TIMETABLE OF EVENTS

12.00 Noon – P3 Fillies (400 metres)

12.10 pm – P3 Colts (400 metres)

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CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS

With the non-participation of East Down runners in Saturday’s NI and Ulster Cross Country Championships in Gransha Park in Derry I thought I wouldn’t have anything to write about this week. But then a closer inspection of results elsewhere revealed some mouth-watering performances in very different events.  Continue reading →

FLAHAVAN’S PRIMARY SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE
The  3rd round of the Flahavan’s Porridge Primary School Cross Country League took place in ideal conditions on Tuesday morning in Donard Park. As in last year’s race the star was East Down’s Lauren Madine, who sat on the shoulder of Holywood’s Emmy Thornton until virtually the finish line was in sight before producing a devastating burst of speed to claim a hat trick of wins in the three rounds to date. She was followed home by her ever improving  East Down clubmate Anna Gardiner in third with Lucy and Jodi Foster in 5th and 8th places respectively.

In the Boys race Ollie Robinson again proved his worth with a fighting display to take 12th place for St Mary’s Primary School, Newcastle
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INTERNATIONAL CROSS COUNTRY

I was looking through the results of the International Cross Country races after this year’s races on Saturday and it reminded me of just lucky we had been over the years to attract what is a veritable who’s who of top class athletes.  The event first took place in 1977 (7 years before I took up the sport) at Mallusk where it remained until 1996 before switching to Barnett’s Demesne for the next 2 years and then on to the Stormont Estate were it thought it had found a permanent home until in 1999, because,  strange as it might seem, the ground cut up due to the heavy rainfall and snow which preceded it, the powers that be decided that it would not host it again.  And so from 2009 until the present the event has been held in the superb surroundings of CAFRE, Greenmount Campus, courtesy of the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council and where it seeks to make its permanent home.

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ARMAGH CITY MARATHON

Not a lot to report on this week as most of our runners were having a well earned rest – except for one or two who inevitably find a marathon somewhere just to keep them from seizing up? You can probably guess who some of them were as it’s been 8 days since they completed back to back marathons and must have been finding things pretty boring, recovering from those exertions.

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CHRISTMAS CRACKERS 

GREENCASTLE 5 MILES

I finally made it to Greencastle, Co. Tyrone on Monday 26 December 2016, just about 30 years after I began running, for the annual 5 Miles race, thanks to a chance conversation I had with David  Wright (Lagan Valley) after the Griddle 10 K a few weeks ago.  He said he was going and offered me a lift which I gratefully accepted.  I don’t know if I will go back, I certainly could not find my way there again, though it’s more BOB (back of beyond) than AHON (guess it yourself, the last word is “nowhere”) but it’s certainly a top class event both in terms of the race itself and the organisational skills which have to be used to pull the whole thing together.  The marshalling and post race refreshments supplied are both excellent and represent a tremendous community effort.

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