On Wednesday 5th August despite the horrible conditions nearly 180 athletes ascended on Crawfordsburn Country Park to take part in our annual 5K Trail Race. As the conditions were horrendous, many people took shelter in the country park centre while waiting for the final count down to race start.
The rain eased off just as the race was underway and a pack including Neil Weir, James Budde and David McNeilly leading the group up the first of many hills. Due to the recent bad weather some parts of the course were muddier than usual but this only added to the experience and the course was treacherous with steep muddy descents challenging every runner.
In the ladies group there was a battle going on between our own Jessica Craig and Ballydrain’s Denise Logue for first and second and on form Jodie Smith not far behind. The wind and rain picked up again as the athletes hit the stormy coastline for a flat section which follows the beautiful Crawfordsburn beach and it was Neil Weir who was firmly in control by this point leading the pack with NDAC’s James Budde following a few seconds later.
Due to the bad weather and the impact this had on the trails the finish had to be relocated to the main pathway but it was Willowfield’s Neil Weir who broke the tape in an impressive 17:03 followed closely by NDAC’s James Budde in 17:12 with Newcastle AC’s David McNeilly coming through in 17:18 for third place.
In the ladies race it was Jessica Craig who was first over the line in 19:01 adding the her victory here in 2013. Jessica was followed by Ballydrain Harriers Denise Logue with our own Jodie Smith taking third in 20:34.
Other NDAC’ers to pick up age category prizes were Mark Weir, Gerry Coy & Sarah Benton.
This event was made a success by the superb organisation by David Seaton, Brian Smith and Norman Lellyet and who, along with an army of marshall’s kept the runners safe and on the right track during what was undoubtedly a horrible night on the coast. Thanks also to Tesco for sponsoring the event and to the Country park staff for putting up with so many muddy runners!
A massive thank you to everyone who made the effort to come down and support our race wether you were running, marshalling or simply just there for support. Thanks to Albertville Harriers, Ballydrain Harriers, Banbridge AC, Barefoot Running Club, BARF, Belfast Running Club, Co. Antrim Harriers, Dromore AC, Job Belfast, Lagan Valley AC, Mallusk Harriers, Newcastle AC, Newry AC, NICSAC and North Belfast Harriers.
Full results can be found here: CB-Trail-Race.xls
Prize Winners: Crawfordsburn-5K-Race-2016
You can find pictures of the run in our ‘Gallery’ section.