Scrabo Striders Celebrate 2^nd Club Anniversary

Scrabo Striders Running Club marked their 2^nd anniversary with a private race in the beautiful grounds of Mount Stewart on the evening of Saturday 9^th June. With the kind permission of the National Trust and Lady Rose 136 club members took to the gravel paths, trails and hill up to the Temple of the Winds to complete a 4 mile (6.4 km) course in glorious sunshine.

First to finish was Curtis McCaw in a phenomenal 23 minutes 58 seconds followed by Jared Martin (24:09), Matthew Carvill (25:31), Norman Mawhinney (26:29), Ricky Jordan (26:43) and Johnny Wray (26:50). First for the ladies was Catherine Cauley in 27 minutes 25 seconds followed by Shannon Clegg (29:25), Kerri Anderson (31:35), Tina Boal (31:54), Barbara McKechnie (32:56) and Lynn Sheldon (33:21). Time isn’t everything at Scrabo Striders and it was great to see all entrants complete the course and have fun along the way.

The evening continued with a delicious burger, a prize raffle and disco at Romas in the town centre. Striders filled the upstairs venue and partied to the small hours. The committee would like to thank all our runners, marshals, organisers and Mount Stewart for coming together to create a brilliant event.

All the way to Italy now and on Saturday, 16 June, Jared Martin from Scrabo Striders along with Northern Ireland team mates, Tony McCambridge, Conall McClean and Gareth Campbell competed in the 13th World Mountain Running Youth Cup in Lanzada, deep in the Italian Alps.  Fifteen countries were represented by over 50 competitors in the Under 18 Boys race which covered 4 kilometres and a 300 metre ascent. 

In blistering heat, Jared and his team mates took Northern Ireland to an all-time best finish of 4th place beating nations such as USA and Turkey.  England took the title, with France and Italy in second and third place.  Scrabo Strider, Jared, came in 28^th doing the club proud. Well done young man!

Parkrun tourism seems to be catching on these days as 15 Scrabo Striders travelled far and wide for the 5km Saturday morning runs. At Waterworks in North Belfast Paul Moore was the first Strider to finish in a great 26:48 followed by Mick Honeyman, Sheena Crone, George McGonigal and the legendary Rex McCormick. Up in Portrush Paul and Lynn Sheldon finished ahead of Connor and Nicola McNamara, while David and Liz Turton ran Wallace Park in Lisburn for the first time. Mark Leathem completed Colin Glen in 24:12 while Shannon Clegg took 1^st Female in 23:33 at Fairview, wherever that is!

Closer to home Ian Frazer secured a new personal best time (PB) of 21:19 at Belfast Victoria Park, followed in by Kieran McNamara, Leanne Campbell and Wendy Thompson. At Parkway in Comber Curtis McCaw took overall 1^st place in an impressive 18:53 followed by Nigel Martin, Mark Halus, Amanda Martin, Emma Clements (PB), George Cash (CPB) and Robin Adams.

At Stormont Club Captain Jonny Kinney completed the 5 kms in 22:10 followed by Gary Hunsdale in 23 minutes exactly. Next in were Marty McConnell, Chris Stevenson, Sharon Hunsdale with a PB of 29:41 and Bill Buchanan with a PB of 36:06. At Ward Park in Bangor Carol Bailie was the first Scrabo Strider to finish followed by Abrar Hossain with a new course personal best of 25:51, then Jonathan Keenan and Rachel Boyle. Well done all our purple park runners!

In other running the Hill & Dale Series continues with race number 9, Meels in the Mourne Mountains. Striders Simon Hodge, Kieran McNamara and Nigel Martin completed the difficult course in respectable times.

Scrabo Striders are pleased to announce their next open race, which will be “Run the Trails” Half Marathon and 10K at Mount Stewart on the shores of Strangford Lough. The races take place on Saturday 4^th August from 6:30 pm and all finishers will receive some special bling. With places limited to 500 runners and registration now open, you’d better hurry!

To find out more about Scrabo Striders Running Club visit www.scrabostriders.com. Training nights are a Monday and Wednesday 7:15 pm at Londonderry Park and all are welcome (tortoises and hares). We would like to emphasise that Scrabo Striders training is for all ability levels and is non-competitive. You will be sure to hook up with a group that runs at your pace and make some new friends. Come along and push yourself!

Article written by George McGonigle