Club athletes raced far and wide in a plethora of races last weekend on trails, country and road. Events included national championships over the trails of Donadea Forest and the countryside of Clarinbridge near Galway as well as half marathons in Newry and Barcelona. In these and other events there were many fine performances and great results for the North Belfast Harriers.
The evergreen Louise Smith finished 3rd lady (and 15th overall) in the Irish 50km championships in Donadea Forest Park in Co. Kildare on Saturday. The 10x5km lap course always provides a stern test of physical and mental fitness. Louise’s time of 3:47:01 was 4 minutes faster than her time last year and saw her finish first in the W40 category.
| Pos | Athlete | Cat | Time | Notes |
| 15 | Louise Smith | F40 | 3:47:01 | 3rd lady, 1st W40 |
The final race of the popular Sperrin Harriers Winter League Trail Series took place in Parkanaur Forest on Saturday with competitors completing 3 laps over the undulating trails. A total of seven harriers made the trip with five recording top three placings in their age categories. Full NBH results were:
| Pos | Athlete | Cat | Time | Notes |
| 7 | Martin Rea | M40 | 1:04:36 | 1st M40 |
| 22 | Gerard McNamara | M45 | 1:10:58 | 2nd M45 |
| 28 | Colin Simpson | M50 | 1:14:23 | |
| 61 | Katrina McAuley | F35 | 1:22:59 | 3rd F35 |
| 62 | Kevin McCann | M45 | 1:22:59 | |
| 67 | Donna McLaughlin | F45 | 1:23:47 | 2nd F45 |
| 73 | Elaine Holmes | F50 | 1:25:40 | 2nd F50 |
The first race of the Pure Running/ChampionChip 2018 half marathon series took place on a cold morning on Sunday with wind and occasionally slippery surfaces adding to the challenge. This year the race started in Newry and finished in Dundalk with almost 750 runners completing the course including seven club athletes. Their results were:
| Pos | Name | Cat | Time |
| 142 | Mark Shields | M50 | 1:36:48 |
| 289 | Terence McAtamney | MO | 1:47:11 |
| 405 | Paul Carlin | M45 | 1:54:26 |
| 455 | Gordon Glenn | M45 | 1:57:16 |
| 487 | Jim Clinton | M55 | 1:58:54 |
| 525 | Philip McIlwrath | M40 | 2:01:32 |
| 635 | Thomas Norton | M35 | 2:12:41 |
The City of Belfast Playing Fields in Mallusk was the venue for this event on a snowy morning in Belfast. In the men’s 4 mile race Stormont XC winner Mark McKinstry repeated his success by leading from start to finish to record a time of 24:57. John Black also had a fine race to take 3rd place in 26:15. John McGuigan provided strong support to his teammates to take 13th place. Full results for the harriers competing were:
| Pos | Name | Cat | Time |
| 1 | Mark McKinstry | MO | 0:24:57 |
| 3 | John Black | MO | 0:26:15 |
| 13 | John McGuigan | MO | 0:30:32 |
Clarinbridge outside Galway was the venue for the AAI Intermediate/Masters cross country national championships on Sunday. There were individual medals for Eamon White, Neil Carty, Laurence Johnston and Matt Shields in their respective age categories and a M50 team win as well. In the intermediate race the NBH lads put in a solid performance for 5th place in a competitive team competition. Full results were:
| AAI Intermediate Cross Country | |||
| Pos | Athlete | Cat | Time |
| 10 | Philip Goss | MO | 0:32:24 |
| 35 | Andrew Considine | MO | 0:35:10 |
| 38 | James Trainor | MO | 0:35:39 |
| 46 | Joe Malone | MO | 0:36:17 |
| AAI Senior Cross Country | ||||
| Pos | Athlete | Cat | Time | Notes |
| 11 | Eamon White | O45 | 0:27:39 | 2nd O45 |
| 28 | Neil Carty | O50 | 0:28:45 | 3rd O50 |
| 76 | Laurence Johnston | O55 | 0:31:02 | 3rd O55 |
| 102 | Matt Shields | O60 | 0:32:22 | 3rd O60 |
| 105 | Dave Clarke | O55 | 0:32:31 | |
The Barcelona half marathon took place on Sunday with the harriers represented by Gladys Ganiel O’Neill who finished in 1:17:38 for 25th placed lady (of 3,926 lady runners). Gladys claimed 2nd place in the W40 category and was 243rd overall (of 13,702 runners).
| Pos | Athlete | Cat | Time | Notes |
| 243 | Gladys Ganiel O’Neill | W40 | 1:17:38 | 2nd W40, 25th lady |
After an unpromising start to Saturday morning the weather improved and many harriers took advantage to start their weekend with a parkrun. Results were:
| Edinburgh parkrun # 431 – 10/02/2018 | ||||
| Pos | parkrunner | Time | Note | Total runs |
| 17 | Thomas REID | 19:22 | First Timer! | 73 |
| 133 | Tony REID | 24:09 | First Timer! | 350 |
| Waterworks parkrun, Belfast # 381 – 10/02/2018 | ||||
| Pos | parkrunner | Time | Note | Total runs |
| 2 | Kent SWANN | 16:48 | PB stays at 00:16:43 | 79 |
| 3 | John SLOAN | 18:32 | PB stays at 00:18:01 | 173 |
| 5 | John Gerard MURPHY | 19:54 | PB stays at 00:18:49 | 342 |
| 6 | Sean MCSHANE | 20:03 | PB stays at 00:18:34 | 157 |
| 7 | Piaras MCSHANE | 20:03 | PB stays at 00:18:27 | 168 |
| 10 | Claire MCCORRY | 20:44 | New PB! | 3 |
| 17 | Greg MCCLURE | 21:43 | PB stays at 00:18:41 | 309 |
| 22 | Ita MCCAMBRIDGE | 22:07 | PB stays at 00:20:55 | 118 |
| 27 | Jack CARBERRY | 22:37 | PB stays at 00:21:14 | 230 |
| 30 | Simon REEVE | 23:09 | PB stays at 00:17:48 | 194 |
| 37 | Orla CASH | 23:57 | PB stays at 00:22:33 | 43 |
| 42 | Lyle CARLETON | 24:35 | PB stays at 00:21:22 | 76 |
| 53 | Catriona MCCAMBRIDGE | 25:20 | PB stays at 00:24:31 | 34 |
| 79 | Jim CLINTON | 27:22 | PB stays at 00:21:37 | 356 |
| 83 | Thomas MCKINSTRY | 27:31 | PB stays at 00:23:09 | 172 |
| 88 | Heather WILSON | 27:49 | PB stays at 00:26:53 | 17 |
| 115 | Clare O’HARA | 31:02 | PB stays at 00:25:58 | 148 |
| 116 | Trisha MURRAY | 31:03 | PB stays at 00:28:39 | 70 |
| 120 | Jacqueline LAWLOR | 31:18 | PB stays at 00:28:48 | 139 |
| 121 | Michael LAWLOR | 31:19 | PB stays at 00:25:44 | 110 |
| 122 | Monica O’KANE | 31:23 | PB stays at 00:29:46 | 63 |
| 125 | Gemma LOWE | 31:34 | PB stays at 00:28:59 | 48 |
| 130 | Margaret STEPHENS | 32:30 | PB stays at 00:28:23 | 183 |
| 139 | Bernadette DUFFY | 34:19 | PB stays at 00:29:29 | 168 |
| 141 | Eadaoin DONALDSON | 35:48 | PB stays at 00:24:26 | 151 |
| 142 | Dermot MCGRATH | 36:10 | PB stays at 00:28:46 | 79 |
| Belfast Victoria parkrun # 353 – 10/02/2018 | ||||
| Pos | parkrunner | Time | Note | Total runs |
| 125 | Padraigin BINGHAM | 28:18 | New PB! | 65 |
| 172 | Jason REID | 33:02 | PB stays at 00:21:36 | 87 |
| Queen’s parkrun, Belfast # 304 – 10/02/2018 | ||||
| Pos | parkrunner | Time | Note | Total runs |
| 4 | Philip Patrick DONNELLY | 19:40 | PB stays at 00:18:34 | 129 |
| 30 | Ciaran HUNTER | 23:31 | PB stays at 00:20:24 | 224 |
| Malahide parkrun # 275 – 10/02/2018 | ||||
| Pos | parkrunner | Time | Note | Total runs |
| 31 | Damien GILL | 21:24 | PB stays at 00:20:01 | 212 |
| Ormeau parkrun # 241 – 10/02/2018 | ||||
| Pos | parkrunner | Time | Note | Total runs |
| 35 | Paul WILLIAMS | 22:07 | PB stays at 00:20:49 | 252 |
| Carrickfergus parkrun # 199 – 10/02/2018 | ||||
| Pos | parkrunner | Time | Note | Total runs |
| 19 | Trisha CAMPBELL | 24:00 | First Timer! | 35 |
| 46 | Drew KNOX | 28:26 | PB stays at 00:19:24 | 231 |
| Tymon parkrun # 191 – 10/02/2018 | ||||
| Pos | parkrunner | Time | Note | Total runs |
| 8 | Matt SHIELDS | 20:50 | PB stays at 00:18:24 | 274 |
| Valley parkrun, Newtownabbey # 178 – 10/02/2018 | ||||
| Pos | parkrunner | Time | Note | Total runs |
| 21 | Jack MCCREADY | 24:53 | PB stays at 00:24:16 | 55 |
| Stormont parkrun # 128 – 10/02/2018 | ||||
| Pos | parkrunner | Time | Note | Total runs |
| 19 | Helen F WEIR | 21:45 | PB stays at 00:20:39 | 103 |
| 28 | Robert IRVINE | 22:44 | First Timer! | 24 |
| 154 | Philip MCILWRATH | 31:07 | PB stays at 00:25:31 | 130 |
| 205 | Rosy RYAN | 47:20 | PB stays at 00:39:49 | 129 |
