In the Zone….

For everything else there’s a Mallusk Harriers Card…

Folk passing the week’s parkrun at the Valley could have been forgiven for thinking December had arrived, as they came across 20+ crazy runners in Santa suits; a little early perhaps… Indeed the Mallusk Harriers’ runners, along with our newest Harrier Nuala Muldoon, were helping promote the Action on Hearing Loss 5 mile run at Hazelbank Park on the 6th December 2015. This run is an extremely worthy cause, that we at the Mallusk Harriers are extremely delighted to throw our weight behind in promoting the race, therefore please sign up to earn that extra bit of bling before the Christmas festive onslaught of food and fine wines…

Not forgetting the parkrun itself, first home and in 2nd place overall was Patsy Hamill a gentle breeze of a time before the big event 48 hours later, Patsy returned in 19:50. Next up was Michael McAuley in 6th place in 20:57, but the 8th placed finisher may have regretted missing the starting whistle by a few minutes, although Gavin Knipe did manage to cut his way through the field and record a time of 21:59. Ninth and tenth placed finishers also went to our folk, with Susan Thompson coming home as first lady alongside Alex Davidson, both recording a time of 22:08, a gentle stroll for Susan but great to see she did put Alex through his paces…

The remaining Harriers at the Valley run as follows:
Michael McFarlane 24:39, Ciaran Skillen 25:02, Deborah Ewing 25:07, Darren Taggart 25:17,
Laura Maguire 26:57 with a new PB for the Valley, Tom Wylie 26:59, Duncan Baxter 27:05,
James Hewitt 27:07, Noel Bloomfield 27:10, Catherine Boyd 27:12, Brendan McGeown 27:12,
Tina Steele 27:12, Elaine Kennedy 27:15, Gillian Bainbridge 27:27, Chloe Davidson 27:33,
Jolene O’Donnell 28:16, Clare Teer 28:36 New PB, Ian Simpson 28:47 New PB, Robert Jackson 30:34,
Ben Davidson 30:49, Jennifer Butler 32:05, Maili Skillen 35:21 New PB, Paul Skillen 35:34,
Kelly Nelson 35:35 New PB, Nuala Muldoon 35:45… Also a special mention for club member Ben Needham capturing all those ‘smiling’ faces as we strolled around.

Over at the Waterworks parkrun were Joanne Haddock and Patrick J Hamill, with Patrick notching up a time of 26:12, whilst Joanne had a more leisurely stroll following her night on the tiles with a time of 36:02.

Whilst the lonely souls of Jennifer McCoppin up at the Antrim parkrun returned in 35:13 and Robert Gould at Victoria parkrun saw him record a New PB in a time of 21:34. Our other traveller, Mr McCready took in a new parkrun as he and his partner Anne Smith continued to try all parkruns in Ireland, this time at Limavady, Martin completed the run in 28:16…

Meanwhile it was great to see Mr Keenan remembering to allow the honour of finishing ahead to his wife, Louise in a time of 25:20 and Martin in a time of 25:21 at the Ecos Centre Ballymena. Great to see that you are recalling the 3 rules of married life… 1. When she is right, she is right. 2. When she’s wrong, she is also right. 3. The most important rule of all, don’t spent time explaining the offside rule, the likelihood is she will have no interest anyway…

214 miles later…
Diesel 40 euros… Parking 26 euros… Martin McCready blanking you at the 25mile marker in the Dublin city Marathon, priceless…
Monday saw the 36th Dublin Marathon and we did have two gents test the legs of the 26.2 mile course, Patsy Hamill and Martin McCready. Also we would like to give a special mention to Jim Grew also competing in the run, Jim although not a Harrier has been doing his training, mainly his long runs on a Sunday morning with the group, Jim completed the marathon (his first marathon, I believe) in 4:12:36, smashing running Jim. Martin running his 4th marathon in as many months after completing in Dublin, Newry and the Mary Anderson colour marathon. Credit where it is due, many would deem one marathon to be an amazing achievement, whereas Martin pushed his boundaries this year obtaining PB after PB in each marathon, a little outside his personal best time, Martin was certainly not disappointed with his time, as Dublin was a last minute decision and he did complete the course in 3:48:04. Absolutely fantastic achievement Martin, however I will forgive you for blanking me, as you were in the zone.

A few weeks earlier Patsy Hamill had a good bash at Berlin recording a time of 3:17:11, rest up I hear… not a chance, Patsy got the guns out and had a good dig at Dublin. Not holding anything back, Patsy again took the first half steady and rattled the second half home with yet another consistent time of 3:20:19… again Patsy fantastic running and extremely well done…!!!

Again apologies if any of our runners have been missed out in this week’s report, as I am sure someone may have been overlooked…
Safe running to you all, ‘pay it forward…’ and remember ‘Right to the Line…’