London Marathon sees excellent performances from East Sutherland Athletics Club
East Sutherland athletes Shaun Cumming, Blair Mackay and Gordon Lennox travelled to take part in the record breaking 45th edition of the London Marathon.
This year saw a record number of finishers despite the warm conditions.
All three runners started during the first wave of entrants and directly behind the likes of sub 2-hour former marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge and Britain's gold medal winning triathlete Alex Yee.
The temperature was already sitting around 18 degrees as the race began and this steadily rose throughout the day.
Race organisers ensured there was ice, extra water bottles and cold showers available throughout the course to try and keep runners as cool as possible in the soaring heat.
The hot conditions did not phase North District Half Marathon Champion Cumming who set off at blistering pace and covered the first half of the race in just over 70 minutes.
He followed this up with a steadier final half and crossed the line in a new personal best of two hours and 24 minutes, which saw Cumming finishing just outside the top 50.
The second East Sutherland athlete to cross the line was Mackay who finished in 2:41. Gordon Lennox followed next in 2:53.
Both athletes encountered problems on the course with Mackay experiencing muscle cramps in the latter stages and Gordon succumbing to the warm conditions which was significantly hotter than what the athletes have been training in all winter.
The performance of all three athletes ensured that East Sutherland were represented in the team division of the Scottish Marathon Championships for the first time with Shaun also finishing well inside the top 10 of the Individual standings.
The Manchester Marathon took place on the same day as the event in London and East Sutherland also had representation there with Adam MacLennan who ran a personal best time of 2:48.
