LAST weekend brought joy and some unexpected success to members of Irvine running and jogging group Ron's Runners when competing in the Ayrshire Half Marathon Championship.

With hosts of the event being Girvan Athletic Club, the start and finish was in Girvan in the local park.

The route takes runners from Hamilton Park out through Old Dailey, then a sharp left turn skirts the side of Dailey where another left turn uses the B741 to yet another left returns to Old Daily where the route re-traces the outward track back into Girvan and the finish once more in Hamilton Park.

The route is generally accepted as being hard and hilly with the hilliest part reached around the nine miles marker.

The club had four males entering the event and with teams consisting of four finishers meaning all four needed to be at their best there was little expectations of any chance of finishing within sight of any medal positions. The four headed by Andy Stewart supported by in form Matthew Watson, Andy McNaughton in training for his first ultra and fast improving Mark Garton knuckled down from the start and on finishing Andy Stewart timed a smashing 1 hr 32 mins and 49 secs with a surprised Mark Garton next with 1:48:45 then Matthew Watson, next over the line posted 1:55:20 over his expected time with Andy McNaughton, running relaxed to avoid injury, the final team counter home with 1:55:20.

And with the final results declared the four were delighted to finish in second position and were presented with silver medals.

The medal is some compensation to Matthew who has gone through a period of good form recently but who, during the race picked, up an injury over the hardest miles and struggled home from around four miles from the finish.

On the same weekend, John Owens continued the club’s support of trail running when he was their sole representative to enter the Perthshire Crieff 10k trail, which is now well established on the Scottish running scene. John described the route, which starts with fairly level running over the sports field as the best trail event he has so far experienced. All to soon however the first murderous climb of 285 meters of paths and trails was encountered followed by another even area where a settled faster running pace was possible before yet another 200 metres of climbing through woods to reach a flat plateau which offered a chance of recovery, before negotiating a mad downhill dash over trails giving tricky underfoot conditions. Fairly level once more the trail followed the river bank before re-entering the sports fields once more where with an increase to his pace saw John finish delighted with his finish time of 47 minutes.

At the local Park 5k this week where sodden conditions put paid to fast times, Andy Stewart 20:32 led the club home quickly followed by John Owens 20:36 and Neil Kyle 21:35 then Hugh Hood also produced a fine run, timing 24:02.

Jennifer Shaw again took the honours for the ladies this week, recording 24:40 with the second lady Carol Rome 28:54 running round with William Goggans 28:55 with the last club counter in a weather depleted field Eric Pearson taking 32:30. Taking their turn as stewards this week were Gemma Davidson and James McGill

All abilities of runners or joggers are welcome to come along and join training nights which are on Tuesday at Eglinton Park and Thursday at the bottom of the Mall at 6pm. In addition Saturday morning sessions are for the slower or beginner runners to run together while Sundays provide experienced runners the opportunity of running up to 13 miles. For details contact jogalong2010@hotmail.com.