THE big race of the weekend in terms of distance for Carnegie Harriers was the hilly Strathearn Marathon, which saw Jonathan Millar taking a whopping 17 minutes off his marathon PB to set a time of 3:19.12.

Gail Murdoch, running as a training run for an Ironman triathlon, finished a splendid first F50 in a time of 3:22.11, and was “chuffed” to receive a signed copy of Mark Beaumont’s new book from the man himself as her award. Avril O’Donnell returned to marathon racing, setting a time of 3:39.10, while Bernt and Susan Cederstrom ran 3:53.23 and 4:07.12.

The other big weekend race was the Strathallan five-mile road race organised by club member Fabienne Thompson. There were 43 runners from Perth Road Runners, 12 Strathearn Harriers, as well as 13 from Carnegie Harriers.

While the Perth runners swept up many of the main prizes, Chris Stephenson restored the Carnegie honour by taking First V40+ in seventh overall in 30:36, with Steven King ninth in 30:52, John Fulham 10th in 31:18 and Barry Davie 25th in 33:48. Isobel Burnett claimed her customary first F50+ in 28th place in 34:08, while Alan Murray set a five-mile PB of 34:32 in 32nd place. Allan Brannigan ran 34:37, Kieran Morgan 36:49, Morna Fleming 39:23, Stephen Greer 41:33, Neil Anderson 42:10, Karen Forsyth 42:13 and Ronnie Hunter Blair 43:26.

Thanks to the support from the runners, CHAS, Get Kids Going, and Cancer Research will each receive £270, in addition to a collection of T-shirts and trainers which will be going to Kenya.

On Sunday, John O’Connor had a good run in the Isle of Skye half marathon, finishing third V50+ in a time of 1:42.03, while Pauline Walker ran 1:48.43, and Fiona Rennie 2:02.36. Michael Bisset was the sole Harrier at the Dechmont Law 10K, where he finished 57th in 47:56.

A number of Harriers turned out to support the second running of Woodmill Roadrunners’ 5K race at Duloch. Alan McGowan led the club home, finishing second overall in 20:43.