Kicking off the weekend of racing for Scrabo Striders was the first in the Run Forest Run series, organised by Born2Run Events.  Minnowburn in South Belfast was the venue, with the courses starting at the Mary Peters Track and including the paths around Barnett Demesne and the River Lagan.  Taking first female in the 5k was Willow Farrington with 22:18.  She was followed by Stephen Braniff (36:27) and Tina Hewitt (56:32).  Leading the Striders in the 10k were Luke Braniff (47:36) and Lorna McMurray (53:52).  They were accompanied by Graeme Farrington (56:49), Karen Wilson (1:02:20), Bronagh Shields (1:04:22) and Chris Edwards (1:05:36).

At Sixmilewater Park in Ballyclare, East Antrim Harriers hosted The 88th McConnell Shield Cross Country.  Competing in the 5 mile mens event was Coach Ismail, who finished in 36:49.

Gaithouse Events organised their annual Montalto Night Endurance Challenge for Saturday evening.  Seven Striders were among the 73 participants who donned their headtorches and headed out to complete 5k laps of a very undulating and challenging course!  Representing the club in the 3 hour event were Michael Burgess (5 laps), Georgia McGonigal (4), Cheryl Macartney (2), Sheena Crone (1) and Naomi Fleming (1).  Having already ran 5k at parkrun and 5 miles at cross country earlier in the day, Ismail clocked up a fabulous 10 laps and 50k in the 6 hour, while in the 12 hour Sonya Summersgill achieved 2nd female and a course PB with 16 laps and 50 miles.

The TCS New York Marathon took place on Sunday.  One of the seven Abbot World Marathon Majors, this prestigious race began on Staten Island, immediately crossing the bridge over to Brooklyn and Queens for half of the race before heading over East River into Manhattan.  The route briefly led runners over another bridge into The Bronx at mile 20 before returning to Manhattan to finish at the south end of Central Park.  Two of Scrabo’s experienced marathon runners had the privilege of running along with over 55,000 people.  Norman Mawhinney crossed the line in 3:08:21, finishing 3rd out of 605 in the M65 category whilst Jennifer McAteer celebrated her 49th marathon with a time of 6:56:56.

The majority of Dunleath Playing Fields parkrun’s regular volunteers enjoyed a well-earned break on Saturday morning, with a Scrabo “parkrun takeover” of the event taking place.  12 Striders covered many of the roles, including Run Director, Marshals and Timekeepers.  15 Striders also ran, with Matt Bell finishing 1st (course PB), Matthew Halus 3rd, Mark Halus 4th with a PB (22:08), Paul Blair 5th (CPB), Gayle Malaugh 1st female, Maxine Dynes 2nd female with a PB (25:21), and Keara Simpson, Craig Simpson and Luke Mars all achieving CPBs.

13 ran at Comber, where Russ Armour and Naomi Magowan (CPB) celebrated their 25th runs, Michael Johnston was 2nd, David Morton finished with a CPB and Simon Ferguson (21:00) and Judith Boyd (24:01) both recorded PBs.  Andrew Caddoo (23:52) finished with a PB in Bangor.  Abrar Hossain and Kathy Henderson were in Belfast trying out the new Paisley Park parkrun with Gavin McDonnell, who regained his Northern Ireland “Regionnaire” status (completing every parkrun in the region).  Venturing further afield were Chris Burns (Jamaica Pond, Boston), Lyla McNamara (Ayr, Scotland), Louise Barnes (Limepark Playing Fields, Armoy) and Catherine Lavery (Portrush).

Willow Farrington was 2nd at Lough Moss junior parkrun on Sunday morning.  She was joined by her brother Heath and Rory Braniff, while Penelope Davies celebrated a PB of 10:37 at Bangor.  At Comber, Keara Simpson was 2nd female and Joe Brown was 3rd male.

Steven Hanna was presented with October Member of the Month by Men’s Captain Michael Burgess.  During the month, Steven completed World Major Marathon Chicago in 4:10:42 before going on to run Dublin Marathon just two weeks later.  He knocked over 12 minutes off his Chicago time to record 3:58:18, a new PB.  Steven describes joining Scrabo as one of his best decisions, and is enthusiastic, supportive and friendly towards his fellow Striders.  His hard work in training has resulted in a major improvement in his running, PBs in every distance and reaching 50 miles at the recent Last Strider Standing event.

Louise Barnes, Olli Seeger and the fantastic team of junior coaches organised a Pizza Party for all of the junior Striders on Wednesday evening.  Joined by the Chairperson George McGonigal, Captains and Vice Captains, it was a great time of celebration of the wonderful achievements of the club’s younger runners.

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Michael Burgess