Scrabo Striders have been taking part in a wide variety of events recently, ranging from a speedy sub 3 minute track event to a gruelling 24 hour mountain trail race!

A couple of Sundays ago Norman Mawhinney headed to Lee Valley in London to represent Northern Ireland in the English Masters Indoor Inter-Area Track and Field Championships.  Competing in the M50 category, Norman completed the 1500m event in 5:37 and the 800m in 2:51.  His points from these races contributed to a record score of 181 points for the Northern Ireland team!

At one minute to midnight on Friday, Ismail Karauzum began an incredible 126km (78 mile) journey across Gran Canaria from Las Canteras beach, Las Palmas in the north to Parque Sur, Maspalomas in the south.  The event was The North Face Trans Gran Canaria Classic, one of twelve “Gran Canaria World Trail Majors”, with other races including the 166km Mt. Fuji 100 in Japan and the 100k Black Canyon Ultra in Arizona, USA.  With 6866m of elevation gain and a cut off time of 30 hours, Ismail described this as the biggest challenge of his life.  However, he performed brilliantly, being one of 567 finishers (over 1000 competitors started!), and completing the course in 24 hours, 15 minutes and 35 seconds.  Congratulations Ismail!

59 Striders headed to parkruns on Saturday morning.  Of the 15 locations visited, Comber was most popular with 25 running.  Stopping off at Wallace in Lisburn on their way to Cross Country, Karen Collins, Simon Ferguson and Elijah Ferguson all celebrated course PBs!  Nicola Forsythe also recorded a course PB at Carrickfergus.  Gavin McDonnell headed to York in England where he ticked off the letter Y as part of his parkrun alphabet challenge!  Other members trying out a new venue were Sarah Luce at Limavady, Georgia McGonigal at Dunleath Playing Fields, Chris Burns at Enniskillen and Sara McMaster and Naomi Fleming at Carrickfergus.  Karen Wilson, Cheryl Macartney, Abrar Hossain and Michael Burgess were also first timers at Navan parkrun in County Meath.

The final Cross Country event of the season took place on Saturday afternoon, with ten Scrabo Striders representing the club at the NI and Ulster Senior XC Championships in Lurgan Park.  First up was Elijah Ferguson, running his first ever XC event.  In the 1200m U11 & U9 race, Elijah recorded a superb 4:26, which was the 2^nd best time in his age category!  In the Senior Women’s 6k, three laps of the course were completed by Karen Collins (32:44), Sonya Summersgill (34:10), Karen Wilson (38:11), Rachel Boyle (39:03) and Lyndsey Blair (39:07).  Last race of the day was the 5 lap 10k Senior Men’s event.  Abrar Hossain finished in 49:38, with Matt Bell and Michael Burgess crossing the line together in 52:45.

Michael Burgess