Joanne conquers the Spine North

What a busy week of running for Scrabo Striders on a range of different distances and locations ranging from sunny Spain to sunny Comber yes you heard that right.

The week started early with summer Spine race which is one of the most difficult and varied ultra running race which is along the Pennine way. Having previously ran the Spine South Joanne McCandless was able to do the Spine North which is a 160 mile non stop with a revised 90 hour cut off ultra running race which incorporates the Northern section of the full Summer Spine race over very demanding terrain. along the Pennine Way from Hardraw to Kirk Yetholm. Joanne completed the course well inside the cut off in a very impressive 85 hours 6 minutes and 55 seconds starting on Monday and finishing on Thursday a truly epic and amazing achievement.

A little closer to home was the annual Lisburn Half Marathon 10K and fun run and completing the 10K was club member Wendy Thompson and she did so in under the hour in an impressive 59.16.

Donna Dugan completed the beer and bubbles 5K in the idyllic surroundings of finnebrogue woods and all proceeds go to support local mental health and a well earned beer or soft drink at the end.

In one of the local racing calendars highlights was the Ballydrain  race comber 10K the 2 lap race starting from outside the North Down cricket club and heading up and past north down house along the bypass and towards Newtownards before turning back into the centre of comber finishing on the Square. We had a very impressive 66 striders completing this course on what was an extremely warm night which ironically the prize on the night was a woolly hat.

First in Andy Haylett running a pb in a time of 38.36 shortly followed by captain Matt Bell in 39.09 completing the sub 40 was Gary Lyttle in an impressive time 39.45. a little over 40 mins for a pb 40.15 was Niall McIver. Next in was Michael Warke, Max Burton, Trevor Woodside, Abrar Hossain, Michael Johnston and Gareth Davies rounding out the sub 45. Next wave of runners under the 50 min mark is Mark and Matthew Halus, Chris Millar, Colin Harper, Simon Ferguson, Rebecca Robinson, Willow Farrington Luke Braniff, Michael Williams, Jordan McIntyre and Maxine Dynes.All under the 55 min mark was Karen Collins, Amanda Martin, Colette McKelvey, Penny Hamilton, Michael Brown, Peter McGonigal, Jonathan Keenan, Emma Stewart, Chris Edwards, Naomi Magowan,Steven Hanna and Hector Adair. Next up all under the hour was Chris Murdock, Sonya Summersgill, Karen Farrelly, Karen Heaney, Olli Seeger , Judith Boyd, Alyson Graham, Wendy Thompson, Phil Adams, Karen Wilson and Joanna Gallagher. All coming in over the hour was Catherine Lavery, Rachel Boyle, Glenn Campbell, Dee Patterson, Clare McIlveen, Karen Clarke, Eden Dinsmore, Janice McCartney, Gareth Gordon, Jasmine Holden, Beverley McKee, Charlotte Connelly, Donna Johnston, Sharon Murdoch, Stephen Braniff, Jennifer McAteer, Dawn Cudworth, Mairead Curran and Sharon Gamble fantastic running and well done to ballydrain for hosting a great event.

A little further from home in sunny Spain the Johnston family completed the Algorfa 5K well done to Darren, Zara, Marcus and Elaine.

To round of the weekend of racing was the Belfast women’s 10K around the titanic section of Belfast. Completing the 10K was Karen Collins, Jasmine Holden, Eden Dinsmore, Karen Heaney, Clare McIlveen and Jennifer McAteer phenomenal performances ladies as many ran comber on Friday and parkrun on Saturday before this on Sunday.

The weekend wouldn’t be complete without our runners going to various parkruns and this week we had 54 runners running at 11 different locations with the most popular of these being Comber and Stormont.

Upcoming on Friday 27th June is the showcase event of our racing calendar the Ards Half Marathon with Number collection at Ards Blair Mayne Wednesday 25th June 6:30pm to 8pm, Thursday 26th June 6:30pm to 8pm, Friday 27th June 4:30pm to 6pm with race starting at 6.30 and finishing on South Street at the park entrance to Ards Blair Mayne. This takes the iconic route of a loop of the town centre before heading up towards Scrabo and Killynether before going into comber before climbing back towards Scrabo before the drop back to the finish. Please remember to stay for refreshments afterwards to celebrate your achievement.

Club training is all abilities and you will be made more than welcome Monday and Wednesday nights 7.15 for our main sessions and our injury and progression group sessions are Tuesday and Thursday evenings 7.15 most sessions are held at Londonderry Park unless stated otherwise. We have social non coach led runs Friday evening 6.30 and Sunday Morning 9am from Conway Square and Sonya’s trails are a great way to end the week. As well as parkrun on Saturdays I think there is something for everyone.