SCRABO STRIDERS CELEBRATES 9TH ANNIVERSARY!

Saturday 7th June was the celebration event for Scrabo Striders who celebrated their 9th Anniversary.  Scrabo Striders has now well over 200 senior members and over 60 junior members who offer all ability coach led training 4 nights a week along with several social runs. An anniversary event was held in Mount Stewart on Saturday evening which saw over 100 members both senior and junior take on separate run round the beautiful grounds of the Mount Stewart Estate.  First race of the evening was the junior race and 1st to finish this in an impressive time of 8.23 was Harry McCready, 2nd  place was Matthew Stevenson in a time of 8.29 and 3rd place was Harry Harper with a time of 8.41.  Keara Simpson was the first girl to finish in an excellent time of 9.10, 2nd girl home was Kristen Edwards in 9.36 and 3rd was Iona Chanas in 9.58.

While the kids had completed their run and were happy tucking into the post run spread it was the turn of the adults.  93 seniors took on a 3.5 mile route starting off up hill towards Temple of the Winds and round the grounds before finishing outside the impressive Mount Stewart house.  First male finisher and our current Male Captain was Matt Bell in an impressive time of 21.35 very quickly followed by Dave Stevenson in a time of 21.46 and 3rd place was Lucas Darragh in a time of 21.48.  First female finisher was Willow Farrington in an excellent time of 25.39, 2nd place went to Jenny Taylor in a time 25.49 and 3rd place Sarah Johnston with a time of 26.41.

Also on over the weekend  Friday 6th June was the CS Lewis 5 mile challenge which takes place from CS Lewis Square in East Belfast along the embankment towards Victoria Park and back, in what is described as a flat fast course and sure to allow lots of Personal Bests.  Scrabo Striders had 56 runners take on the route on what managed to be a warm dry summer night.

First strider which crossed the line was Niall McIver, who is Striders Member of the Month for May in a very impressive time of 32.23 closely followed by our veteran male 60 champion Norman Mawhinney and then Trevor Woodside at 33.10.  Jenny Taylor was first female strider home in an impressive PB time of 35.53.

Striders had 7 members completing this race for the First time, Elaine Johnston, David Morton, Joanne Wray, Kathryn Chesney, Alyson Graham, Donna Johnston and Lynne McGonigal.  Also there were 7 PBs achieved by Naomi Magowan, Janet Mowat, Georgia McGonigal, Rebecca Robinson, Maxine Dynes, Penny Hamilton and Catherine Lavery.  7 Course PBs were achieved by Janice McCartney, Gayle Malaugh, Beverley Meredith, Chris Burns, Karen Collins, Jennifer McAteer and Steven Hanna.

Saturday morning there was no let up for Striders as 40 members took on Parkrun in 12 different locations.  Most popular was Comber with 15 members taking part.  Other venues in Northern Ireland were Crawfordsburn, Montalto, Victoria Park, Bangor, Stormont, Waterworks and Newry.  A number of our members completed parkruns in other parts of the World.  Abrar Hossain completed Beckton Parkrun near Nottingham, Noel Angus completed Street Parkrun near Somerset,  Amanda Martin completed Mallow Castle Parkrun in Co. Cork, but a bit further afield our Vice Captain George Johnston completed Canning River Parkrun in Perth Australia!

Sunday saw the juniors get their Parkrun fix with 13 junior members at 3 different locations.  Comber, Musgrave and Bangor.  Cooper Holden did his first ever parkrun in comber in 10.56.  Well done Cooper hopefully 1st of many. There was PBs for Harry McCready, Rachel Brown, Willow Farrington, Heath Farrington.  Well done Kids !

Also on the calendar on Sunday morning, North Down and Ards Womens Aid organised a 5k Nowhere to Run event in Ward Park, Bangor.  A number of our striders took part in this event to  raise awareness for Domestic Abuse.

By Nicola Forsythe