After last year’s 26 Extreme Ultra, Full Marathon, Half Marathon and 10K in Tollymore Park I wrote “Next year I’m going to earn a burger too!” with the serious intention of entering and completing one of the distances this year. And so I did, but then along came a wedding invitation, offering much more than a burger and with my typical strong will power and obsession with always putting running first I succumbed to the temptation of the wedding feast!! Given the weather which presented itself at the weekend who can really doubt my psychic powers?
On the subject of the weather, the predictions of monsoons and gales were not entirely encouraging for anyone anticipating a walk in the woods but the clue to participation in these events is contained in their title. Anyway having passed my baton on to James Magennis I headed northwards for a marathon eating session, knowing that my burger would go to a good home. However if you read on you’ll find that my chosen option proved every bit as challenging as anything on offer in Tollymore.

DECLAN POSITIVELY NEGATIVE
Last year Phillip Vint opted for the Ultra and finished in 6 hours 32 minutes but this time felt that 26.2 miles of the marathon would be enough punishment for his troublesome Achilles and duly romped home in 3 hours 45 minutes and overall 21st place, though by that time Declan Teague, warmed up by his recent efforts in the Dublin marathon, was already wishing he had chosen the ultra distance, crossing the finish line in 11th place in 3.35 and was notably, the only runner in the top 23 to post a negative split! Superb running.
Mickey Cunningham persevered with his ongoing hamstring problem and left to his own devices he has to be ecstatic with recording 4.32, after the problems he encountered in Dublin.

HALF BAKED
The slightly saner group from East Down tackled the Half Marathon distance with Michael McKeown leading the way in 1.45 and James bringing my number home in a highly respectable 1.52. And then along came the girls.
Cathy Burke, Liz O’ Hagan and Helen Vint forming an orderly queue on 2.10, comfortably ahead of last year’s time with Mags Flynn arriving just 3 minutes later. Well Done to y’all.

ULTRA CAUTIOUS?
And then it was the turn of the group who do not know the meaning of the word sanity. Linda Cunningham, Oonagh Brétéché , Simon McGrattan and Michael Cultra all finishing the ultra distance (40 miles) together in 8 hours 18 minutes.
A measure of just how long this is can be gauged by considering that in that same time frame I had travelled 70 miles, tackled some coffee and scones, sat through a wedding ceremony, travelled a further 30 miles in heavy rain along partly flooded roads , had more coffee and shortbread, sat through several speeches and ate a 4 course meal. So who you may ask had the more wearing day?

BRITISH AND IRISH MASTER CHAMPIONSHIPS
On the same wet and windy Saturday Barrie Atkinson and Francis Tumelty were enjoying international competition in the grounds of Santry Demesne as part of the Northern Ireland team in the Master’s Championships. While both their teams (Male 35 and Male 40) finished out of the medal positions Barrie and Francis enjoyed the occasion, gave it their all and can be well satisfied with their performances.

RUN IN THE DARK and ROUND THE PARK
Only one East Down runner took part in the over 2,000 entrant Run in th Dark at Stormont on Wednesday. Caolan Atkinson posted an impressive 18.51 for the tough 5K distance. Then on Saturday morning Edie Carroll broke through the 20 minute barrier for the Victoria Park run with a superb new best ever time of 19.45. Well done to you Edie, great to see your perseverance paid off.

Joe Quinn