Scrabo Striders Report 30th May 2022

On Saturday morning Scrabo Striders’ Thomas Steele and Mark Arnold competed in the 7th annual May Fair 10K Road Race in Ballyclare, organised by the County Antrim Harriers running club. Thomas came in 7th place overall in a field of 195 runners in a time of 37 minutes 20 seconds, with Mark completing the course in a solid 51:32. Well done both for flying the Strider flag in Ballyclare.

On Sunday morning the Newry City 10km and Half Marathon races took place along and out and back course from Albert Basin in Newry to Carlingford Lough. Travelling south to represent Striders in the 10K were Norman Mawhinney who took 18th place in a field of 250 competitors finishing in a phenomenal time of 38:24, Andy Haylett taking 23rd place in 39:12, Neil Mearns 26th place in 40:24, Peter McGonigal 38th in 43:42, Michael Johnston 42nd in 44:10 and Victoria Atkinson 43rd in 44:20 (personal best). Having six Scrabo Striders in the top twenty percent of the field is a great performance.

In the half marathon event Scrabo Striders produced some great performances with Catherine Cauley and Colin Harper completing the 13.1 miles a second apart in 01:36:17 / 18, placing them 133rd and 134th in a field of 620 runners. Fantastic. Jenny Taylor recorded a new personal best time of 01:48:48 followed by another solid performance by Amanda Martin in 01:55:09. Well done folks.

Scrabo Striders continue to feature strongly in the road racing series organised by Championchip Ireland. The Cinema Coffee 10km Grand Prix series team event shows Scrabo Striders at the top of the table after 5 races, with five other Scrabo teams in the top twenty at positions 10, 14, 18, 19 & 20.  Norman Mawhinney holds 1st place in the individual competition, with Neil Mearns in 4th, Michael Johnston 5th and Andy Haylett in 8th place – great sustained performance in a field of nearly two hundred competitors. The “Fibrus Fives” is a series of 5 mile and 5 km races where Norman also holds fourth position on the leader board after six events. Well done all. These popular race series build a great competitive spirit.

A special mention must go to Gavin McDonnell who travelled to Suffolk to compete in a “Backyard Ultra”. This format sees runners complete a 4.2-mile loop within the hour, every hour until there is just one runner standing. Gavin completed 7 loops before timing out, having clocked up just over 29 miles (marathon distance plus). Well done fling the purple flag in England.

The Belfast Marathon Awards took place during the week where Norman Mawhinney collected a Male Age Category winner award. Well done Norman.

The Saturday morning Parkrun proves as popular as ever, with 61 club members running across 10 different venues. The biggest turnout was at Comber where Michael Johnston was the fastest Strider in a great time of 21:13. Thirteen members tried out a new Parkrun venue for the first time clocking up new personal best times for in Comber for Graeme McGowan (21:26), Gary Clarke (22:53), George McGonigal (25:40) and course personal bests for Krystal Mohn (32:35) and Elaine McGonigal (33:41). At Bangor Peter Hamlin recorded a course PB of 22:10 while Jake Clarke recorded a PB of 37:31 on his first run there. Over at City Parkrun in Craigavon Ally Gray gained a new PB of 24:19. Well done all.

Junior parkrun on Sunday saw a great turnout of thirteen runners, in part boosted by an internal club competition where points are awarded for performance, wearing a Scrabo shirt and making sure you get in a photo. The kids are thoroughly enjoying this. At Comber Eva Coey took 1st girl in a time of 09:17 followed by Niamh Neil in 2nd place with a PB of 11:28. Lexie Brown also got a PB of 11:35. In the boys’ event Luke Braniff came second in 8 minutes with Riley Hanna in 3rd on a PB time of 08:04. Bobby McGonigal recorded a successive PB of 08:59, sub nine minutes target reached! Over at Bangor Willow Farrington was the first girl in 08:46. Congratulations to all Scrabo Striders Juniors.

Looking ahead, Scrabo Striders are hosting their Club anniversary race on Saturday 11th June. A four mile loop through the forest at Mount Stewart with a 2km kids race as well. Over 170 runners will be there!

Striders training nights are a Monday and Wednesday 7:15 pm at Londonderry Park and all are welcome; all ability levels train together and training is non-competitive. You can find out more at .

By George McGonigal