Scrabo Striders celebrate their VCs

Another busy week of running with the summer in full flow and midweek and weekend races a plenty.

The week started with the annual Crawfordsburn trail race organised by North Down Athletics club using Crawfordsburn country park as their venue with it being 5K but a very challenging course indeed. 5 striders took part including 2 of our juniors Harry McCready and Keara Simpson recording 23.26 and 27.53 respectively. Also running was Jenny Taylor recording a time of 23.56 closely followed by Jordan McIntyre in a time of 24.03 and Alyson Graham rounded off our club performances in a great time of 28.41 great performances on a difficult 5K trail race.

Next up on Friday evening was our Vice Captains race our annual race where the theme and venue is under the full control of our acting vice captains this year George Johnston and Nicola Forsythe and the venue chosen was our own sea wall at the floodgates the e traditional 4 mile course on a 2 mile out and 2 mile back route but in a twist you will run your own race then be paired with a random strider and your times are added together and the closest times to the times set by our VCs will be deemed the winner. Our VCs Rana combined time of 1 HR 11 and 54 seconds the nearest pairing was Hector Adair and Gary Clarke in a numerically pleasing 1 HR 11 and 11 seconds. 2nd place went to Curtis McCosh and Lyndsey Blair in a combined time of 1 HR 10 and 22 seconds with the team of Johnny Wary and Steven Hanna picking up 3rd place in a combined time 1 HR 8 and 44 seconds but well done to all striders for making it a great event and also enjoying the social side with the refreshments at LDP afterwards.

Also on Friday was mallusk 5 mile race with the hilly sealstown road. First up and first in his age group was Norman Mawhinney followed by Simon Ferguson and Karen Collins. Next in was Beverley McKee and lastly was Katie Irvine. Great work guys.

Next up was the iconic venue of the Silent Valley in Annalong County Down for the equally stunning and challenging place to run. The races on offer today were a 5K consisting of tarmac paths and a very challenging section of trail running before heading back onto the tarmac to finish. The 10K was a real up and down course with the climb up to the lower dam with the iconic view of the higher dam wall then the rewarding run back to the finish. The 10 mile started with about a mile of tarmac and trails before the some climb and decline as the 10K course  then the difficult trail  section of the 5K with all 3 races starting and finishing under the born 2 run arch.

Harry McCready finished the 5K with a time of 23.07 followesd in by his mother Sarah Luce with a time of 29.36 and rounding up the 5K was David Morton in a time of 35.24.

In the  10K Jonathan Keenan and Gareth Gordon recorded time of 56.00 and 1.07.53 respectively great effort lads.

3 striders took part in the 10 mile race with Graeme McGowan finishing in 1.22.00 and Duncan McAllister finishing 1.29.00 and Karen Farrelly a late replacement for Manny finishing in 1.45.37 great performances in all 3 races on a very warm and challenging place to run.

It wouldn’t be the weekend with parkrun and junior parkrun with 56 striders at parkrun spread our over ,qp different locations and 13 junior striders taking part over 3 venues with comber parkrun and comber junior parkrun being the preferred destination.

Our next race on all calendar gives the club a lot of pride to promote and remember one of our fallen heroes and a reason a lot of runners for into running and also the reason people are still running out late friend and coach Heath Graham who was taken from us January 2024 and is so sadly missed one of the oldest races on our calendar the Ards 5 mile challenge is now the Heath Graham Memorial Challenge taking in the 5 mile race starting and finishing at Londonderry Park going out the Portaferry road turning up at Finlay’s and running through heath’s homeland at Loughries before heading back towards the town down Bowtown road and upper green well street before heading back into Portaferry road and back into the park.  Make sure you get your place before it sells out visiting https://scrabostriders.myclubhouse.co.uk/Events/Calendar/View?id=586 with about 50 entries left don’t leave it too late.

Like what you have read are you new to running or looking to make a comeback then there is no better time you’ll I made more than welcome with our all abilities club we train together and everyone thrives and succeeds together.

Our main sessions are Monday and Wednesday mostly at LDP unless it’s at one of the other advertised locations like scrabo for hills and other  specialised sessions. Our injury and progression group sessions meet up at LDP with a tailored set of sessions to ease you back in or push you towards your next goal.

Our social run sessions from Conway Square Friday night starting at 6.30 with the Friday night 5K route starting and finishing at Conway Square up mill at then last the old leisure centre swinging past the shopping centre and round the Messines road before back towards the town down court street and up high street finishing after with tea coffee and goodies at Tim Hortons. Our Sunday Morning Social Run 9am everyone welcome as no set routes or speeds with many people doing various distances or even doing their progression homeworks with tea coffee and refreshments at bow bells after. The week ends with Sonya’s trails 7pm starting on the mountain road and the stories are iconic as are the views.