 17 minutes and 4 seconds. Paul Lafferty was second in a good time of 17 minutes and 52 seconds with Alan Douglas (18:44) next in sixth place followed by Jim Sneddon (20:37). A clutch of Irvine runners finished in quick succession with John Surgenor (22:08), Peter Taylor (22:19) and Joe McNamee (22:26) closely followed by junior athlete Euan Rhodes (24:22), Jim White (24:41) and Susan Rhodes (26:42) with Madeleine Patterson (33:34) the final Irvine finisher.