The Mourne area was the setting for two separate events over the weekend. On Thursday the latest race in the Hill and Dale series, race no. 8, was staged at Loughshannagh with Mark Weir representing the club. Mark finished in 68th from the 205 finishers recording a little over 55 mins for the mountain run.
Two days later the Mourne Way marathon events were were held in glorious sunshine. The ground surface was unusually firm with the weather but the heat balanced out the degree of difficulty with several runners being taken off the course. Distance expert Sean Nickell completed his customary Ultra distance where he was on his feet in excess of 10 hours which placed him 12th. The marathon included Cara Jeffrey and Trevor Patterson who are relatively experienced at this type of race and managed to circumnavigate the route in just over the 5 hour mark. Patricia Nickell took on the 10k race and had a very creditable finishing time of 72 mins.
The latest race in the Novosco 10 series was at Enniskillen on Saturday. Cliff McCausland and Valerie Blayney made the trip to the sunny lakes where they recorded 48:31 (99th) and 54:52 (196th overall) respectively.
From Enniskillen in the west of Ireland if you travel east and a bit to the north eventually you will arrive in Helsinki, Finland. This was where Andrew Muir and Jamie Woods took on the Helsinki half marathon on Saturday. Andrew ran a steady paced race to finish in 1:32:33 and Jamie enjoyed wearing the blue and yellow vest to complete in 1:47:57.
Full results Hill and Dale series race 8
Full results Mourne marathon races
Full results Helsinki half marathon