The Greater Manchester Marathon took place on Sunday in Trafford, first held in 2012 and claimed to be the flattest marathon course in the UK, with only 54 metres (177 feet) of elevation. Three marathon men from local running club Scrabo Striders too part, with Norman Mawhinney finishing first for the Club in a phenomenal 3 hours 8 minutes. Next across the line for Scrabo was Dave Stevenson in 3:48 followed by Connor McNamara in 4:16. All deserving of congratulations after many gruelling miles of training for this race.

Continuing with the long-distance running theme the Omagh Half Marathon took place last Saturday. Organised by Omagh Harriers Athletic Club and now in its 30^th year this very popular event took place in good weather conditions. Five Scrabo Striders travelled to County Tyrone to represent Scrabo Striders with Thomas Steele first to finish in an impressive 1 hour 37 minutes for the 13.1 mile distance, followed by Graeme McGowan in 1:42, Simon Gay in 1:43, Mark Arnold 1:58 and Wendy Thompson in 2:16. Well done all.

Reducing the distance but upping the pace Curtis McCaw was the first Strider to finish the Queens “Race around the River” 5K on Wednesday night in a time of 17 minutes 6 seconds, which placed him 85^th in a field of 730 runners. Norman Mawhinney wasn’t far behind in 18:16 followed by Colin Harper in 20:39, Mark Leathem in 23:29, David Turton 23:41, George Cash 24:21, Jonathan Keenan 25:04 and Karl Henderson in 27:33. Great times in this very popular race.

No running weekend is complete without the Saturday morning Parkruns, the free weekly timed 5 kilometre fun runs than for some are very competitive. Curtis McCaw claimed 1^st place at Comber in 18:07 followed by Ricky Jordan in overall second with a personal best (PB) of 18:58 and Mark Halus with a PB of 23:19. Mark Emerson recorded 29:02 as a new personal best.

Over at Stormont Scrabo Striders showed up in numbers to run. Marty McConnell grabbed a PB of 23:50 as did Nicola Forsythe for the second week in a row with a time of 32:59. Further personal bests were recorded by Steven Craythone running Victoria in 29:40 and by Karen Farrelly in 30:13 at Ward Park, Bangor.

Scrabo Strider’s “Run the Runways” event is filling up fast. The 5K, 10K and kids 1K fun run takes place on Friday 10^th May at Newtownards Airfield. Last year sold out and space is filling up fast, so secure your registration via the Athletics NI website today.

by George McGonigal