North Down AC was well represented at the Antrim Coast Half Marathon on Sunday 27th August. The course starts in Larne and goes through the town and out the coast road to Ballygally before looping back onto the coast road and the finish in Larne. This is billed as one of the fastest, flattest half marathons in the UK or Ireland, and the overall winners did not disappoint; Kenya’s Daniel Mateiko ran the fastest half marathon anywhere in the world in 2023 winning in 58:36. Mestawut Fikir of Ethiopia won the women’s race in 1:06:44. The fastest half marathoner among the North Down runners was Dale Murray running a superb 1:12:14 in the open race to finish 7th overall. Ashley Dixon was 15th in 1:14:18 and Ricky Jordan ran an excellent 1:14:30. Ross Murray was the next NDAC runner over the line on 1:17:10. Josh McDowell easily surpassed his 80 minute target with a fantastic debut half of 1:18:36. Steven Donegan ran 1:22:22 with Andy Lowry setting a 4 minute PB to finish in 1:22. Fiona McQuillan was 3rd female in 1:22:32. Dean Marley 1:23:48, Aaron McAuley 1:24:18 were next to finish ahead of Stuart Anderson who recorded a 55 second PB in 1:29:29. Sarah Gibson ran her second half marathon in 2 days, showing remarkable consistency to finish only 15 seconds behind her time on Saturday in 1:31:33. Douglas Gordon finished in 1:33:38 while Kate Ferguson 1:44:37 and Claire Charleton 2:10:02 rounded off a great day of running.
