Deeside Runners

07/09/2026

In a busy couple of weeks for the club we’ve taken part in races covering just about every conceivable type of terrain, over varying distances all over the UK and on the continent too. We’ve ran in relays, highland games, visited the roof of Britain and raced everything from 5k to Ultra Distance.

I’ll start with Highland Games. Ruth and Iain MacKenzie were our only entrants for Tap O Noth but they did the club proud with fine runs of the 8km 390m course. Ruth finished 2nd lady and 6th overall in 49:04 and Iain was 2nd M60 and 15th in 1:06:44.

Jon Musgrave was running in the Assynt Highland Games race. I unfortunately don’t have any results for this, but Jon did tell me that he wasn’t last and that his son Ewan was 1st !

I’ve also no results for the race at Lonach Games but Rodger Coombs, Jon Musgrave, Kelly Yule, Ruth MacKenzie and Faye Smith all took part.

At Braemar Games Fergus Wood finished in 3rd place after running 30:16 and was followed by his brother Frazer 38th and 2nd local 38:49, Ruth MacKenzie 47th and 1st F40 40:07 and Lina Payne who was 2nd F40 and 51st overall in 40:59.

Roshan Fernandez has been pounding the streets of both Perth and London while running in the Perth 10k and The Big Half. Roshan ran 41:42 for the 10k finishing in 38th place. Whilst on a very hot day in London he ran 1:36:51 for the half. This gave him 2008th place from a field of around 25,000 runners.

A million mile away in terms of terrain, and pretty far in terms of geography, Rob Sinclair was running Trofeo Kima in the Italian Alps. This iconic mountain race which features snow, lots of exposure and has fixed ropes in places covers around 52km and climbs 4200m. Rob completed this epic in 7:35:10 to finish in 43rd place.

Sticking with epics, Dee Watters was running the Highland Fling Race. This is the first half of the West Highland Way and covers the 53 miles between Milngavie and Tyndrum, and oddly gives its distance in imperial miles buts its high gain in a metric 2300m? Whichever way you measure it it’s an epic challenge, and one Dee completed in 10:57:09 to finish in 79th place.

Robbie Simpson was also taking on a bit of an epic in the Alps. Robbie was running in the OCC which is part of the UTMB weekend of racing and runs 60km between Orsieres and Chamonix climbing around 3500m along the way. Robbie finished in 8th and was runner up in the M35 category after running 5:29:55.

Two Deeside teams headed down to Comrie for the relays. This is an event we’ve often put out teams for and have enjoyed success in the past. This year it was the inaugural SHR relay championship. This obviously brought in a quality field as 10 of the 12 course and leg records were broken on the day, one of these had been set in 2010! Although we didn’t break any records our teams had great results with our mixed team winning the category and our M40 team finishing runners up. The course is around a marathon distance and is broken down into 4 legs. Legs 1and 4 are fast trail runs and legs 2 and 3 are more pathless hill with leg 2 being run as a pair. For the M40 team Daniel Christie, thankfully making an exception to his rule about never driving for longer than your running, ran 50:07 for the first leg and was 13th in the leg. Leg 2 was run by Craig Freshwater and Stuart Pringle in 46:36 and they were 9th on the leg. Andy King took over for leg 3 and ran 1:09:39 which was the 11th quickest time on the leg. Steven Yule ran the final leg in 48:52 and was 9th for the leg. This gave the team a finishing time of 3:35:14 and 9th overall. For the victorious mixed team Becky Baptie ran leg 1 in 56:55 and was 23rd in the leg. Jill Stephen and Ruth Gooch ran leg 2 in 52:49 and were 20th for the leg. Fergus Wood ran leg 3 in 1:11:55 and was 15th and Ally Gray ran 47:26 for leg 4 which was the 7th quickest time for that leg. This gave the mixed team a finishing time of 3:49:05 and 12th place overall.

We had success at the Explorr running races in Banchory with Alyth Gollan winning the 10k in 44:48 finishing 7th overall ! Donna Leslie was our only other 10k runner and she finished in 190th after running 1:19:21. Also taking part and making a welcome return to racing was Meryl Ross who ran in the 5k and finished 17th in 23:38.

Finally, we had 7 runners take on the challenge of getting to the top of the UKs highest peak and back as quickly as possible. On a day when the bottom was warm, the top was cold and the rocks were slippy Stuart Pringle was the first Deeside home, but only just. Stuart reached the summit and back in 2:10:15 for 58th place. Only a few seconds back after being caught on the road was Richard Bannister in 60th 2:10:32. Alan Smith was 2nd M60 and 150th in 2:30:17, Tom Richmond finished 182nd in 2:38:48, Mhairi McInnes finished 207th 2:43:53, Charlie Richie 338th 3:41:09 and Judith Taylor was 339th 3:48:32.

As always well done to all of you, keep the results coming in.

30/08/2026

Cairn William Entries are now open - Saturday September 26th, 3pm Monymusk Village Hall.

Event registration: Cairn William Hill Race 2026 @ Monymusk, United Kingdom. Saturday, September 26, 2026 15:00 (GMT+1) - Saturday, September 26, 2026 17:00 (GMT+1)

30/08/2026

Entires open for the 2026 Morven Hill race - details can be found at https://www.deesiderunners.com/races/morven/

17/08/2026

This is another report largely dominated by Highland Games Racing. Although there is a trail 10k and a road half included too.

Now that the results have come out for Aboyne and Dufftown I’ll start there. 6 Deesides were part of the field taking on the Ben Rinnes race at Dufftown a few weeks ago. James Espie finished 2nd after running 2:06:28 for the challenging 15mile 5000ft course. C-J Irvine was runner up in the lady’s race after running 2:29:48 for 14th overall. Harry Bloomfield was less than a minute back in 15th 2:30:47, Alan Smith was 27th 2:50:02, Rachel Little finished 2nd F40 and 32nd 2:56:27 and Lina Payne was 2nd F60 and 37th in 3:00:25.

The club provided 18 of the over 100 runners at Aboyne with Jill Stephen winning the lady’s race in 50:10 and finishing 10th overall. Andy King was our highest placed runner in 3rd after running 54:43, Stuart Pringle was 5th 47:23, Daniel Christie 7th 48:46, Steven Watters 9th 49:25, Craig Freshwater 11th 50:27, C-J Irvine finished 2nd lady and 12th 50:39, Mike McHardy 14th 52:00, Steven Yule 16th 52:13, Dee Waters was 3rd lady 19th 52:35, Becky Baptie 29th 55:08, Sarah McLeary 43rd 59:38, Ardavon Salaripour, with that big PB, was 45th 59:57, Ruth MacKenzie 47th 1:00:51, Marianne Lang 53rd 1:01:37, Jamie Johnstone 69th 1:04:08, Katie Henderson 1st Kilted runner and 86th 1:09:14 and Faye Smith 105th 1:21:42.

Moving to the week just past, Ali Sharp was running at the Strathpeffer Highland Games and finished 51st after running 49:41.

Rob Sinclair outran all the competition to win the Deveron Valley Running Festival 10k in a rapid 33:15!

At Tarland Show Craig Freshwater narrowly missed out on the win after running 37:35 for the climb up Pittenderich and back. Craig finished 2nd and 1st M40. Jill Stephen won the lady’s race finishing 3rd in 38:44, Angus Wood was 4th 40:57, Ardavon Salaripour 10th 46:28, Ros Baxter was 1st F50 and 14th 48:41 and Lynne Strachen 2nd F50 22nd 1:07:31.

The weather gods were a bit kinder to Ballater Games this year, although those struggling up the steep climb of Craig Coillich might have been wishing it wasn’t quite so hot and that some of last year’s rain might have been quite nice. James Espie won the race in 17:45 following James were Harry Bloomfield 5th 21:25, Stuart Pringle 7th 21:51, Jill Stephen won the lady’s race in 22:28 and finished 9th after going a little wrong off the top of the hill, C-J Irvine was 2nd lady and 10th 23:01, Peter Torrance 11th 23:15, Alan Smith 21st 24:54, Lucy Taylor 22nd 25:14, Miles Newman 53rd 30:52, Malcolm Croll 61st 33:42 and Domonique Drewe-Martin 80th 42:52.

Down in Musselburgh Jamie Ross and Jemma Rendall were running in the Scottish Half Marathon. Jamie finished in 1:22:02 to finish in 103rd place. Jemma finished 2278th after running 2:09:32.

As always well done to you all and good luck to anyone racing over the coming weeks.

03/08/2026

After a busy weekend of Highland Games racing, I’m going to unashamedly slate them for not putting out any results. One games bucked the trend, by getting theirs out probably before many of the runners had even made it home, but the rest will just be what I’ve heard and my own observations on the day. Before all that though something would be wrong if I’d not missed out something last week.

This would be Donna Leslie’s 10th running of the Lakeland 50-mile race, quite an achievement. Donna finished this year’s 50-mile race in 23:05:050 for 1367th place.

Onto the games. Newtonmore are the only games to have put up results. Alan Smith completed the 7km 370m climb of Creag Dubh and back in 40:58 to finish 32nd and 2nd M60, Lina Payne was 1st F60 and 46th in 44:38 and Ali Sharp ran 54:11 for 79th.

Still no results for Ben Rinnes, unless you happen to have finished in the top 3. Which James Espie did after running 2:06:28 for the 15mile 5000ft course to finish 2nd.

Over in Speyside Martin Pritchett was running in the hill race at the Aberlour Strathspey Highland Games. Afraid I can’t tell you any more than that?

I’ve got a little more info from Aboyne though, but only because I was there. So, if I’ve missed anyone here, I’ll get my apologies in now. Andy King was our first runner in finishing in 3rd place and was followed by Stuart Pringle 5th, Daniel Christie 8th and Steven Watters in 9th. In the ladies race it was a Deeside 1,2,3 with Jill Stephen winning followed by C-J Irvine and Dee Watters. Outside of this I have no idea of placings but, in no particular order the following runners also completed the 6.8-mile 1100ft course. Becky Baptie, Craig Freshwater, Sarah McCleary, Katie Henderson who was probably the first kilted runner? Faye Smith, Mike McHardy, Ruth MacKenzie, Marianne Lang, Steven Yule and Jamie Johnston. The only other bit of info I can give you is that Ardavon Salaripour ran a full 7 and a half minute PB for the course!! Very well done Ardi.

All the best for anyone taking on the race at Tarland Show this weekend or racing anywhere else. Highland Games results people, sort it out please.

30/07/2026

Last weekend lots of club members were racing. Locally at Scolty and Glen Tanner and from I’m pretty sure the furthest away I’ve ever written about. We had some great runs, including a couple of wins.

Starting at Scolty and the Banchory Show Race where we took runners up spots in both the male and female races. Andy King finished 2nd after running to the top and back in 29:58 and Lucy Taylor returned to the show ground after 35:13 to finish 12th overall and 2nd Lady.

We had a large turnout for the races at Glen Tanner, with a few hardy souls running on both days. We had a winner in the 55k with Dee Watters continuing what is shaping up to be a fantastic season. Dee ran 6:14:44 to take the win and finish 11th overall. Daniel Christie is another having an amazing season and this continued with a 4th place finish, which also saw him take 1st M40 in 5:40:04. Daniel was followed by Kyle Honeyman in 7th who ducked under the 6hr mark in 5:59:25 and Peter Torrance who took 3rd M40 and 8th overall in 6:05:03.

Deeside also did rather well in the 25k where Jamie Ross took 1st M50 after a 4th place finish in 1:56:49, Steve Boyd finished 3rd M50 and 10th in 2:09:16 and Mabel Balfour had a successful return to Deeside placing 2nd lady and 13th in 2:11:35.

In the 15k Fidelma Hurst finished 52nd in 1:42:46, Linda Lett was 1st F60 and 57th 1:44:32, Gordon Drummond finished 60th 1:45:18, Rhian Anthony 65th 1:46:45, Faye Smith 80th 1:52:59, Jennie Macdiarmid was 90th 1:55:43 and Lynne Strachen 99th in 2:05:30.

In the 10k Rhian Anthony ran 58:48 for 70th, Linda Lett was in the category prizes again finishing 2nd F60 and 72nd in 1:00:02 and Natalie Lockerbie ran 1:02:11 for 81st.

I’ve reported on races from South Africa, Canada and even India, but I think Japan is comfortably the furthest away I’ve written about, although someone might correct me on this? So, for that alone congratulations must go to Sally Wallis. However, she has more than that to celebrate after winning the race! What a race too, Daisetsuzan Trail Journey which is a 58kms 3000m route in the mountains near Hokkaido. This look like a tough race and the results included a high number of DNFs. Sally’s description included the phrase “through near impenetrable waist high bamboo”. Not sure how you train for this in Glen Tanner? But she seemed to manage after wrestling her way through the bamboo to finish 10th overall and 1st lady after completing the course in 9:01:57.

We also had several runners at Ben Rinnes, but I can’t seem to find any results for this yet? Best of luck to any of you running at Aboyne this weekend. If you’re running anywhere else then please let me know.

23/07/2026

In the few weeks since my last write up an incredible amount of Deesides have been competing in all manner of events, many running more than once. We’ve won races and categories, set course records and raced in various countries. I’ll start where I often do though and add results I missed out last time around. Before that can I please once again state that if you are competing in something, please let me know. In the whole write up you are hopefully about to read only 2 people took the time to tell me they had been racing, everything else is me looking through results for Deeside Runners.

Missing from last time were Linda Lett and Fiona Wickes who were running in the Saltire 24 at Knockburn. They were running in the 24hr competition and completed 12 laps totalling around 50 miles and finished in 52nd place.

At the recent Aberdeen Half Marathon Mike McHardy ran an excellent 1:23:43 to finish in 93rd place. Dee Watters also had a brilliant race finishing 156th and 3rd F40 after running 1:27:48. David Anderson finished 288th after running 1:33:17. Katie Entwistle ensured the was no debate over who holds the family HM record with a 4min PB of 1:41:27 to finish 580th. Lesley Johnston ducked under the 2hr mark finishing 1491st in 1:59:56 and Roshan Fernandez ran 2:06:54 for 1825th.

Staying on the roads and another great run from Dee Waters who finished 2nd lady and 15th overall at the Chapelton of Elsick 10k after running 41:53.

Glamaig is about as far from road running as you can get and was the location for the latest round of the SHR Championship. James Espie was our first runner home after covering the steep and rocky 7km 760m ascent and descent in 53:53 to finish 13th, Harry Bloomfield finished 50th 1:05:41, C-J Irvine, making a welcome return from injury finished 54th 1:07:42, Alan Smith was 67th and 2nd M60 1:10:41, Martin Pritchett ran 1:17:44 for 87th, Rachel Little was 3rd F40 running 1:18:58 for 93rd, Lina Payne was 96th and 2nd F60 1:19:12, Charlie Ritchie was 2nd M70 and 147th 1:46:37, Jane Oliver was 167th 2:06:07 and Dave Oliver finished 169th 2:09:42.

Ardavon Salaripour was surprisingly our only runner at Mither Tap. Ardi did the club proud though with an excellent 9th place finish after running 44:26 for the 6.4Km 365m course.

Robbie Simpson was running at Maddy Moss down near Tillicoultry. Robbie won the race after completing the 10km 760m course in 50:30.

We had runners at 2 of the Lochaber Triple Hirple races, but sadly not all 3. Alan Smith and Ali Sharp ran Meall an t-Suidhe with Alan running 43:54 finishing 17th and 2nd M60 for the steep 5.6km 460m course. Ali ran 1:06:58 to finish 44th. The following day Alan was joined by Tom Richmond for Half Ben. Alan again finished 2nd M60 after completing the 10km 670m run to the Red Burn and back in 1:21:47 for 28th place. Tom covered the course in 1:49:25 for 64th place.

We had 3 club members competing in different event on the continent. In the first of these Richard Bannister was again running for GB in the Skyrunning Masters World Championship. This was held as part of Skyrun du Grand Mont over a 23km 2300m course in France. Richard ran 4:18:06 to finish 36th in the masters competition and 71st in the wider race.

Sarah Dunn was taking on yet another monster challenge, this time in the shape of Grand Trail Courmayeur 100k in Switzerland. This huge distance included 7400m of up and down. Sarah completed the course in 28:54:10 to finish 353rd.

Hamish Battle completes our continental triple after taking part in the European AG Sprint Duathlon Championships in Spain. This consisted of a 5k run, a 20k cycle and then a 2.5k run in what I’m guessing must have been hot conditions. Hamish completed this in 56:19 to finish 6th in the 30-35 age category.

Not quite as far away but still in another country Stuart Pringle was running in the Snowdon International down in Wales. Stuart completed the 9.5-mile 3200ft run to the top and back in 1:28:29 to finish 78th.

On the way down to Wales Stuart and Marie Entwistle ran in the Blisco Dash. This is an 8k 650m race in the Lake District. Stuart finished 25th and 3rd M40 in 52:24 and Marie won the F50, also outpacing the 1st F40, after running 1:11:43 for 64th place.

Finally, thanks if you’ve made it this far. Alan Smiths Hill Runners Gathering may have had something to do with the record turnout of 127 for Tom na Bat, which is the 5.6k 340m hill race at Tomintoul Highland Games. Finishing first from the record numbers was James Espie who broke the course record after running 25:44, Harry Bloomfield was 17th 31:30, Craig Freshwater 20th 32:21. C-J Irvine was 2nd lady after being out paced in the final stages to finish 22nd 32:33, Jill Stephen was 26th and 1st F40 34:00, Kev Harper was 28th 34:51, Steven Yule 34th 35:52, Martin Pritchett 38th 36:09, Lucy Taylor 41st 36:52, Alan Smith 49th and 3rd M60 37:48, Lina Payne 62nd and 1st F60 40:44, Miles Newman 69th 42:19, Dave Croll 80th 44:44, Dave Hirst 84th 45:19, Lauren Anderson 88th 46:02, Ali Sharp 103rd 49:49, Dave Oliver 105th, Malcolm Croll 106th 50:43, Rhian Anthony 110th 51:47, Jane Oliver 115th 53:22 and Andre Yuill 118th 54:19.

Well done everyone on racing during the recent hot weather. Best of luck to anyone running at Glen Tanner or in any of the Highland Games races in the coming weeks.

02/07/2026

You might want to get yourself a cuppa as I’ve a lot to tell you about. We’ve been racing on islands, mountains, hills, on the roads, in carparks and doing endless loops. Theres been some early season highland games racing and yet more triathaloning along with the ever-popular Lairig. There have been some great performances too, with a few wins and a couple of course records being set.

First up, we’ll head to the Isle of Skye where Ailsa Main was running in the islands Half Marathon. Ailsa ran 1:41:24 for the hilly course and finished in 72nd place.

We had a team and a solo at the Saltire 24 at Knockburn. This is one of those how many laps can you do in an allotted time races. The laps were 4.2miles and the Deeside team of Dominique Drewe Martin, Bess Lacy, Vera Simpson, Lucy Styles, Tom Simpson and Colin Robertson completed 28.8 laps in 24hrs. This saw them finish 1st in the 24hr large team category! Stepping down to the 6hr version Daniel Christie had an amazing run setting a new course record of 10.4 laps on his way to winning this competition!

The Highland Cross is a duathlon starting with a 20mile run followed by a 30mile cycle which crosses the country from Morvich to Beauly. Dan Whitehead was our first to complete his cross in 3:59:51 which saw him finish 20th and win the M50 prize. Al Hubbard was 30th in 4:04:35 and Jill Stephen was 40th winning the F40 in 4:16:12. Ruth MacKenzie continued her remarkable success at this event by winning the F50 after crossing in 4:49:29 for 124th place. Dave Croll finished in 5:25:50 for 252nd place. Iain MacKenzie completed the Deeside contingent finishing in 456th place after crossing in 6:28:02.

The latest round of the SHR Championship was held at The Law Breaker which is a short and very steep race on the hills above Tillicoultry. James Espie finished 10th after covering the 5.4km and 670m course in 37:22. Richard Bannister was 51st 45:55, Sally Wallis won the F40 after running 47:19 for 59th, Alan Smith was 67th and 3rd M65 in 47:48, Rachel Little finished in 100th 52:32, Martin Pritchett was 102nd 52:45, Lina Payne was runner up in the F60 finishing 105th 52:58, Dave Oliver was 159th 1:10:28, Charlie Ritchie was 162nd and 2nd M70. Jane Oliver won the F65 finishing 166TH 1:15:49.

Miles Newman was triathaloning in the Half Celtman. As the name suggests, this is a shortened version of the Celtman Triathlon. Shortened maybe, but this still consisted of a 1.9k swim, which would be more than enough to put me off. An 85km cycle and a 23.7km run. Miles finished 81st after completing all of this in 8:33:33.

Roshan Fernandez was running in the Prime 4 3k, which is run round the roads and carparks of the Prime 4 site at Kingswells. Roshan finished in 15th after running 12:03 which gave him the runner up place in the M50.

Sticking with fast road running, we had 3 runners at the potentially very fast Metro Beach 10k. Hamish Battle put in a super quick 33:20 to finish 5th! Jamie Ross ran 37:15 to finish 35th and 2nd M50 and Alyth Gollan was another running a super quick time. Alyth ran 37:21 to finish 2nd lady and 36th overall.

Hamish Battle also won the Cushnie Games race. I’ve no details than that but I’m guessing it was a pretty quick time. I’ve also no details about the Corgarff Hill Race other than Lina Payne was 2nd and that she was out sprinted by much younger legs right at the end.

On to the Lairig, ever popular and as demanding on the runners as always. This year we were blessed with what was described as PB conditions and this certainly turned out to be true for Charlie Ritchie who broke his own V70 record after running 5:26:34 to finish in 159th place. Outside of this we also had a winner in the shape of Matthew Gooch who put in a great time of 3:08:53 to take the win! Katie Bain finished 57th 4:19:33, Sam Burgess was 59th 4:20:11. Sarah McCleary making a welcome return to racing ran 4:40:18 for 84th. Jamie Johnston ran 5:02:44 for 113th. Jim Dukes finished in 214th 6:07:55 and Steven and Kelly Yule, who were running together finished 229th in 6:27:34.

Jill Stephen and Craig Freshwater were over in Czechia battling both extreme heat and torrential rain running in the World Masters Mountain Running Championships. In the uphill event Jill ran 55:18 for the 7.8k route which climbed 850m. This gave her 11th place in the lady’s race. Jill also ran in the long race which covered 22k and climbed 1330m. In this event she finished 16th lady and was 3rd F40 running 2:13:59. She also finished this race as part of the 2nd place F40 team with her partner Helen Fallas. Craig ran in the up and down race which was 9km and climbed 600m. Craig finished 71st in 49:24.

Well done to everyone who raced over the last few weeks you’ve all done incredibly well. Good luck to anyone racing over the next few weeks

29/06/2026

A fantastic day of near perfect conditions with slightly lower temps and a stiff tailwind meant this year Lairig Ghru saw some fantastic times and strong finishes.

Wins for Matthew Gooch, Deeside, in 3.08.58 and Jemima Fairly in 3.38.25, a new F40 record beating Lucy Colquhoun’s 2011 F40 time. The M70 record was also broken for the second year in a row by Charlie Ritchie, Deeside, in 5.26.34.

A massive thanks to CMRT on the hill, Protay, and the amazing team of Deeside Volunteers who helped make this day work. It’s always a logistical challenge, but that’s what makes it so much fun 🤩

Well done to all the runners crossing the finish line with grazed knees and big smiles. See you all next year.

Katie 💚