Ayrodynamic Tri Club - Turkey Trot 10K
After niggling injuries early on in 2008 Toni McIntosh finally managed to regain the form she had shown in 2003/4. This year in Sept & Oct she had fine performances over the 1/2m distances with times of 80 minutes. Since then she has been working on her overall fitness and saw her run in Ayr just after Boxing day.
The Ayrodynamic Turkey Trot 10k has been going since 2003 with Toni holding the course record in 2004 with a time of 36-06. Then in 2005 she saw it broken by 2 seconds and in 2007 it was broken again with 35-45. This being Toni's home town and having competed in all barring 2007 she regained that crown by recording a superb time of 34-32 and was only 28 seconds away from her personal best of 34-04. To add to this she also broke our club’s long standing 10k record held by Jackie Newton since 1994 of 34-59.
Toni as you would expect had only one lady for company in the early stages before she pulled away and strongly powered on to finish 8th overall amongst the men. The course was an out-and-back along the sea front which can have a hard Scottish wind blowing in, this can be enough to test the hardy.
Nigel Barge Memorial 10K, Glasgow
Toni started the year off with another stunning performance over a hilly 10k course clocking a time of 35-16. This was only meant as a steady workout but found in the first half she was battling against Leanne Hamilton of Kilbrachen before gaining the upper hand and going on to win finishing again 9th overall amongst the men. Toni finally feels that this could be a good year for her and will be looking to raise her standards with solid performances throughout this year.
This is one of Scotland's oldest road races, being run now for more than 60 years.The race commemorates Nigel Barge who was killed in action in Dunkirk during World War II. Nigel was an outstanding officer who trained as a Royal Engineer and was killed at Dunkirk. He came top of his class at Woolwich (“The Shop”) and had helped prepare and map defences around Dunkirk and had assisted in the repairing of small craft to ensure the debarkation of his comrades. He was also a licensed pilot and a keen athlete. Nigel’s father was Kenneth Barge, late of the Bengal Lancers, a member of the committee of Maryhill Harriers. The race has run every year since 1943.
Liz Turton breaks record at Percy Pud 10K
Another of our ladies who has been churning out some excellent performances over 2008 is Liz Turton. She has broken all of hers and the club’s V50 records. She started off with breaking two 1/2m records this year to record a 1-36-16 in Lancaster in September. Then a 10 mile record at Preston in November with 1-15-23. To top it off Liz who held the V50 10k record from 2007 with 45-32 lowered her time to record 45-09 at Sheffield in December this year with an excellent 2nd half year performance in 2008 for her.