Striders Weekly Update 18/12/2024

Posted: 18/12/2024

Last week was another brilliant one for Scrabo Striders.  Parkruns were back on, Members of the Month were celebrated, and the club was well represented at events in Spain and Tollymore.

The next in the Born2Run Run Forest Run series took place in Tollymore Forest on Saturday.  Junior Striders Willow Farrington and Rory Braniff took on the 5k course, achieving great results of 22:44 and 26:06 respectively.  Opting for the 10k were Luke Braniff (45:43), Graeme Farrington (59:58), Karen Wilson (1:04:18), Chris Edwards (1:05:36) and Georgia McGonigal (1:06:04).

An impressive team of Striders made the journey to the much warmer south coast of Spain to compete in the Malaga Marathon and Half Marathon!  Leading the Striders in the half marathon were Trevor Woodside (1:31:44), Michael Johnston (1:34:31 PB) and Simon Ferguson (1:41:36).  They were joined by Heather Baron (1:52:36), Karen Collins (1:54:18 PB), Sarah Luce (2:12:08) and Clare McIlveen (2:12:32).

In the marathon, Dave Stevenson celebrated a superb PB of 3:07:26 and Louise Meehan a fantastic sub 4 hour 3:58:55, while Norman Mawhinney’s 3:09:23 finish added to his lengthy list of M65 wins!  On this occasion he crossed the line over 16 minutes ahead of the next runner in his age category.  This was Norman’s 8th marathon of the year, adding to his brilliant performances at London, Belfast, Edinburgh, Longford, Chester, Bucharest and New York.

On Saturday, many of the Malaga competitors also took part in the 5k Brunch Run.  Although not timed, this was an opportunity to loosen the legs and get warmed up for Sunday.  Junior Striders Harry and Calum McCready were also able to run in this event, ahead of supporting their mum Sarah on Sunday.

Captains Lyndsey Blair and Michael Burgess presented another couple of Boyd Rice Solicitors Member of the Month awards at the end of November.  Keara Simpson has been an enthusiastic and supportive junior member of Scrabo since 2022.  She has been training very hard, which has clearly paid off this last month with a parkrun course PB at Dunleath, a PB (25:57 at Comber), 2 junior parkrun PBs (9:09 and 9:08 at Comber) and a 1st female finish.  She is fast approaching her 50th parkrun and 100th junior parkrun, fantastic achievements!

Trevor Woodside joined the club earlier in 2024, and has impressed with his fast pace, regular attendance at training/ races and willingness to help others with their running.  Recent results include a 3:35:42 Dublin Marathon, 4th place finish at Run in the Dark 5k and an age category win at Belfast City 5k with a PB of 18:39.

After last week’s storm causing the cancellations of a vast amount of parkruns in the UK and Ireland, 40 Striders were pleased to return to the popular 5k at 10 different locations on Saturday morning.  Travelling the furthest was Chris Hollies at Evesham in England.  Plenty of runners improved on previous best times.  Course PBs were recorded by Judith Boyd (Stormont), Nicola Forsythe (Waterworks), Matt Bell (3rd place at Bangor) and Michael Burgess (Crawfordsburn).  Achieving overall PBs were Craig Simpson (21:04 Comber), Mark Halus (21:36 Comber), Martin Conroy (25:33 Comber), Sonya Summersgill (25:55 Stormont) and Lyla McNamara (33:55 Bangor).

Celebrating her 50th junior parkrun event and earning her orange “ultra” milestone wristband was Harriet Frazer at Comber.  Willow Farrington finished 2nd with a course PB, Joe Brown was 2nd male and Keara Simpson 3rd female.

Find out more on Facebook or www.scrabostriders.com.

Michael Burgess

 

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