Thursday night saw the annual Armagh International Road races around the Mall area of the city. With hundreds of people surrounding the fast and flat route the incentive was there to perform.
The junior races welcomed over 1200 young runners to the arena and Hollie Massey claimed 4th place in the U13 race after jostling for position early on. Having dealt with it so well Hollie should have no fear of it in the future. Olive Smith also made a good bash at his race finishing in a very creditable 12th place.
The senior races started with the ladies 3K race which involved Jessica Craig, representing Northern Ireland, who finished in 32nd recording 10:06, exactly the same time as last year. Rachel Gibson was close behind in 37th, 6 seconds behind and Jodi Smith pb’d with 10:29 and 43rd. Murphy Miller had a great runout, continuing her top form with a 10:36 time, equalling her pb and 45th place. This assured Murphy 1st place in the junior B category. Jessica Scott improved upon last year’s time clocking 11:40 and sister Anna timed 13:09 whilst carrying an ankle injury. Murphy, Jessica and Anna claimed 3rd place in the junior team rankings with their runs.
North Down were not represented in the 5K race this year and the quality was immense within this race. 79 athletes broke 15 minutes for the 5k trip and the winning time of 13:55 was one second outside the record created in 2009. While the distance is the same, it is quite different witnessing 79 guys running sub 15 mins on a dark Thursday night to a friendly parkrun on a Saturday morning.
The final race of the evening was the mens 3K. Yet again the leaders whizzed around the bends and in the end Craig McMeechan followed from his win last year to come in 3rd in a time of 8:52. This attracted 1st Junior place for Craig and also spearheaded a strong North Down influence on the race.
Francis Marsh arrived shortly afterwards in 9:34 in 36th place and 1st O50, followed by Dennis Scott in 9:38, 40th, the ever improving Thomas Patterson one second later, 9:39 and 43rd, Jamie McMeechan pb’d in 9:42 and Darren Hamilton also pb’d hitting the line in 9:53, 3rd O40, showing great product from his London marathon training. These top six returns won the mens team event ahead of a strong St Malachy’s team.
Nick Irvine had a very successful outing breaking the 10 min barrier in 9:59, pb’ing in the process and interestingly five athletes crossed the line together each recording 9:59. John Ewing continued his progress coming in 3 seconds later in 10:02 and Chris Downey joined him pb’ing, in a time of 10:11.
Philip Baillie recorded an excellent 10:54 over the trip, and so much was the quality of racing ahead of him he was placed 123rd. James McCaughey was next in making it home in 11:55.