Dopey Challenge, Orlando 08-11/01/26
The Dopey Challenge is a 4 day event incorporated into the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend in Orlando; runners do a 5k on Thursday, 10k on Friday, a half marathon on Saturday and complete the weekend with a marathon on Sunday. The races start and end at Disney’s EPCOT theme park, with the longer races passing through the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios Parks. In addition to the usual spectators, Disney characters pop up at intervals around the course and by marathon day there is the opportunity for runners not too worried about the effect on their finish time to add a rollercoaster ride during the marathon! In addition to individual race medals competitors receive additional medals for completing Goofy’s marathon and a half challenge and Dopey’s 4 race challenge!
Inspired by Cliff and Noreen McCausland and Paula Simpson’s amazing experiences at previous editions, Donald Smith swapped the snow in Northern Ireland for some Florida sunshine.
Donald completed the 5k in 21:47 and the 10k in 47:10, 129th / 12099 finishers. He was 834th / 16286 in a more leisurely half marathon in 1:59:38 and settled for fun times rather than fast times, riding the Expedition Everest rollercoaster during the marathon to finish in 4:47:28.
Cross Country
On Saturday Francis Marsh raced in the Surrey XC League Division 1 race at Mitcham Common where he was 1st M60 in a respectable 211th place /308.
Mathieson Cup XC, 11/01/26
North Down AC were well represented as always at the Mathieson Cup and Mathieson Shield XC races in a cold, wet and extremely muddy cross country event at the Mallusk playing fields on Sunday.
The primary 5 – 7 children raced over an 800m course with U13s tackling a 2k course and under 15s adding an extra kilometre. the senior women and male veterans were treated to 6k of muddy conditions, ensuring that by the time the senior men raced over 8k the course was well churned up. Despite the conditions, club members across the age groups produced some fantastic results.
In the closely fought p5 – p7 boys’ race Daly Seaton was 1st in 2:43 with Harrison Mair 4th, just 12 second behind 3rd in 2:49. Casey Seaton 2:56, Fox Neill 3:00, Finn McCullough 3:01, Jodi Tomalin 3:29 and Soren Neill made up the rest of the strong squad.
Molly Rankin finished the U13 girls’ race in 9:34 while in the U13 boys’ event Isaac Hall was 5th in 7:28 followed by Adam Downey 9:50 and Eric Pinkett *.
Sophie Rankin was 1st 15 girl in 10:36 with Caitlyn Dickenson 11:39 and Eve Sloan 11:56 racing well.
Carter Rolston was 2nd U15 boy in 9:56 and Sebastian Mair 10:03 was 3rd.
Simon Boyle was 2nd in the veteran;s race in 23:14 with Philip Mulligan 25:13, Brian Geddis 27:11 and Denis Stewart 30:12 completing the line up.
Holly Blease was the club’s first finisher in the senior women’s race in 22nd place in 24:58. Fiona McQuillan 25:33, Sarah Connolly 26:05, Lisa Tomalin 27:19, Fiona McVicar 27:32, Helen Byers 27:48 and Lindsay Doulton 27:52 were the next finishers. Glynis Boyle was 2nd F60 in 27:38 with Sarah Wilson 28:32, Abby Andrews 28:44, Roberta Dornan 28:53 and Heather Beattie 28:59 not far behind. Zara Fulton 29:13, Claire Scott 29:38, Wendy Neely 30:42 the next finishers. June McMinn was 1st F65 in 31:29 with Kim McCourt 32:04, Adrienne Neill 32:11, Sophie Hamilton 33:11, Cara Jeffrey 34:27 and Lisa McMeechan 34:27 rounded off the NDAC finishers.
Craig McMeechan won the men’s race with a convincing 30 second lead in 25:41. Jamie McMeechan was the club’s next finisher in 28:29 with Luke McDowell 29:01 and David McKeague 30:36 making up the scoring 4 who secured 3rd team prize behind Annandale Striders and North Belfast Harriers. Dean Varley 31:09, Jason McMinn 31:21 and David Massey 32:27 were the next NDAC athletes to cross the line while Dean Willis 32:24, Dennis Scott 33;55, Kevin Harkin 34:41, Colin Walker 35:10 and Mitchell Brown 35:54 were followed by Jeremy Tomalin 36:09, Alan Massey 39:55 and Dave Press 46:25.
Here’s a small selection of photos from many more available on the members’ FB page.
