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