Cover photo – Jim, Wendy, Dawn, Lynsay, Chris, Jenni and Barry at Balbirnie Park

Tuesday Night Training

Jog leader Allen took another large group to the Energy Park in Methil for a set of interval speed drills.

Parkruns

At Beveridge Park in Kirkcaldy there were PBs for Donna Rodger, Douglas Clews and Lesley Turnbull.

At the North Inch in Perth, Sarah Ives set a new personal best.

Skull Mountain Winter Challenge Race 3

There were perfect conditions and bright sunshine at Balbirnie Park in Markinch for the third and final race in the series. The organisers PB Timing had nevertheless set out a tough course with a couple of testing uphill sections and the customary stream crossing. Five LLV had attended the first two races in the series – Chris Russell, Jim Dunstan, Lynsay Bell, Dawn Watson and Jenni Johnston – and they were joined for the final race by Barry West.

Chris finished second on the day and that was good enough to claim first place overall in the series.

Race results:

• Chris – 2nd and 1st M45 28:28
• Jim – 32nd and 2nd M50 37:09
• Annie (representing FTR on the day) – 85th and 3rd F55 45:57
• Lynsay – 122nd 53:34
• Dawn – 123rd 53:36
• Jenni – 130th 59:04
• Barry – 131st 59:04

Upcoming Events

There is a busy weekend coming up with events on Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.

On Friday at 7:30pm it’s Nightmare Series Race #6 “The Nightmare Madness of ‘king Motocross” at Milton Farm near Leuchars.

On the same evening a couple of miles away at 6:30pm the Tentsmuir Torchlit Trail Run hosted by Run4It Dundee is being held.

On Saturday afternoon at 2pm is the Cupar 5 mile race organised by Fife AC where Kevin Hughes and Iain Wallace will be representing LLV.

And on Sunday at 11am there is the ladies-only Smokies 10 mile event. On the start list for Leven Las Vegas are Tracey Millar, Teresa Guild, Karen Richards, Gillian Easton, Claire Doak, Bex Oakenfull, Jemma Guild, Lynsay Bell, Dawn Watson, Susan Kerr, Lou Brook, Jenni Johnstone, Lorna Hughes and Lorraine Davie.

Further ahead:

• Inverness Half Marathon – Sunday 11 March
• Alloa Half Marathon – Sunday 18 March
• Tay Ten – Sunday 1 April
• Beveridge Park 5k – Friday 6 April
• Round the Houses 10k – Sunday 8 April
• FTR Lost Trails Race – Sunday 15 April
• St Andrews 5k (Fife AC Midweek Series) – Wednesday 18 April
• Livingston AC Open Graded Track Meeting – Wednesday 18 April
• Run Balmoral – Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 April
• Ravenscraig Park 2 mile race – Wednesday 25 April
• Stirling Scottish Marathon and 5k – Sunday 29 April
• Scottish 5k Championships, Silverknowes – Friday 4 May
• Loch Leven Half Marathon – Saturday 12 May
• Black Rock 5 – Friday 25 May
• FTR Dirty Weekend – Friday 1 June to Sunday 3 June
• Chariots of Fire Beach Race – Sunday 3 June
• Glenrothes 10k – Sunday 17 June
• Balbirnie Duathlon – Thursday 28 June

Dates for the Skull Mountain Summer Series have been announced and entries will open on EntryCentral.com in the near future.

• Race 1 – Sunday 8th July
• Race 2 – Sunday 5th August
  
• Race 3 – Sunday 2nd September

Cover photo – Team LLV at Devilla Forest

Tuesday Night Training

This week jog leader Ross took the group on a tour of the hills in Lower Methil.

Parkruns

At the Saturday morning parkruns, Kenna Orkney and Lesley Turnbull set new personal bests at Beveridge Park in Kirkcaldy.

Matthew Holden was an international parkrun tourist at Claisebrook Cove parkrun which is run along the bank of the Swan River in Perth, Australia.

Devilla 15k

This is a hugely popular annual event hosted by Carnegie Harriers, with well over 500 runners making a circuit of Devilla Forest in west Fife, starting and finishing in the grounds of Tulliallan Police College near Kincardine. The route skirts around three lochs and goes through a variety of sheltered woodland and open ground. Ground conditions vary from hard-packed forest trails to very boggy knee-deep mud.

A team of 10 from Leven Las Vegas Running Club completed the course. First LLV to finish in 13^th position overall was Chris Russell who also picked up an age category prize. Chris was closely followed by Bryan McLaren and Iain Wallace who both finished well within the top 50. The first LLV lady runner to complete the course was the ever-improving Gillian Easton. Also taking part from the Leven club were Robin Pate, Douglas Clews, Jemma Guild, Teresa Guild, Bex Oakenfull and Karen Richards.

Tricia Wallace was unable to finish the 15k due to injury and Allen Marr had to withdraw from the 5k also due to injury.

Some images below of the LLV ladies and gentlemen in action at Devilla Forest (photos by Pete Bracegirdle, Steve Adam and Fiona Rennie)

Race results:

• Chris – 13th and 2nd V40 01:00:30
• Bryan – 33rd 01:04:08
• Iain – 44th 01:05:32
• Robin – 115th 01:12:04
• Gillian – 180th 01:17:14
• Douglas – 287th 01:24:43
• Jemma – 405th 01:34:44
• Teresa – 435th 01:39:15
• Bex – 468th 01:44:12
• Karen – 482nd 01:46:02

Kinloss to Lossiemouth Half Marathon

Willie Goodfellow took part in the Kinloss to Lossiemouth half marathon, which is run along flat country roads near the shores of the Moray Firth. In perfect conditions Willie finished the race in 01:44:00, a new personal best time for the half marathon distance.

Upcoming Events

Next weekend is the final the race in the Skull Mountain Winter Challenge series. Chris is in contention to finish first overall, with Lynsey, Dawn, Jenni and Jim also running.

Further ahead:

• Nightmare Series Race #6 – Friday 2 March
• Tentsmuir Torchlit Trail Run – Friday 2 March
• Cupar 5 – Saturday 3 March
• Smokies 10 mile (Ladies Only) – Sunday 4 March
• Inverness Half Marathon – Sunday 11 March
• Alloa Half Marathon – Sunday 18 March
• Tay Ten – Sunday 1 April
• Beveridge Park 5k – Friday 6 April
• Round the Houses 10k – Sunday 8 April
• FTR Lost Trails Race – Sunday 15 April
• St Andrews 5k (Fife AC Midweek Series) – Wednesday 18 April
• Livingston AC Open Graded Track Meeting – Wednesday 18 April
• Run Balmoral – Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 April
• Ravenscraig Park 2 mile race – Wednesday 25 April
• Stirling Scottish Marathon and 5k – Sunday 29 April
• Scottish 5k Championships, Silverknowes – Friday 4 May
• Loch Leven Half Marathon – Saturday 12 May
• Black Rock 5 – Friday 25 May
• FTR Dirty Weekend – Friday 1 June to Sunday 3 June
• Chariots of Fire Beach Race – Sunday 3 June
• Glenrothes 10k – Sunday 17 June
• Balbirnie Duathlon – Thursday 28 June

 

Cover photo – a spectacular image of the runners in the Carnethy 5 hill race (photo by Carnethy Hill Running Club)

Tuesday Night Training

Jog leader Tricia took the group to the Energy Park in Methil for a testing series of paarlauf and fartlek drills.

Nightmare Series Race 5 – Volcano Vengeance

The venue for the latest race in the Nightmare Series was the Volcano of Beath near Kelty.

There was a fiery theme for the event.

Race results:

• Chris Russell – 1st 24:40
• Bryan McLaren – 3rd 26:34
• James Scott – 9th 28:14
• Matthew Miller – 17th 32:39
• Terry Cullen – 18th 32:56
• Douglas Clews – 23rd 34:40
• Tam Cullen – 26th 37:25
• Annie Gibson – 33rd 39:40
• Bex Oakenfull – 34th 39:50
• Claire Doak – 37th 41:52

Chris and Bryan retain 1st and 2nd places in the race series.

Parkruns

This weekend Kirkcaldy parkrun held their 3rd anniversary event. Nearly 250 runners turned out for the occasion, including a large contingent of 24 LLV members. In excellent running conditions there were new personal best times for Mark McLean, Kevin Hughes, Allen Marr, Karen Richards, Jenni Johnstone, Nicole Kelly and Kirsty Barclay. Mark dipped under the 20 minute mark for the first time at Beveridge Park and Kevin knocked more than half a minute off his previous best.

Carnethy 5 Hill Race

The Carnethy 5 Hill Race is steeped in Scottish history. It was inaugurated in the 1970s to commemorate the Battle of Roslin which took place between the Scots and English in February 1302. The ‘5’ in the race title is not the distance but the number of summits climbed during the race – Scald Law (1899′), South Black Hill (1840′), East Kip (1750′), West Kip (1806′), and Carnethy Hill (1890′) – around 2500 feet of ascent in total with the race starting at 900 feet. The race distance is approximately 6 miles.

The lone LLV participant in this year’s race was Iain Wallace who covered the course in 1:19:44.

Upcoming Events

Next Sunday 18 February is the extremely popular Carnegie Harriers Devilla 15k race around the trails of Devilla Forest starting and finishing at the Police College at Tulliallan near Kincardine. This year there is a huge entry list of 680 runners including 10 representing #TeamLLV – Douglas Clews, Gillian Easton, Teresa Guild, Jemma Guild, Bryan McLaren, Bex Oakenfull, Chris Russell, Iain Wallace, Robin Pate and Tricia Wallace.

Allen Marr is taking part in the Devilla 5k race at the same venue and is defending his V60 title from last year’s event.

Further ahead:

• Skull Mountain Winter Challenge Race 3 – Sunday 25 February
• Cupar 5 – Saturday 3 March
• Smokies 10 mile (Ladies Only) – Sunday 4 March
• Alloa Half Marathon – Sunday 18 March
• Tay Ten – Sunday 1 April
• Beveridge Park 5k – Friday 6 April
• Round the Houses 10k – Sunday 8 April
• FTR Lost Trails Race – Sunday 15 April
• St Andrews 5k (Fife AC Midweek Series) – Wednesday 18 April
• Ravenscraig Park 2 mile race – Wednesday 25 April
• Stirling Scottish Marathon and 5k – Sunday 29 April
• Scottish 5k Championships, Silverknowes – Friday 4 May
• Loch Leven Half Marathon – Saturday 12 May
• Black Rock 5 – Friday 25 May
• FTR Dirty Weekend – Friday 1 June to Sunday 3 June
• Chariots of Fire Beach Race – Sunday 3 June
• Glenrothes 10k – Sunday 17 June

 

Cover photo – the LLV ladies fill in their registration forms before the Tentsmuir Forest torchlit trail run last Friday evening

Tuesday Night Training

Jog leader Allen took a very large group through a dynamic warmup at the Energy Park in Methil, followed by two sets of pyramid intervals where the members ran for periods of 1m-2m-3m-2m-1m with short recovery between intervals. Finally there was a bonus “lungbuster” set of sprint pursuits.

Parkruns

There was a good turnout of LLV members for Kirkcaldy parkrun this week as it was the first race in the 2018 Morton Running Company Grand Prix.

First LLV to finish was Chris Russell, followed by Robin Pate who took a chunk off his previous PB and is now within striking distance of the 20 minute mark. For the second successive week Susan Kerr improved her PB by a large margin of almost one minute, a tremendous effort. Annie Gibson and Angela Wood were also rewarded for their consistent training with new PBs.

Forfar Multi-Terrain Half Marathon

The Forfar Multi Terrain race is a tough half marathon round the town of Forfar.  The race route contains a varied mixture of running surfaces from country park paths, tarmac, pavement, farm tracks, fields and bogs – and a water section which is knee deep and ice cold!

Taking part for Leven Las Vegas were Alan Davie and Robin Pate.

Race results:

• Alan – 31st 1:35:40
• Robin – 47th 1:41:11

Scottish National Indoor Masters

Allen Marr was representing LLV and PH Racing Club in the V60 age category at the 1500m held on the indoor 200m track at the impressive Emirates Arena in Glasgow. This was set to be a very tough proposition with three other over-60 athletes on the start list, all with better times and rankings than Allen. There was Alastair Dunlop of Kirkintilloch, 2017 European 1500m bronze medallist, Alexander Chisholm of Garscube, 2017 Scottish 1500m gold medallist, and John Hughes of Motherwell with an impressive set of times over a range of distances. Alastair decided not to take part having already won gold in the 800m a couple of hours beforehand so the three Allen, Alex and John would battle it out for the medals.

When the gun went Allen settled in behind the runners in the M50 category who were in the same heat, with Alex tucked in a couple of paces behind and John further back. Positions were maintained for three laps before the pace picked up a little. Allen stuck with the front runners and a gap opened back to Alex and John. With 2 laps to go Allen struck for home completing the final 400m in 76 seconds and beating Alex into 2nd place by 5 seconds with John a further 10 seconds back. Allen’s time for the distance was 5:02.51, a PB by 9 seconds.

The victory made Allen a double gold medallist in the 2018 Masters Indoor season, having won gold in the 3000m in January.

Upcoming Events

The latest in the Nightmare Series – race #5 “Volcano Vengeance” – takes place on Friday 9 February at 7:30pm. The venue is the Volcano of Death Beath outside Kelty.

Kirkcaldy parkrun are having their 3rd birthday celebration on Saturday morning. The rugby clubhouse will be open after the run for tea, coffee and cake,

The popular Carnethy 5 Hill Race is on Saturday afternoon.

Further ahead:

• Devilla Forest 15k and 5k – Sunday 18 February
• Skull Mountain Winter Challenge Race 3 – Sunday 25 February
• Cupar 5 – Saturday 3 March
• Smokies 10 mile (Ladies Only) – Sunday 4 March
• Alloa Half Marathon – Sunday 18 March
• Tay Ten – Sunday 1 April
• Beveridge Park 5k – Friday 6 April
• Round the Houses 10k – Sunday 8 April
• FTR Lost Trails Race – Sunday 15 April
• St Andrews 5k (Fife AC Midweek Series) – Wednesday 18 April
• Ravenscraig Park 2 mile race – Wednesday 25 April
• Stirling Scottish Marathon and 5k – Sunday 29 April
• Scottish 5k Championships, Silverknowes – Friday 4 May
• Loch Leven Half Marathon – Saturday 12 May
• Black Rock 5 – Friday 25 May
• FTR Dirty Weekend – Friday 1 June to Sunday 3 June
• Chariots of Fire Beach Race – Sunday 3 June
• Glenrothes 10k – Sunday 17 June