This year’s races attracted a record field of over 1800 runners across the two events, which start together at the John Wright sports centre. With significant prizes at stake in the half marathon, there was a fierce battle for the first places in each age category and for the first team prizes. The finish in the half could not have been closer with David Millar (Irvine) and Robert Gilroy (Cambuslang) running together until the last 0.3k as they entered the stadium. Millar attempted to break, but Gilroy passed on the line with 1 second separating them. In the women’s race, Leanne Hamilton was a clearer winner in 19th place.

The Olympians had a excellent representation in the field, especially amongst the female runners. Marie McChord was the first finisher in a time of 1hr 36mins less than 30 seconds ahead of Susan Addison (155th) and Ada Stewart (224th). Despite the organisers’ offering the female team prize to Marie, Susan and Ada at the presentation, they worked out later that Clydesdale Harriers were ahead on points.

Jim Pettigrew showed that despite having set an excellent time on Thursday at the Kirkintilloch 10k, he has improved over the last few months. Jim set a PB time of 1hr 44mins to finish in 238th place. With the humid and warming conditions, the other Olympians admitted the second time up the 1k climb of the Kingsway was tiring. Elizabeth Collins’ time of 1hr 55mins was very good, and both Katrina Weldon and May Newton finished together in just over 2hrs.

In the 10k race, Robert Rogerson and Chris Craig were the Olympian runners. With the course being the same first lap as the half marathon, places only became clear as the runners peeled off after 9k to run to the stadium. Robert was lying in 3rd place at this point, but the younger legs of Lukasz Grabinski took him past in the last 0.3k. Robert’s 4th place also earned him second place in the vets’ category. Chris Craig too had a strong run, and his time of 43.58 earned him a top 50 place.

The full results for the Olympians were: