The Hill & Dale Race series continued in glorious summer evening sunshine on Thursday 15th June as 8 of North Down AC’s mountain runners tackled “The Meels.” As the name suggests, the summit cairns of Meelmore and Meelbeg accounted for the highest points on the course, but a short, sharp ascent of Spellack provided a tough introduction to the penultimate race of the series. The race distance was approximately 7km, but more than 560m of climbing before a steep descent through Happy Valley to the finish line at Meelmore Lodge thoroughly tested all the runners. Once again Clair Quigley led the yellow and blue vests of NDAC over the line, finishing as 3rd F40 in 1:02:02. Donald Smith 1:14:02 pipped Cara Jeffrey 1:14:39 to the line ahead of Claire Scott 1:19:34, Kim McCourt 1:20:05, Trevor Patterson 1:24:31, Tracy McKittrick 1:34:10 and Ian McCreary 1:46:00.
[photo: Cara Jeffrey, Tracy McKittrick, Clair Quigley, Claire Scott, Kim McCourt, Donald Smith, Trevor Patterson, Ian McCreary]
