Luke’s Mountain for 6th Hill & Dale

Thursday evening past was number 6 in the Hill & Dale Series hosted by Newcastle & District AC. There were 190 runners in total and the route went from Meelmore Lodge to Slievenaglogh and onwards to Luke’s Mountain before finishing back at the start point. Niall Gibney romped home 45th 47.30 making it look easy. Paddy McDonald was there for six out of six and finished in 1.06.20. Brian Hamilton sat this one out but still hopes to do at least one more to qualify as a series finisher. Next one is Millstone with 3 more after that including the final at Drinahilly in the last week of June. Keep going guys!

Not your normal Thursday

On Thursday night the EDAC senior session decamped from the Downshire Estate to the Mary Peters Track. Some of the members had not run on a track since school days and others had never tried it, so Men’s Captain Seamus Savage duly booked a slot and a dozen or so made their way to Belfast. After an easy warm up along the tow path, they did some drills before a session of 200m and 400m pieces under the watchful eye of Peter Morgan. He is is normally involved with Junior coaching so enjoyed the chance to interact with his peers. A change is definitely as good as a rest and all involved declared it a success with plans to repeat this in the near future.

Belfast International Event

On Saturday 28th May a special event was held at the Mary Peters Track to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Olympic Gold Medal winning performance by Mary Peters in the Pentathlon in Munich. Mary’s five events were featured as well as many others. EDAC’s track star Neil McCartan got his track season off to a good start when he ran 3.58 in the 1500m. While this is not a PB it betters times set in 2021 and should give him confidence going forward. A sole EDAC junior, Conan Pleasants, took part. He entered the 100m and got a time of 13.18 to place 5th. This cuts his previous best by a massive 6 seconds. 

Newry Half Marathon

This event well organised by Newry City Runners took place on Sunday 29th May with two distances on offer. A half marathon which started at 10am and a 10K at 10.30am. The start and finish was conveniently positioned outside the Quays Shopping Centre with easy access to parking, toilets and refreshments.  There was lively music, a motivational warm up and a good crowd so the atmosphere was buzzing. The course was an out and back and mostly flat. The only drawback was there was slight headwind on the turnaround which coincided with a long false flat on the return journey just when runners were starting to feel the burn.

Daniel Giles was the first EDAC runner home and he completed in 1.38.12 which is an impressive time by any means. It put him in the top 150 of the 620 runners which is a great showing. Eamon Kelly was next. He had completed Belfast Half back in 2019 not long after joining the club so he was keen to revisit the experience. He took a conservative well paced approach and seemed to be comfortable when spotted in the last mile. He said that the sunglasses were hiding the pain! He clocked 1.47.59 which took 6 minutes off his previous best and has whetted his appetite to try another one. Suzy Smith and her bother Patrick Smith had entered this as their first proper Half Marathon. During the pandemic they had trained for a race that was cancelled and while they both completed the 13.1 distance virtually at that time, this was to be their official debut. Patrick achieved sub 2 hours with ease in 1.57.50 and then waited to see how Suzy would fare. Suzy had been following a plan to prepare but with 3 weeks to go an injury had brought her training to a complete halt. She lined up with some trepidation but sensibly decided that finishing would be a sweet victory and allowed her notions of sub two hours to go by the wayside. In the end she crossed the line not that far off her A goal in 2.04.57. She was understandably delighted with that under the circumstances. At the time of going to press she was saying, “never again”, but we runners know that is often a gut reaction at the finish line so who knows?

10K Race

Alison Carroll decided that the 10K race was a more manageable distance. As a result of the later start she was able to watch the rest of the EDAC gang start the Half Marathon and then be back to see them finish. She could barely remember the last time she had done a race of any sort but went out hoping to break 54 minutes. In the end she posted a time of 51.47 so she was pretty chuffed with that. 

EDAC on tour

Dee Murray  headed off to Scotland to take part in the Edinburgh 10k. He was caught on the hop when faced with challenging hills in the first half of the race and thought that his goal of sub 40 minutes was well and truly gone. He had to dig deep to claw back his average pace and while he was outside his aim, his chip time of 40.30 was a fine result over that course and winning the Male 50 Category was an unexpected bonus. 

May Fair 5K 

Paul Lloyd took himself to Ballyclare as he continues to seek out 5K races as his favoured option. He was pleased with his result as it is always good to break 20 minutes. His time of 19.51 placed him 21st out of 177. He said that the atmosphere was good and he would recommend this race to others.

East Down AC celebrates 35 years

It seems no time at all since EDAC celebrated 30 years but it is clearly 5 years and with all that has been missed through the pandemic, it seems fitting to to record that the club is still here and thriving. The fine detail will be revealed but the important thing is to save the date if you are thinking that you might like to attend. It will take place on Saturday 5th November in the Burrendale Hotel and the invitation is extended to all members both past and present with friends and supporters of the club who have been involved over the years also being welcome. It is sure to be a warm catch up and great entertainment so keep an eye out for the announcement of ticket sales. You don’t want to miss the fun!