On Saturday 19^th January a bunch of runners from local club Scrabo Striders headed to the woods for the 6^th race in the Belfast Telegraph’s Run Forest Run series, organized by Born 2 Run Events. The venue was the scenic Gosford Forest Park, just outside the village of Markethill.

Gosford Forest Park comprises some 240 hectares of diverse woodland and open parkland and is set in gentle rolling drumlin countryside.  The course is a mixture of road and forest track taking you through dense woodland and past Gosford Castle which has featured in Game of Thrones.

Two distances were open to competitors, a 5K and a 10K course. In the 5K event Ian Edwards was the first Scrabo Strider to finish in a time of 26 minutes 28 seconds followed by Scot Knight in 28 minutes exactly. Then came Nicole Clegg in 29:18, Denise Knight 30:42, Christine Lougheed 30:43, Rebecca Lund 31:25, Neil McCormick 32:21 and Kim Cochrane in 36:20.

In the 10K race, which has an elevation of 1022 feet, Peter McGonigal was the first Strider to cross the line in the fantastic time of 45:53 followed by the Club’s first lady Shannon Clegg in 47:21. Angie Crone and Steven McCormick both crossed in 1 hour 4 minutes 11 seconds, followed by Susanne McVea in 01:15:20 and Elaine McGonigal 28 seconds later. Next for Scrabo was Nikki Keery 01:18:34 then Rhonda Magowan in 01:21:05. Well done all.

Also on Saturday the NI International Cross Country event took place at the Billy Neill Playing Fields. In the Male Open race Scrabo Striders Norman Mawhinney and Nigel Martin took 31^st and 53^rd positions in times of 16:27 and 18:40 respectively, over the 4 kilometer distance. In the Boys Under 17 race Jared Martin was places 75^th in a great time of 21:43 over the 6km distance. Thanks for representing the Club.

In the grounds of Stormont Estate Olli Seeger, officially the Club’s noisiest member, completed his 100^th Parkrun in a fantastic time of 23 minutes 46 seconds. Supported by over 35 Striders Stormont turned purple as Curtis McCaw claimed 2^nd place in 18:43 while Matthew Carville took 3^rd on 19:18.

At the same event the following Scrabo Striders recorded new personal best times; Thomas Steele 23:19, Lesley Semple 24:10, Ashley Gilliland 27:52, Kathy Henderson 29:25 and Amanda Stewart in 33:51 for the 5km course. Gillian Pearson and Nicola Forsythe were first timers at Stormont.

At the Ormeau Parkrun Ricky Jordan blazed through in 19:05 while the first Striders to finish at Comber and Bangor were Ian McCallister in 24:26 and Gordon Coutts in 22:28 respectively.

Looking forward to running in the dark the FEARR the Night 10K takes place in Clandeboye Estate this Friday evening and on 22^nd February the night edition 10K of Scrabo Striders popular “Run the Trails” race at Mount Stewart takes place. Get signed up via the Athletics NI website.