Saturday Morning…. and whilst most are having a well-deserved lie in our Striders were out at Park Run!! The club had an amazing 62 runners out at 13 venues. Comber was the most popular venue to run with 18 striders running the course. There were also 18 runners out trying a new course for the first time!! At Garvagh Forest Park we had 7 striders trying the course for the 1st time, followed by 4 Striders at Rostrevor. Our furthest first time at a course was Michael Burgess , running at Ury Riverside Parkrun in Scotland.  Special mention to George Johnston on his 25th Park Run at Stormont, Andy Boal with his 50th at Ward Park,  and Ally Gray with an impressive 100 Park Runs at Comber!  We should also note the following Personal Bests being Matthew Halus (20:00)and Naomi Davidson (29:09) both at Comber Park Run. At Stormont we had PB’s from Aimee Braniff and Gillian Kerr, both finishing with a time of 36:41. Well done everyone on a great Saturday running! We should also thank all our volunteers for Park Run as without timekeepers and marshalling Park Run would not be possible.

And for those who weren’t at Park Run, Born to Run was on at Tollymore! It was the third race in the Born to Run Series taking in the majestic views of the Mourne Mountains and following the forest path along the Shimna River.  Taking on the 5k race was Willow Farrington (24:35) Jennifer McAteer (37:04) and Mairead Curran with a time of 44:20. Taking on the 10k was Nicky Alexander (47:20) and Graeme Farrington (56:53).

We also need to pay special recognition to Joanne McCandless who took part in the Art O’Neill 60km challenge. This is both an ultra-running race and hiking event which happens every year in Dublin, Ireland. The race originally commemorated the historic escape of three Irish men from Dublin castle in 1592, but today it is better known as one of the countries gnarliest ultra-marathons. Joanne started the challenge just before 9pm Friday and finished at 12:33pm on Saturday. Well done on completing the tough course!

On Sunday we also had junior Park Run! We had 14 runners out at 2 venues. Comber parkrun continued to be the most popular with 12 participants. We are very proud to say we had 4 Personal Bests from Joshua Bingham (10:31), Olly Simpson (12:28), Nathaniel Frazer  (19:20) and Harriet Frazer (19:28). We also had a Course PB with Joshua Bingham (10:31). Well done everyone!

Saturday also meant Cross County, with our striders travelling to Mallusk for the Mathieson Cross Country Cup.  The course was muddy underfoot, despite some saying it was almost tropical for Mallusk with the sun making a surprise appearance.

In the P5 Race where participants ran a total of 800m, Adam Haylett and Rory Braniff came in at a joint time of 3:04.

Following this was the Under 13’s race whereby Luke Braniff and William Murphy ran the 1600m and came in with a time of 09:21 and 10:48. For the girls Eva Coey and Isabella Haylett came in at a time of 10:25 and 10:29.

Riley Hanna then took on the 4k race for the under 15’s and followed with a time of 18:57.

Special mention to our Norman Mawhinney who only went and won the Veterans race with a time of 24:58!

For the ladies 6Km race which involved 3 loops of the undulating course, we had Fiona McAvoy (33:09), Martina Finn ( 35:19), Jenny Taylor (30:09), Rachel Bell (30:07),  Sheena Crone (39:00),Emma McCracken (40:55), and both Cheryl Alexander and Jenna Lavery finishing with a time of 43:18. Well done ladies!!!

The men then following with 4 loops making it an 8Km race, and so we had Andy Haylett come in with a time of 33:54, Matt Bell (35:06), Graeme McGowan (38:14), Steven Pearson (48:28) and Peter McGonigal (48;29). Special shout out to Matt Bell on his first and hopefully not his last Cross Country outing!!

We should also mention Jill Long, who last weekend took place in the Run Disney Dopey Challenge. It is a 5k,10k, Half and Full marathon through the Disney Parks. Jill wasn’t after PB’s this time but instead was running for fun going on rides during the marathon and having pictures taken with all the Disney characters! We can neither confirm or deny that she was able to catch a Roadrunner….Meep Meep!

Scrabo Striders have training nights every Monday – Thursday with both a Friday night social and Sunday morning social run covering all distances with a chance to have a cuppa after. For the more adventurous we have trail running every Sunday evening. Why not come along and give it a try?