On Saturday 16^th February the Last One Standing (LOS) endurance running event took place in the grounds of Castle Ward, Co. Down. Organised by ATLAS Running and starting at noon, runners have one hour to complete a 4.2 mile loop through forest trails and be at the start line ready to go again at 1pm, then again at 2pm and so on. Any runner not finished within the hour gets disqualified and this repeats every hour until there is only one runner left, the Last One Standing!

The event finished in the early hours of Monday morning, with the Winner Peter Cromie having run for 41 hours and having covered 172 miles! Local running club Scrabo Striders had six entrants in this brutal competition. Graeme McGowan completed 9 laps, one more than last year while Liam Rodger also completed 9 laps on his first time in an endurance competition. Also first-timers Chris Green and Ian Frazer completed 12 laps as did veteran Kieran McNamara. The club’s last one standing was Garry Cavill having completed 14 laps and a distance of 58.8 miles. Amazing is the only word!

The committee would like to thank our phenomenal competitors who showed true grit and determination as well as the army of supporters round the clock, helping to make this a truly memorable event. I’m sure Scrabo Striders will have even more entrants in 2020!

Just ahead of the LOS competition two trail races were held over lengths of 4.2 miles and 8.4 miles. Scrabo Striders had the largest club turnout with some 40 athletes taking part. Podiumm places for Curtis McCaw and Lynn Sheldon taking 2^nd place in the mens and ladies 4.2 mile distance, while Ricky Jordan was 3^rd placed man in the 8.4 mile. Well done guys. Great to see so many purple vests.

During the week the Armagh International 5K took place, drawing runners from far and wide, where the men’s 5k record was smashed. Scrabo Strider Norman Mawhinney claimed an age group win completing the 3k race in an impressive 10 minutes 43 seconds. Well done Norman.

At our Wednesday night training session Head Coach Norman Mawhinney presented our Juniors with their Stormont Cross-Country Certificates, for competing in the Primary School boys and girls 1k race. The Club’s Junior section has dedicated coaching staff and is very popular.

At the Saturday morning Parkruns Matthew Carville secured 1^st place at Comber in a fantastic time of 18:42 for the 5k distance, while Andy Boal recorded a new personal best of 21:52 at Victoria as did Lesley Semple, 22:47 at Ward Park in Bangor. Great to see the “Parkies” as popular as ever.

by George McGonigal