Captain crowned Last Strider Standing Champion

By Aimee Braniff

First up on Saturday morning was the Tullamore Irish Half Marathon Championship where Norman Mawhinney competed and achieved an amazing time of 1:27:23. Super running Norman!

Junior strider Lyla McNamara competed at the star track athletic event in Magherafelt where she achieved two Gold medals, Amazing Achievement, Well Done Lyla!

This week 112 Scarbo Striders competed in the infamous Last Strider Standing race. This is a backyard ultra race format where participants complete laps of a set course.  This year the venue was the Ballykinler training camp.  Striders ran a 4.167 mile loop along different terrains. The running pace is usually very relaxed and striders have one hour to complete the 4.167 miles route but they must come in before the hour mark to make sure they don’t time out.  The runners go out on the hour every hour until only one remains.  This running event is a great place for striders to test themselves and it is also good training for those who will be competing in the Great North Run Next Sunday.

The weather was very windy and raining heavily but that never stops us striders. Well Done to and amazing running by Cheryl McCartney, Colin Harper, Donna Dugan, Elaine and Georgia McGonigal, Gillian Kerr, Graeme, Hannah Magee, Hannah Robinson, Ian , Joanne Wray, Karen Farrelly, Kathryn Chesney,  Lynsey, Mairead Curran, Nickie and Stephanie Garrett who all completed 1 Loop.

Angie Crone, Carol and Natasha Graham, Collin Campbell, Denise, Emma Stewart, James Boyle, Janet, Jasmine Holden, Jennifer McAteer, Johnny, Kieran McNamara, Kim Cochrane, Lorna, Luke and Lynn McGonigal who completed 2 Loops.

Amanda Martin, Clare Mcllveen, Curtis Adams, David Morton, Dee, Elaine Johnston, Ellen, Emma, Gareth, Graeme McGowan, Janice McCartney, Jenna Lavery, Karen Clarke, Katie Irine, Katy Lyttle, Kerrie Fox, Lisa Boal, Louise Bingham, Lyndsey Blair, Naomi Fleming, Olli Seeger, Peter McGonigal, Rachel Boyle and Stephen Braniff who all completed 3 Loops.

Carli Lindgren, Caroline, Catherine Lavery, Donna Johnston, Gary Clarke, Gordon, Linda Dugan, Matthew Halus, Philip, Simon Feguson and Trevor Woodside who all completed 4 Loops.

Charlotte, Colette, Colin Verth, Darren Johnston, Eden Floyd, Fiona McAvoy, Gareth Davies, Jenny Taylor, Karen Heaney, Martina Finn, Maxine Dynes, Niall Mclver, Nicola Forsythe, Noel Angus, Paul Blair, Penny Hamilton and Sarah McCready who all completed 5 Loops.

Chris Edwards, Judith Boyd, Micheal Burgess and Steven Hanna who all completed 6 Loops.

Alyson Graham, Emma Clements, Gillian Pearson, Johnathon Winter and Karen Collins who all completed 7 Loops.

Jordan, Karl, Martin, Naomi McGowan and Rachel Bell who all completed 8 loops.

Manny, Gayle And Jenny Taylor who all completed 9 Loops.

Karen Wilson, Max Burton and Sonya Summersgill who all completed 10 Loops.

A Massive Congratulations to Craig Simpson, George Johnston, Mark Halus, Michael Williams, Sarah Johnston, Matt Bell, Abrar and Daniel Warke who joined the 50 mile club completing 12 Loops. An Amazing achievement, Well Done!

Three striders remained, Matt, Daniel and Abrar.  Daniel and Abrar completed a whopping 13 Loops and this left our Captain Matt Bell to complete loop 14 (58 miles) in time on his own to become the ultimate winner of the 2025 Last Strider Standing.  What an amazing achievement, well done Matt!!

A Massive Thank you to our Club Chairman George McGonigal for the countless hours spent planning Last Strider Standing and making it an enjoyable day despite the weather and our head coach Sonya Summersgill for arranging the venue. Thank you to all volunteers for going out of their way to travel to the training camp to set up on the Friday. Thank you also to all the volunteers, spectators and runners for their encouragement and help throughout the day, especially to those who helped prevent the marquees flying away!

Now we wouldn’t be able to end off the week without parkrun. On Saturday despite many being at Last Strider Standing there was 17 striders who completed a parkrun in 8 different venues. From Bangor all the way to Tamworth Castle grounds in Staffordshire, wow, now that’s dedication!! Congratulations to Stuart Blair who got a CPB of 25:08 at Stormont parkrun.

Junior Parkrun on Sunday saw 12 Juniors competing at 3 different venues. Our most popular parkrun this week was Comber which saw 3 podium finishes from the Juniors!  Well Done to Harry McCready who placed 2nd overall, Heath Farrington who placed 3rd Male overall and Iona Chanas who placed 2nd female overall and achieved a CPB of 9:12.

Well done to Nathaniel Frazer who achieved a PB of 9:36 at Lough Moss Parkrun and Lyla McNamara who achieved a CPB of 11:38 at Antrim Castle gardens parkrun.  Well Done Juniors!! Amazing Results!

By Aimee Braniff