Born 2 Run – DAMBUSTERS TEN MILES
Credit – Born 2 Run official photographer
Gordy Graham returned to the scene of his 2021 triumph for the 2022 renewal of the Dambusters 10 Mile Road Race on Saturday, in fine form and aiming to improve on his previous time for the event. However, he found that while he wasn’t really under pressure to keep his position at the head of the field, the heat was making life really difficult for him to maintain his pre-determined race pace. So he reduced his pace and as a result his overall finishing time was, he reckoned, around 90 seconds slower than last year. Nevertheless it must rank as one of his best ever in view of the prevailing conditions. The 2nd placed runner Tony Stanley was over 5 and a half minutes behind the East Down man and the 3rd Stuart Mead a further 40 seconds behind that. The fact that any of them were racing at all given the Saharan type of weather says an awful lot about their characters, irrespective of the reference to” mad dogs and Englishmen”!! Well done to every one of them just for turning out.
COLIN TAKES THE PLAUDITS IN IRONMAN TRIATHLON
Let alone Gordy’s achievement in running ten miles in the current heatwave , consider if you will East Down’s Colin Shields undertaking an Ironman challenge in similar conditions. Starting off in the relatively cool surroundings on offer at 6.00am Colin was comfortable in the first discipline the swim, followed by the bike ride but then to round it all off to run a full marathon of 26.2 miles in the hottest part of the day!! But despite all the drawbacks that such a challenge presents Colin proved more than equal to it crossing the finish line in 12 hours and 57 minute at around 7 o’clock in the evening. This placed him 74th out of 171 in his Age Category (Male 45 – 49), 401st out of 1061 overall and 366th out of 936 by gender. Word has it that he’ll be taking a few days off before he looks for another challenge. No one will fault him for that. I feel exhausted just thinking about the effort required to achieve this. Well done Colin
EDAC at Castlewellan
Most runners are by now familiar with Parkrun, a timed 5K that is held in almost 40 different locations in Northern Ireland on a weekly basis. Every Saturday morning sees a raft of volunteers and runners appear for the 9.30am start with Dunleath Playing Fields and Castlewellan Forest Park being two local options. These are timed runs rather than races and there are no winners nor prizes but taking part can be a useful way of keeping tabs on fitness levels throughout the season. East Down AC were out in force at Castlewellan parkrun on Saturday due in part to the lovely weather and the scenic location but also some of them were there to test their pacing skills in advance of Saturday 27th August when EDAC are acting as the pacing team. On that day they will wear bibs denoting the pace that they are leading and runners will use their guidance to achieve their goal be it 20,22,24,26,28,30 or 32 minutes for the 5K distance.
COME AND JOIN US!
If you are interested in giving yourself a challenge you can turn up on 27th August provided you pre register (free) on the parkrun website. All the information you need can be found at https://www.parkrun.org.uk/register/. It is a one time registration and once you have a number, you can print a bar code which can be used at any of the parkruns on any date. It is also worth noting that East Down AC is always open to new senior members all year round and you can chat to any of the pacers that day to find out more or contact us via membership@eastdownac.co.uk. At £30 for annual membership it is accessible to all and you are assured of a warm welcome.
Joe Quinn & Alison Carroll
15 August 2022