weekly roundup 14/10/25; Cross Country, Gr8 Dundrum Run, Manchester Half Marathon, Bath Marathon

University Cross Country Roundup

On Saturday Tara McDonough kicked off her XC well with a super 12th placing in the Irish Uni XC champs in Dublin. In the East Scotland District XC relays, Ollie Playfair helped Stirling Uni C team to 21st with a 13:38 4k split, while in the West District, Luke McDowell helped Glasgow Uni ‘C’ team place 13th with a 12:12 4k 1st leg split that bettered A and B team runners. At Hurst Green, Thomas Patterson placed 72nd in the super competitive Surrey XC league Div 1, scoring for the 10man Herne Hill A team placing 4th.

Comber Cup & McKeag Cup Cross Country 12/10/25

Conditions were dry and firm for the Comber Cup on Sunday, but the course was still a challenging mix of hills and sharp turns to test the fitness and cornering skills of everyone!

The u14/16/18s boys and girls combined race start in such a narrow stretch was a bit of a chaotic stampede start, where unfortunately Coco suffered a fall as many elbowed their way through. Many got stuck in poor positions but managed to work their way through the field over the 2.8k-ish hilly 2 lap course for the U14s and U16s where we really well presented with so many fine performances.

Carter Rolston (9:46) judged his effort well to take U14 boys win, with Seb Mair (10:06) giving us another podium finish in third. We had a great squad of four finishing the u16 girls led home by Maia Johnston (11:39) in 4th, Freya Lowry (12:30) 7th, Abbie Small (12:48) 9th and Caitlyn Dickenson (13:48) 12th suffering from an upset stomach. In the u16 boys Ethan Constable (9:28) secure another podium finish in 3rd, with John Kinney (11:18) finishing fast in 14th to stay ahead of a trio of Willowfield runners.

In the women’s 5.5k race, Sarah Grant ran above her expectations to finish 5th (20:18), with Katie Moore shaking off a recent cold to finish strong in 7th (20:54).

In the men’s 8k-ish, Seaton Classic 10k winner, Craig McMeechan was once again an emphatic winner in 24:33 after pulling away from the pack near halfway to come home 23 seconds clear. Kyle McLellan was next home in 15th (26:35), with Jamie McMeechan 40th (28:04) and Aaron Beggs 42nd (28:13) making up the comber cup scoring 4. Josh McDowell was North Down’s next, finishing fast in 52nd (28:51), with John Ewing continuing his comeback trail well to place 65th (29:59). Luke Dobson was having a cracking race up to 6.5k, as our next runner after John, but had to pull out with a tweaked hamstring.

North Down athletes were well represented amongst the age group winners with June McMinn 1st F65.

Sinon Boyle was 2nd M60 while Terry Eakin pipped Pat O’Driscoll for the top M75 spot and John Adgey was 1st M80.

Craig McMeechan

In the U12 boys race Daly Seaton was 1st, Harrison Mair 3rd, Casey Seaton 5th, Finn McCullough 10th, Fox Neill 11th and Thomas Close 13th.

In the u12 girls Rosie Strawbridge was 9th and Emma Strawbridge was 17th.

In the u14 girls Sophie Rankin was 4th, Eve Sloan 11th, Jessica Fowles 14th and Rose Reavy 22nd.

In the u14 boys Eric Pinkett was 11th, Logan Fowles 12th and Adam Downey 18th.

Harrison Mair, Fox Neill, Thomas Close, Casey Seaton, Finn McCullough, Daly Seaton

Manchester Half Marathon 12/10/25

Emma Fox ran the Manchester Half Marathon yesterday, achieving a new PB of 1:43:09, only 3 weeks after breaking her previous PB at the Belfast Half Marathon! after my previous PB of 1:43:52 at Belfast 3 weeks ago.

Emma Fox

Bath Marathon 12/10/25

With the autumn marathon and half marathon season upon us, Douglas Gordon was also in action across the Irish Sea adding to his tally of marathons by running a superb 3:20:27 at the Bath Marathon on Sunday.

Gr8 Dundrum Run, 11/10/25

The ever popular race, now in its 14th year takes runners through the picturesque village of Dundrum in the foothills of the Mournes with a mixture of road beach and boardwalk. 5 North Down AC runners tackled the 8.5 mile course; Susan Black finished in 1:04:17 with Les Wilkinson 1:11:31 and Emma Hegarty 1:12:56 followed by Cliff and Noreen McCausland who took time out of marathon training to run 1:14:23 and 1:31:46 respectively.

Noreen & Cliff McCausland

Mourne Skyline Ultra 11/10/25

If the North Down AC runners in Dundrum had time to pause with binoculars they might have spotted their club mate Gareth Hardy summiting the highest peaks in the Mournes during the toughest mountain race in Northern Ireland, the 51k Mourne Skyline Ultra. With almost 4000m of ascent during the race the Skyline challenges the fittest ultra runners. Gareth completed the course in 10:27:26, finishing 41st.

Gareth Hardy

Montalto Night Endurance Challenge 11/10/25

3 more North Down runners took to the trails of Monatalto where another scenic run was on offer on Saturday, at least until they required their head torches. Runners tackled a 5k trail route through the estate grounds as they aimed to complete as many laps as possible in 3, 6 or 12 hours.

Jill Connolly opted for the 3 hour challenge and completed 6 laps in 2:45:16 to finish 3rd overall and 1st lady.

Kim McCourt and Clair Quigley took on the 6 hour challenge; Clair ran 7 laps in 4:13:12 finishing 4th female, an agonising 1 second off 3rd place! Kim was second female in the 6 hour challenge completing 9 laps in 5:30:21.