Striders Weekly Update 19/07/2023
Strider breaks his own Irish Record at Termonfeckin
Travelling to Co Louth to take on the Termonfeckin Half was solo Strider Norman Mawhinney. The 13.1 mile course starts and finished at St. Fechin’s GAA club and saw 358 finishers between the Half Marathon and 4 mile races. The route was billed as being a “fairly flat course” which suited the current M65 Half Marathon Irish World Champion down to the ground and saw him taking 2 minutes off his previous time to set a new record of 1:23.18. Hard work pays!
The Canal 20 is a new running event conceived and organised by Atlas Running, where runners start in Newry and run along the full length of the Newry Canal path, finishing in Portadown having covered 20miles. Being alongside water it is a flat course, however according to one runner, George McGonigal, this was deceptive as he described the path as never ending at times. Changeable conditions of 18degrees and occasional blustery showers challenged some 120 competitors further. Jonathan Winter was the first strider over the line in 3:38:57 with George McGonigal coming slightly behind in 3:42:02
This week saw 9 Junior Striders take on Parkrun with the most popular location being Comber. Joe Brown finished 2nd overall in 9:22 followed by a 3rd place finish for Adam Halyett in 9:43. Next to cross the finishline in a time of 10:05 was Joshua Bingham followed by Parker Clements in 10:52, Keara Simpson who was 1st female finisher in 11:09, Olly Simpson in 12:10, Lydia Blair as 3rd Female Finisher in 12:45 and Rachel Brown in 15:27. Over at Bangor Parkrun the success continued with Willow Farrington being the 2nd female finisher in 8:29 and Maisie McNamara running herself a Personal Best of 16:07.
As always Saturday saw striders out in force at various Parkruns with 67 of them running at 18 different venues. New Venues were tried out by Chris Burns (23:33) which was a Personal best, Cameron McEwan (28:24), Gordon McEwan (29.58) and Gillian Bailie (42:49) at Stormont, Curtis Adams (25:05) and Katy Lyttle (26:02) at Orangefield, Richard Bovill (28:01) at Portrush, Nicola Forsythe (33:55) at Holyrood, Aimee Braniff (36:31); Jilly Coey (36:58) and Gillian Keer (36:59) at Belfast Victoria, Daniel Barnes (37:44) at Crawfordsburn, newlyweds Allie Farley (45:46) and Liam Rodger (45.47) at Derry City and Jonathan Winter (24:06) at Sixmilewater. Running at Northampton Parkrun were first timers Michael Burgess (22:03) and Cheryl Macartney (41:08).
Running NORTHampton Parkrun this week saw Michael Burgess complete the Parkrun Compass Club Challenge. Other Parkruns completed in this challenge were ZUIDERpark, EASTville and LoWESToft.
Although Parkrun is a timed run and not a race finishers are placed in order. This week there were top 3 finishers for Curtis McCaw (18:53) 1st place and Jenny Taylor (21:59 ) PB and 1st Female Finisher at Comber, a 2nd place for Matthew Halus (19:44) at Dunleath Playing fields, a 3rd female for Willow Farrington (22:48) at Bangor and a 3rd place for Matt Bell (19:46) which also saw a Course PB and a 3rd Female finisher for Katy Little with a PB (26:02) at Orangefield. Milestones of 10th, 25th and 50th Parkrun attendances were racked up by Rory Braniff (30:23) PB at Belfast Victoria, Kieran McNamara (23:26) and Darren Johnston (26:25) a CPB at Enniskillen respectively.
With the Northern Irish summer in full swing some runners may find it difficult to keep focus on their training. If this is you it may be worthwhile signing up to the next Strider race in the running calendar Run the Trails! A fabulous opportunity to keep the legs turning over, the dust off your running shoes and run in a beautiful location. Run the Trails offers something for everyone a 5k, 10k, Half Marathon and a 2k junior race all within the delightful setting of Mount Stewart when the residence and gardens will the closed to the general-public. Scrabo Striders have been running this event for a number of years and it has always been incredibly popular. The event takes place on Saturday 5th August, starting 5.30pm with a Bespoke Medal for all finishers. Sign up at
Striders offer 4 training sessions a week at Londonderry Park on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 7.15pm along with 2 non coach led social runs from Conway Square, Newtownards on Friday evening at 6.30pm and Sunday morning at 9am along with a trail run on a Sunday evening taking in the beautiful surroundings of Helens Tower. For further details pleases contact , check out our Facebook Page Scrabo Striders Running Club or pop along to one of the above sessions to see what everyone is talking about. You won’t regret it!