In another busy week of club activities, members have been busy on the track, trails and roads with distances ranging from 1500m to 105 miles!
At the Ardglass 10k last Wednesday 2 of North Down AC’s Sarahs were racing; Sarah Gibson was 18th overall and 4th female in 42:45 while Sarah Connolly was 2 places behind and 5th female in a new PB of 43:14.
https://www.championchipireland.com/index.html#results
At Wednesday’s final Dublin Open track & field meeting at Santry, Rachel Gibson finished strong in the women’s A 1500m race to place 4th in 4:38.58. In the men’s 1500m A race Daniel Dines had to contend with a busy field of 19 athletes but navigated himself well to a season’s best time of 4:01.95 in 8th. In the men’s 1500m B race, the pace ramped up over the last lap as Ethan Isles and Luke McDowell battled for top 3 placings; Luke took 2nd in a PB of 4:07.65 and Ethan was 3rd in 4:08.38, a season’s best.
North Down AC’s President, Mark Weir, tackled the longest distance of the week at We Run Wild’s latest ultramarathon, the Famine Way Ultra, taking runners from Dublin to Strokestown, Co Roscommon, home of the National Famine Museum. The route predominantly followed the Royal Canal with the flat, monotonous terrain adding to the challenges faced by the runners. Mark finished the 105 mile course in 6th place in 24:10:42.
2 more of the club’s mountain runners were in action in Donegal at the Bluestack Way races on Saturday. Seán Nickell, no stranger to ultramarathons, ran the 50k course between Donegal and Ardara, with more than 1100m of climbing in 6:46:49 and Cara Jeffrey ran the 25k with almost 700m of elevation in 4:48:30.
There was a large turn out of North Down runners in Mount Stewart on Saturday for the annual Run the Trails races organised by neighbouring club, Scrabo Striders. With North Down AC Grand Prix points up for grabs the competition to gain additional points for inaugural runs and course PBs ensured close racing.
In the 2k race, North Down runners took the top 4 places with Daly Seaton 6:21 followed by Casey Seaton 6:24, Harrison Mair 6:27 and Jacob Castles 6:52. Fox Neill was 7th in 7:15. Kristyn Edwards was 2nd girl in 7:32 and Lucy Kane was 3rd girl in 8:19, just aead of Soren Neill in 8:20.
It was another win for Sebastian Mair in the 5k in 18:46. IsaacHall was 6th inbound 21:33. Jill Eager 27:40, Christina Hanah 29:56, Klara Anderson 31:25, Eliza carpenter 32:04, Alex Brennan 32:13, Jennifer Brook 32:22, Charlie Miller 33:07 and Gemma Caughers 34:05 also raced in the 5k.
David McKeague was the club’s first finisher in the 10k race in 5th place in 38:47, 1 place ahead of Joel Wray 38:55. Simon Seaton was 8th in 39:49 and Robert Duncan finished 10th in 41:19. Alan Hartley 44:56 was 20th. Tim Cooke 48:13 was followed by 4th female, Sarah Wilson in 48:18, Lisa Tomalin 49:40 and Lindsay Doulton 51:09. Dave Press 55:33, Adriene Neill 55:49, Emma Hegarty 58:18, Anna McKee 58:18 and Gabrielle Logan-Hermon 58:52 were ahead of John Thompson 1:01:10, Nicola Stevenson 1:03:54, Michelle Sandford 1:04:03 and Glenn Frazer 1:07:35.
https://www.championchipireland.com/index.html#results
Amongst all the art and cultural events available during the annual Féile an Phobail festival in west Belfast, the 5k and 10k races are always high up on runners’ listings. More than 500 runners raced in the 5k and more than 2100 opted for the 10k route, including the hilly Falls Park. 2 North Down AC runners ran in the 10k – Ryan Gamble was 2nd in a PB of 33:39 while 10k veteran Pat O’Driscoll was a few age groups and several places behind in 1:32:19.
