The always popular Bangor 10k, the NI and Ulster Championship 10k took place on Saturday with great running conditions resulting in a high turnout of purple with 49 Striders taking part and some great results. First across the line for the Striders was Norman Mawhinney, retaining his NI and Ulster M65 title with a time of 38:27. Matt Bell soon followed with a course PB of 39:34 and was closely followed by Graeme McGowan in 41:12, James Cole-Boyle in 41:55 and Niall McIver in 42:00, all achieving new PBs. First of the female Striders home was Jenny Taylor in 45:31, closely followed by Luke Braniff, completing only his 2nd 10k with a PB of 46:18. Chris Burns followed in 47:12, Heather Baron in 47:52, Steven Hanna in 48:02 and Craig Simpson crossed the line with a new PB of 48:08. Amanda Martin was the next Strider to finish in 49:14, followed by Darren Johnston with a new PB of 49:40. Sarah Johnston also ducked in under the 50 minute mark finishing in 49:53, followed closely by Rebecca Robinson in 50:17. Ashleigh Sims crossed the line in 50:35 and Karen Collins followed with a new PB of 50:54. She was followed across the line by Phil Adams in 51:41, Paul Blair in 52:27, Martin Conroy in 52:30, Jonathan Keenan in 53:00 and Gayle Malaugh in 53:04 before there were a trio of PBs for Sonya Summersgill (53:07), Louise Barnes (53:24) and Andrew Caddoo (53:04) and a course PB of 53:23 for Mick Honeyman. Christopher Murdock finished in 54:06 and Naomi Magowan also came in under the 55 minute mark with a new PB of 54:29. Katie Lyttle finished in 55:29 with Paul Coulter coming in soon after in 56:07. Sarah Luce finished in 56:43 with a new course PB, Rachel Boyle crossed the line in 57:02, Chris Hyland finished in 57:05 and Karen Wilson finished with a course PB of 57:16. Hector Adair finished in 58:42 while Noel Angus also came under the hour mark with a course PB of 59:13. Michael Brown came in just over the hour in 1:00:03, Dee Patterson ran it in 1:00:46 with Jasmine Holden running in 1:00:55. Emma Stewart followed closely in 1:01:00 with Karen Heaney coming in in 1:01:31 and Michele Ennis in 1:01:58. Emma McCracken and Vanessa Mannis finished together in 1:06:12 and Kerrie Fox and Janice McCartney finished in 1:08:38 and 1:08:51 respectively. Lorna Angus crossed the line in 1:11:39 and Gillian Bailie completed the race in 1:26:24.

On Saturday Georgia McGonigal took part in the Berlin 5k as part of the Berlin marathon weekend celebrations, getting herself a new 5k PB of 28:45.

Jennifer McAteer took part in the Annaghmore Running Festival. With 4 distances on offer, Jennifer opted for the 10k, finishing an incredibly undulating course in 1:14:17.

On Sunday Michael Burgess headed to Scotland to complete his sixth marathon, the Loch Ness Marathon. While there appeared to be no sign of the legendary monster, Michael related that there were plenty of uphills in the second half of the race, however he completed it well in 3:54:59.

With Bangor 10k taking place it meant that parkrun numbers were down a little but there was still good attendance across several. Comber was the most popular venue with 19 members taking part there which saw parkrun PBs for Alyson Lee (26:45) and Jenna Lavery (26:54). James Armour completed his 10th parkrun in 29:51 and David Morton got a course PB of 31:32. Nine Striders made the trip to The Fisherman’s Walk parkrun in Portglenone to celebrate Kim Cochrane’s 100th parkrun which she completed in 41:39. There were also debut parkruns here for Fiona McAvoy (27:28), Richard Murray (28:35), Martina Finn (28:39), Kathryn Chesney (29:05), Nicola Forsythe (32:13), Angie Crone (33:52), Sara McMaster (36:06) and Donna Dugan (41:41). There were also debut runs at Belfast Victoria for Peter Doggart who got a PB of 23:16, Elijah Ferguson who finished in 26:52 and Simon Ferguson who finished in 27:03. Rachel Bell made a first visit to Ecos parkrun and finished in 25:56 and Cheryl Macartney and Michael Burgess made a visit to Alness parkrun, both finishing in 39:06 and Richard Bovill got a course PB at Waterworks of 24:45. Striders were also represented with great performances this weekend at Castlewellan and Stormont parkruns.

Junior parkrun on Sunday saw the last of the juniors 8 strides races with Comber parkrun where there were 16 juniors who took part. Keara Simpson was the first female across the line, finishing in 9:57. There was a junior parkrun PB for Calum McCready finishing in 10:02 and there were course PBs for Lyla Rose McNamara in 11:43 and Rachel Brown in 12:21. Well done to all the juniors who took part in this year’s 8 junior strides competition.

Scrabo Striders is an all-inclusive running club for all abilities with training sessions Monday-Thursday each week, as well as a trail run on Sunday nights. There are also social runs on Friday night and Sunday morning followed by the obligatory coffee afterwards. For more information visit scrabostriders.com or the club Facebook page.

By Jennifer McAteer