Saturday saw a trio of Scrabo Strider’s head up to Newcastle to participate in the Tollymore Half marathon! The race was organised by 26extreme and runners got to experience the autumnal views of Tollymore Forest Park. The first strider in was Jenny Taylor who completed the half in a time of 1:50:29. Jenny was followed by Craig Simpson with a time of 2:13:31 and Darren Johnston with a time of 2:13:31. Exceptional running!!

On Sunday Maxine Dynes flew out to Athens. Not content with running the 5k in a time of 29:57 on the Saturday she only then went and ran The Athens Marathon: The Authentic the very next day!!  This marathon is one of a kind and covers the same route that Pheidippides ran when he delivered news of victory from the battlefield of Marathon over two thousand years ago! The finish line is at the historic Olympic Stadium which is where our Olympic Games originated from. Well done Maxine in adding another marathon to the collection with a time of 4:33:23 on a course that was full of both up and down hills!

On Saturday night us Striders also put on our glad rags to celebrate at the Scrabo Striders Annual Awards dinner. The event was at the Clandeboye Hotel and consisted of a drink’s reception, photos, awards, dinner and a lot of dancing!! Our Captains Lyndsey Blair and Michael Burgess presented their captains cup to both Rachel Bell and Chris Burns for their outstanding achievements and contributions to the club.

Next up was the Coaches awards. We had a joint Female coaches award, presented by Head Coach Sonya, to both Karen Warnock and Karen Wilson. Karen Warnock received hers for her dedication to being an ambassador for the Club at Belfast marathon and raising vital funds for air ambulance, and Karen Wilson received hers for smashing her races and delivering constant Personal Bests and consistency at training!

Craig Simpson then won the male coaches choice award awarded by Graeme Magowan, having improved immensely through his running journey in a short space of time.

Following this the Club had several awards for participation at Cross Country whether it be for all the races or a minimum of three. This was then following by presentation of an award by Vice Captains Gillian Pearson and Matt Bell to Penny Hamilton for placing first at the Vice Captains race.  Awards were also given to those who completed the 8 Strides challenge running 8 of many club handpicked races to participate in.

One of our most poignant awards was our Special recognition award in memory of the late Coach Heath Graham.  Carol Graham chose its inaugural recipient, and it was a perfect choice of the late coaches Partner in Crime Peter McGonigal.

Following this we had a number of token awards followed by the hotly anticipated London Marathon Ballot, whereby the club was fortunate enough to be awarded two places, giving everyone who has had tried and unfortunately not been lucky enough to get a place, have another opportunity to do so. In an amazing stroke of luck, the first name pulled out of the hat was Karen Clarke. Unbelievably the second name was Gary Clarke!!  Such an amazing memory to treasure and now the training begins!

Park Run also took place on Saturday. We had 62 runners out at 11 venues. Stormont proved to be most popular, with 21 club members taking part. We had Graeme McGowan achieve a Course Personal Best with a time of 20:34 and Willow Farrington also got a Course PB with a time of 22:03. Congratulations also to Sara McMaster who got her 25th Parkrun with a time of 35:18. At Knockbracken Luke Braniff also got a Course PB with a time of 21:07. At Abingdon Gavin McDonnell had a Course PB too with 27:39 and at Comber David Morton got a Course PB with a time of 30:01.  Finally, Stephen Herron got a course PB at Navan with 24:40. Special congratulations to Alyson Lee who got her 25th Park Run milestone at Comber alongside Lydia Blair who got her 10th Milestone parkrun milestone. Judith Boyd also got a Personal Best with a time of 23:47.

Junior Park Run took place on Sunday. We had 14 runners out participating at 2 venues. As usual Comber was our most popular venue with 10 club members running there! Keara Simpson achieved a Personal Best with a time of 09:09, and she also came in 2nd female! Rachel Brown also got a Course PB with a time of 11:09. Over at Bangor Junior Park Run we had Willow Farrington place as 2ND Female with a time of 08:08.  Brilliant running everyone!!

Scrabo Striders meet every Monday – Thursday for coach led training sessions with a Trails run on Sunday evening. We also meet every Friday evening and Sunday morning for an all-abilities social run in Newtownards Town Centre – at the square.   Details can be found on our website, and all will be made welcome!

By Naomi Fleming