New Year’s Celebrations
Race Over The Glens
The annual New Year’s Day running of the Race Over The Glens was held on Friday at Glenariff Forest Park. Over the last 20 years the route has seen some recent alterations but it’s always a tough trail to tackle on January 1st. Having won the women’s team prize in 2015, injury and other commitments were likely to impact on defending that particular trophy. However, a large contingent of North Belfast Harriers still found themselves lacing up their trail running shoes having travelled through the heavy rain showers up to the Glens of Antrim.
The testing trail started with a short, fast section of tarmac before steeply rising to the highest point of the six mile course. Several Harriers positioned themselves towards the front of the pack looking to get any possible advantage of the descent to the river before the long gruelling climb back up to the lone piper at the top. With half a dozen Harriers in the top 30 places, it was Mark McKinstry who was leading the way; and once past the piper, he made descending the zig-zagging trail look easy before opening a gap along the final few hundred metres of undulating trail to cross the line with a new course record. The overall placing’s listed below, and the results meant that NBH secured the men’s team prize. Mark, Andrew, Kent and Marc had great age category performances, as did Judi and Janice who also placed 4th and 6th in the women’s race standings.
1 Mark McKinstry 1st MO 00:35:14 00:35:13
3 Andrew Annett 2nd MO 00:36:08 00:36:07
9 Kent Swann 3rd MO 00:39:44 00:39:43
11 Marc Jennings 4th MO 00:40:05 00:40:00
25 Conor Shiels MO 00:42:54 00:42:48
28 Gareth Grew M45 00:43:21 00:43:18
57 Stephen Walker M35 00:45:45 00:45:42
58 Sean McShane M40 00:45:50 00:45:45
74 Frank Rea M55 00:47:01 00:46:52
76 Judi Macauley 2nd FO 00:47:19 00:47:12
78 Ray Cameron M40 00:47:36 00:47:29
94 Janice Plumb 2nd F45 00:48:26 00:48:22
122 Peter McClelland MO 00:51:06 00:50:57
128 Patrick McShane M40 00:51:53 00:51:43
217 Paul Williams M50 00:58:01 00:57:51
320 Thomas McKinstry M45 01:06:17 01:06:07
352 Marian Hayes FO 01:12:58 01:12:50
Forest Trail Heroes
Born 2 Run Kilbroney 10k
Saturday saw the fifth race of the ‘Run Forest Run’ series move to Kilbroney Park, Rostrevor where over four hundred runners negotiated the undulating forest trails. This series has seen Louise Smith consistently finish in the podium places and on Saturday, finishing in 9th place overall, Louise took 2nd place in the ladies race with 38:59. At the front of the pack, Lindsay Gordon was also challenging for a podium place. Despite a heroic effort, Lindsay had to also settle for 2nd place, crossing the line in 34:19. Thelma McCullough also ran with 52:53 to be well within the top half of the field and under 55 minutes for the challenging route. Padraigin Bingeam also posted 01:08:34 in her latest run in the series.
Quality Street Marathoning
East Antrim Marathon Series Back-to-Back Marathon Event
On the 30th and 31st December, East Antrim Marathon Series held a back to back event with two different 26.2 mile routes. John Johnston completed the out and back route from Carrickfergus Castle to Victoria Park on the 30th. Whilst Greg McClure completed his 75th marathon on the 31st with the 4 lap route around Greenisland.
parkrun Results
Belfast Victoria
13th Colin SIMPSON 20:10
Larne
4th Matthew MCILROY 22:04
7th Callum MCILROY 23:13
Ormeau
2nd Simon REEVE 18:55
9th Mark SHIELDS 21:13
Queens
33rd Ciaran HUNTER 23:56
Valley
38th Nora CURRAN 37:27
Wallace
2nd James WALLACE 19:11
5th John MCCONNELL 19:48
11th Rebecca WALLACE 20:35
Waterworks
2nd John BLACK 16:28 – New PB
7th Gareth GREW 18:28
8th Stephen WALKER 18:36
10th Colin WILLETTS 18:46
15th Jim BENSON 19:06
17th John Gerard MURPHY 19:31
22nd Luke KELLY 20:58
28th Patrick MCSHANE 21:55
31st Conor O’RAWE 22:05
34th Paul WILLIAMS 22:48
37th Greg MCCLURE 22:57
41st Tony REID 23:14
43rd Joe DRAIN 23:39
54th Ray CAMERON 24:28
55th Paul BRENNAN 24:29
71st Anthony FLEMING 26:25
74th Philip MCILWRATH 26:37
75th Sandy CARR 26:38
83rd Bronagh CONLON 27:34 – New PB
84th John BURNS 27:42
91st John O’HARE 28:00
98th Margaret STEPHENS 28:50
103rd Lyle CARLETON 29:05
108th Trisha MURRAY 29:18
111st John GRIBBIN 29:45
115th Claire BRADY 30:10 – New PB
120th Marie-Louise LOWRY 30:34
130th Bernadette DUFFY 31:21
137th Orla YOUNG 32:06
140th Lynsey FLEMING 32:18
141st Adrienne MARTIN-POOTS 32:18 – New PB – 50th Parkun
Stormont New Years Day parkrun
| 1 | Conal MCCAMBRIDGE | 17:00 | First Timer! |
| 2 | Andrew MILLIGAN | 17:51 | New PB! |
| 21 | John Gerard MURPHY | 20:01 | First Timer! |
| 32 | Conor O’RAWE | 20:26 | First Timer! |
| 56 | Colin SIMPSON | 21:06 | First Timer! |
| 75 | Paddy MCCAMBRIDGE | 21:47 | First Timer! |
| 97 | David MURRAY | 22:45 | First Timer! |
| 129 | Tony REID | 23:34 | First Timer! |
| 154 | Niall ARMSTRONG | 24:22 | First Timer! |
| 165 | Greg MCCLURE | 24:42 | First Timer! |
| 171 | Eamon MCCAMBRIDGE | 24:53 | First Timer! |
| 189 | Ita MCCAMBRIDGE | 25:17 | First Timer! |
| 199 | Ciaran HUNTER | 25:40 | First Timer! |
| 206 | Joe DRAIN | 25:55 | First Timer! |
| 207 | Siobhan DRAIN | 25:56 | First Timer! |
| 227 | Jim CLINTON | 26:26 | PB stays at 00:25:53 |
| 250 | Philip MCILWRATH | 27:02 | First Timer! |
| 275 | Lynn MCCULLOUGH | 27:56 | First Timer! |
| 331 | Philomena DONALDSON | 29:46 | First Timer! |
| 353 | John O’HARE | 30:33 | First Timer! |
| 440 | Adrienne MARTIN-POOTS | 33:43 | First Timer! |
| 460 | Bernadette DUFFY | 34:36 | First Timer! |
| 496 | Rosy RYAN | 41:30 | First Timer! |
