A HECTIC week for Irvine Running Club ace Paul Lafferty saw him continue preparations for the London Marathon later this month.

He followed up a fast time of 16 minutes 58 seconds at the weekly Glasgow Quay 5k race on Wednesday with a superb showing at the Tom Scott 10-mile road race on Sunday.

The Tom Scott race takes place at Strathclyde Country Park and involves a challenging but fast course around the loch and this year was also the Scottish 10-mile road race championship.

The race took place in ideal conditions with the dry weather and light breeze perfect for fast times and so it proved for Paul who clocked an impressive time of 58 minutes and 23 seconds for the 10 miles, breaking the one hour benchmark for the first time at this distance. The race itself was won by Wayney Ghebresilassie from Shettleston Harriers in a time of 49 minutes and 40 seconds.

Meanwhile, there was a good turnout of members from Irvine Running Club at Saturday morning’s Eglinton Parkrun. Rain during the week meant that the underfoot conditions were slippery in places but this didn’t stop some impressive performances as once again Stephen Daye was first to finish in the event with a time of 17 minutes 12 seconds with Paul Lafferty not far behind in second place with a time of 18:05.

Ryan Evans, in a rare outing at the event, was fourth home in an excellent time of 18:30 and was followed by Jim Sneddon (20:57), John Surgenor (21:29), Joe McNamee (22:20), Mike Flinn (23:23), Jennie Jackson (25:13) and Susan Rhodes (28:02).