PEEBLES athletes Sarah McCormack and Scout Adkin went the distance in the recent Scottish 10k Road Race Championships, held in Stirling on Sunday.
The Moorfoots duo scooped a championship double, Sarah winning the senior women’s title and Scout taking the junior (under-20) women’s title.
The fast flat course was countered by windy conditions, but both girls still ran significant personal bests.
Sarah, in her last serious outing of an incredible summer of improvement, clocked 33 minutes 33 seconds to win by more than a minute, slicing 1.42 off her previous road best. Her time was also 58 seconds faster than her track 10,000m best set in the Olympic Stadium when winning the British Universities title in May.
Scout’s time of 38.41 was 44 seconds inside her previous personal best. Coach Gregor Nicholson said: “Scout’s run was all the more pleasing given it came off the back of a hard training week in preparation for her first senior hill running vest when she runs for Scotland in the Home International at Melmerby near Penrith this coming Saturday. That will be a big step up for her but a great learning experience.”
“Sarah has just had an incredible summer with PB after PB. On the track she has taken British Universities and Scottish titles at 10,000m and 5,000m as well as a win in the British Milers’ Club Grand Prix final. In the mountains she was eighth in the European Championships and 15th in the World Championships, and now this success on the road.
“She has achieved this improvement through sheer hard work and fairly simple planning and periodisation. Who knows what the future holds? We have spoken about this, so I am not saying anything she hasn’t already heard but Rio 2016 has to be a potential goal, whether on the track or by stepping up to the marathon.”
The next short-term target for McCormack is to try to help a potentially strong Ireland team at the European Cross-Country Championships early in December.”