The highlight of the year for many runners occurred on Sunday with the The Virgin Money London Marathon taking place. After the event’s most popular ever public ballot for places, the club’s own members’ ballot, good-for-age places and charity places, Scrabo Striders had 10 runners amongst the 42,000 entrants taking part. Favourable weather conditions and an electric atmosphere from the crowds of supporters helped runners around the 26.2 miles throughout Central London, passing famous landmarks such as the Cutty Sark and Tower Bridge.

First Strider across the line was Norman Mawhinney in an impressive time of 3:12:06, followed not long after by Catherine Cauley in 3:18:23.  Completing the finishing straight down The Mall to come in comfortably under the 4 hour mark was Barbara Mckechnie in 3:55:34.  Next was Olli Seeger in 4:20:41, followed seconds later by Leanne Campbell in 4:20:43.  Ronnie Geddis crossed the finish line in 4:34:33, followed soon after by Jill Long in 4:36:57.  Next came Lisa Bell in 4:46:06, Eileen Pollock in 5:28:29 and Scot Knight in 5:45:54. Huge congratulations to all runners!

Also on Sunday and closer to home was the Armagh 10K – a single lap course to the north east of the city centre starting near the Planetarium. Paul Sheldon was the first Strider across the line in 45:26, followed by Peter McGonigal in 46:35 and David Turton in 47:53. Next over the line was the club’s first lady finisher Lynn Sheldon in 50:35, followed by Liz Turton, Carol Bailie, Ian Bailie, Mark Emerson, Tim Mahood and Elaine McGonigal.

Earlier in the week, on Thursday evening, was the third race of the Hill and Dale Series, with Stephen Gargan and Kerri Anderson travelling to Rostrevor to complete the race to the summit of Slieve Martin and back down. With Storm Hannah approaching, conditions at the summit were much less pleasant than at the start line, no doubt encouraging runners to get back down to the finish as quickly as possible.  Stephen crossed the line in 57:38, followed by Kerri in 1:00:28.

Finally, no week would be complete without the ever-popular Saturday Parkruns, with 20 Striders running in various locations across the Province and beyond.  With the full force of Storm Hannah having now drawn in, it wasn’t a week for recording personal bests, but Bangor saw Curtis McCaw come in 1^st, while Amanda Piesse was 3^rd lady at Comber where Johnnie Harvey ran for the first time. Ollie and Carleen Seeger ran at Burgess Parkrun in London before Olli’s marathon the following day, and Ashley Gilliland ran Portrush Parkrun for the first time.

by Ian Frazer