Best laid plans and all that…
Sometimes a little can be a lot…
The return to Friday night running is always a good thing and certainly suits many folk. With two options, one at the Giants Trail race hosted by Dub runners, the other at the 5 mile Milk run in Ballymoney hosted by Springwell AC. Elaine Kennedy and Darren Linton managed to miss the worst of the traffic jams and make it to Dame Mary Peters track to take on the 10k and both recording very respectable times, Elaine in 55:24 and Darren in 63:42, very well done both of you.
Best laid plans, and all that…
Martin McCready had afforded himself an early finish from work to prepare for Friday evening’s race in Ballymoney, to travel to the race with club mates Paul Skillen and Neil Campbell and to meet Tom Wylie up at the race. As the clock ticked on, from the original meeting time of 5:45pm the lads managed to make it through the traffic around 6:40pm and were the last folk to register for the race at 7:26pm, phew just making it and no more, unfortunately for Tom, no such luck, he didn’t make it up the road in time.
Oh yes the race… both the lads with no time for a warm up just took to the line and pushed through the 5mile course in great time. Martin recorded a time of 34:57, 40 seconds better than last years’ time, however just missing out on PB time for the 5 mile run. Paul crossed the line in 38:48 and scraped a new 5 mile PB for his efforts. A smashing race with a great community spirit, well organised and marshalled by Springwell, very well done guys and gals… However the highlight of the evening belonged to a Ballymena Runners gentleman who rescued the lads from a long trek home… As Paul and Martin scoffed the last of the fifteens (may I add they were the size of bricks and it did take some time) Neil went out to his car to settle his two kids and charge his phone, only to drain the battery in his motor… fear not, as a helping hand from Harry, a kind gentleman from Ballymena luckily had a set of leads to spark the battery back to life… extremely grateful and many thanks to Harry…!!!
Parkruns for Saturday 30th July 2016:
Waterworks parkrun – Danny Donaldson 18:40, Matthew Cromie 19 :48 with a new 5K PB, Patrick J Hamill 24:52, Anna Marie Barrington 27:12, Tom Wylie 29:55, Maeve Mc Ginley 30:12, Tiffany McAllister 32:37, Fiona Wylie 35:09, Darcia Turner 35:42, Elizabeth Peeples 38:53, Dorothy Ramsey 44:56.
Antrim – Robbie Gould 20:15 new Antrim 5K PB, Robert Gould Snr 22:02, Deborah Ewing 25:23, Tina Steele 26:53, Jennifer McCoppin 33:33, Rosalind Stitt 35:35.
Valley – Alan Ladd 20:32, Neil Campbell 20:52, Alex Davidson 22:37, Nuala Muldoon 23:39, Karen Jamison 27:53, Grandpa Simpson 30:28, Dermot Boyd 33:03, Christopher Campbell 37:26, Anne Boyd 39:19, Lorraine Forsythe Tail running 45:37.
Belfast Victoria – Matthew Lavery 23:00, Paul Skillen 24:28 new Victoria 5K PB, Laura Rose 25:41, Jennifer Butler 26:33 new Victoria 5K PB, Duncan Baxter26:33, Sarah McAuley 27:25, Sean Lavery 28:53, Noel Bloomfield 28:58, Laura Campbell 29:01, Maili Skillen 38:49, Leeanne Skillen 38:42.
Carrickfergus – Nikki Fleck 26:42, Martin McCready 26:43, Marianna McBride 32:31.
Wallace Park – Elaine Kennedy new Wallace Park 5K PB 26:06.
An early rise for some but not for Michael McAuley, Michael made his way to the Sunrise 5k and produced a great 4th place finish in a time 21:47. If only you hadn’t stopped to stare at the local wildlife in the early morning sunrise (that being the wildlife returning home from the night before…) extremely well done Michael…
The final three runners of the weekend travelled to Cookstown to take on a tough half marathon. The effervescent pair who have competed in most, if not all of the half marathon series, Danny Donaldson and Tiffany McAllister where accompanied by new club member Christian Spies. Danny was first of the trio to make it right to the line in a fantastic time of 1:27 followed by Chris in a smashing time 1:38, great running gents… although run of the day had to belong to Tiffany with yet another half marathon PB in a smashing time of 2:18, absolutely brilliant stuff Tiff, long may it continue…
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…’