All roads led to Dublin for 24 Striders (and their support crews) this weekend as they headed south to join 20,000 others to run 26.2 miles round the streets of the “Fair City”. With conditions almost perfect for racing, this was reflected in some absolutely fantastic times posted by the Striders. First of the Striders across the line was Martin Strachan with a new marathon PB of 2:54:05. He was closely followed by Andy Haylett running his first sub 3 marathon in 2:58:36. PBs came thick and fast with James Cole-Boyle finishing in 3:23:01, Graeme McGowan in 3:33:42 (just two weeks after Chicago marathon), Gary Lyttle in 3:22:42 and Michael Johnston in 3:31:11. Trevor Woodside crossed the finish line in 3:35:42, followed by Jonathan Bull who got an 8 minute PB finishing in 3:36:48, closely followed by Gareth Davies who also gained a new PB with a time of 3:41:54. Duncan MacAllister was next to finish in 3:58:43 and Peter McGonigal finished in 4:01:37. Dean McGhee was next to cross the line completing his first marathon running with Peter Crawford and both finishing in 3:50:07. Steven Hanna, who had also run Chicago two weeks previously ducked in under the four hour mark finishing in 3:58:18. Just a year after his first marathon Chris Burns crossed the line with a course PB of 4:00:47 and Darren Johnston also finished with a PB of 4:22:29. He was closely followed over the line by the first of the female Striders to finish, Maxine Dynes in 4:23:25. Emma Stewart added to the Strider PB list finishing in 4:27:35, as did Jenna Lavery with a 29 minute PB of 4:38:03. Louise Barnes was next to finish in 4:45:09, followed by Clare McIlveen in 4:58:51. Lyndsey Blair finished in 5:17:46, Karen Warnock came home in 5:28:05 and Nicola Forsythe finished her first marathon in 5:32:15 to round off a successful day for the purple and green crew in the Irish capital.

On Friday night the Enniskillen Spooktacular 5k took place. Marketed as the biggest night race in Ireland with over 1400 people taking part, two of these were Striders. David Morton completed the race in 31:18 while Mina Darling finished in 36:20.

With runners heading south for Dublin marathon some took it as an opportunity to visit new parkruns on the way. Graeme McGowan and Chris Burns were returnees to Donabate parkrun for Graeme’s 50th parkrun which he ran in a course PB of 21:53 but they were joined by first timers Norman Mawhinney who finished 3rd in 19:14, Darren Johnston finishing in 26:54 and Louise Barnes finishing in 28:07. There was also a first visit to Dundalk for the McGonigal clan with Georgia running in 33:36 alongisde Cheryl Alexander, Peter finishing in 33:38 and Elaine finishing in 36:09 with Jenna Lavery following in 36:10. Paul Blair also took in a new parkrun en route to Dublin opting for Rostrevor and finishing in 25:42. There were more debut runs for the Luce/McCready family as they took themselves to Paisley Park, Harry McCready finishing in 26:59, Calum getting a parkrun PB in 27:43 and Sarah Luce finishing in 27:46. There were also debut runs for Michael Warke at Orangefield (29:12), Sharon Murdoch at Falls (33:28), Richard Bovill at Ecos (31:08), Gavin McDonnell at Grove Park (30:05), and at Crawfordsburn where Daniel Warke completed his 25th parkrun on his first visit there in 24:39 and Andrew Caddoo was also a first timer here finishing in 25:32. Meanwhile at Bangor James Cole-Boyle completed his first ever parkrun in 29:23. Bangor also saw a course PB for Karen Wilson of 27:16. There were also course PBs at Wallace for Jonathan Keenan (24:20), Enniskillen for David Morton (30:44) and Comber for Naomi Magowan (28:09). Comber also saw an overall parkrun PB for Mark Halus finishing in 22:15 and there were also parkrun PBs for Karen Collins (24:18) and Elijah Ferguson (25:43) at Stormont. As well as this there was a milestone for Mark Arnold who made the journey to Hillsborough Forest for his 25th parkrun, finishing in 24:47 and Striders were also represented at Citypark parkrun.

At junior parkrun on Sunday there was a first place finish for Harry McCready at Comber, finishing in 8:27, closely followed by Keara Simpson, finishing second in 9:25. Maddie Dynes was the second female to finish and also got herself a junior parkrun PB finishing in 10:48. At Bangor junior parkrun Willow Farrington got a course PB of 8:04 finishing as first female. Lyla Rose McNamara finished 3rd female in 12:37 at Broadmeadow and Katie Roulston finished at Belfast Victoria with a junior parkrun PB of 10:05.

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