CROSS COUNTRY AT COMBER

The weather at Comber on Saturday for Ballydrain’s Cross Country event ranged from wet, cold and windy to bright sunshine and clear skies with a hint of warmth creeping in meaning that depending on when you ran, you had a very different experience. The one thing that was in common though was the mud underfoot as heavy rain had left a carpet of muck which was soon churned up by a multitude of pounding feet.

JUNIOR PERFORMANCES

Starting at the rainy end of the day, there was a Primary Race where EDAC had Alex Robinson and Kelsey Murray. They both fairly romped round, ignoring the rising tide of sludge working its way up their legs and onto their vests. Alex even had it over most of his face! He came 18th overall and 7th of Boys aged 10.

Kelsey paced it well ending with a turbo finish to pass a few on the way in. She was 17th Primary Girl and 6th Girl aged 9. In the U13 Oliver Robinson was 14th Boy while Emily Burns was 10th in the Girls’ Category with over 60 in the combined race. Lauren Madine and Anna Gardiner came in 4th and 5th Girls in the U15 Race. Kara Trainor was 16th in the same race with 24 girls in total completing the tough route. Mackenzie Murray had a great race coming 6th overall in the U17 Race, although he’s still only 15, coping well with the 2 full laps. Well done to every one of them and commiserations to the parents who were left to deal with the aftermath in terms of sodden kit and clogged spikes. Sometimes I think that the racers get the easy part.

THE SUN COMES OUT FOR THE SENIOR LADIES

As the juniors finished up, the clouds rolled back and a smidgeon of heat could be detected just in time for the Comber Cup and the John McKeag Cup Races. The former is for Men’s Senior Teams and the latter the equivalent for Females. East Down AC were able to field a male team but the Ladies were only able to drum up 3 so unfortunately there were no points for them. The Ladies (including Masters’ Men over 65) set off at 1.15pm in the wake of the Juniors to tackle 3 gruelling laps. The sun may have made it more pleasant but the damage was done to the ground underfoot and there was little they could do to avoid the wide swathes of wet mud. That combined with hills that seemed to go on and on meant that it was a feat of endurance with little respite. Rebekah Nixon of Dromore was the overall winner with Newcastle AC’sMari Troeng 17 seconds behind. Her win set the tone for her club Dromore who went on to win the McKeag Cup. EDAC’s Catherine O’Connor ran steadily to finish 9th overall out of a good crowd of 180. Sharon Madine was running to experience the mysteries of cross country for herself having spectated at many an event in recent years. She took to it with ease and finished well up in 66th position. Alison Carroll (125th) found the hills a tough challenge but was heartened to see that there were plenty behind her at the finish.

EVEN MORE MUD FOR THE MEN

If the ground was soft going for the ladies, it was truly treacherous for the men and more than one runner came to grief on the tactical descents. Mark McKinstry (North Belfast) this year’s Jimmy’s Ten winner, seemed to be oblivious to the swampy ruts however, he describes cross country as his favourite discipline, as he charged to victory followed by Seamus Lynch of Newcastle AC. Third placed was Allan Bogle. North Belfast Harriers went on to lift the Comber Cup when the team results were counted up.

HOW THE EDAC MEN FARED

As for the EDAC Men? Martin Willcox managed to hold on to 40th place which put him 2nd in the Male 45 category. Paul Lloyd while not a fan of cross country is well aware of the benefits of the outings and was content with 99th place. Adam Morgan moving out of the Junior ranks did extremely well to pace the full 4 laps as this was quite a bit longer than any cross country that he had previously attempted. He was strong throughout finishing 157th. Just as Mark McKinstry likes to go out hard on the whistle, Donal Smith prefers to hang back at the tail end of the bunch and then to wend his way through. He managed to catch a few and finish 170th with a smile. All in all those who were there were glad that they had taken part and look forward to more EDAC members joining the XC campaign after Dublin Marathon.

CONGRATULATIONS ON INTERNATIONAL SELECTION

The EDAC squad was led by Martin Willcox who together with Neil Curran, qualified, in the Masters Trial races last weekend, to represent Northern Ireland in the British Masters International to be held next month in Southport, around Aintree racecourse to be specific.

Congratulations to both of them.

MOURNE SKYLINE RACE

Aaron McGrady set a great pace as he tackled the 6th annual Mourne Skyline Mountain-Trail Race and his eventual placing of 7th was impressive. 4 hours and 19 minutes to cover the 35k event, which includes a massive 3,370m of ascent is quite some going. The day started off in foul weather conditions but gradually eased. Despite the improvement 27 runners called it a day before the finish which indicates how hard it was. Niall Gibney had entered in the hope of bettering his time from last year. He did that with ease taking 36 minutes off and breaking the 5 hour barrier. This was good enough to put him 2nd M40. Well done to both on a superb effort all round. 210 troopers made it to the tape in the end so well done to every one of them.

GR8 RACE in DUNDRUM

East Down was well represented in Dundrum by Gareth Kelly and Phillip Vint both setting better times than last year, having a last blow out before their assault on Dublin next Sunday, with Eamon Kelly 63.00, knocking  a huge 3 minutes 20 seconds off last year’s time, an improvement only surpassed by Noreen Kerr who clocked 80.54,  a massive 8 minutes faster than last year. George Kerr was as reliable as ever, coming home in the same time as last year.  John Smith did well in his first attempt at this unique race, clocking a more than respectable 78.00.

 

Pos.	No.	First name	Surname	Age Category	Chip Time
69	1118	Gareth	Kelly	M35	0:56:59
80	1196	Phillip	Vint	M50	0:57:40
177	452	Eamon	Kelly	M45	1:03:00
381	463	George	Kerr	M50	1:09:14
648	942	John	Smith	M35	1:18:00
740	464	Noreen	Kerr	F55	1:20:54

RUNNING AND MORE

Some of our members have been tackling multi sport events over the last while. Barrie Atkinson (racing as Down Triathlon Club) took on his first duathlon at Glaslough last weekend. It was 2.5k run,  20k cycle with a  2.5k run to finish. Although he has had to lay off running for a long time due to injury, there were flashes of speed that will improve with fitness. He found the cycle enjoyable but to run after that section was a  whole new challenge. To finish under the hour in 58.47 is commendable and he is eager to try another such event soon.

TRIATHLON SUCCESS FOR DARK HORSE

Another master of multi tasking is Cheryl Denvir. She can turn her hand to most disciplines and although work commitments leave her with reduced training time, she is well known as a dark horse as her competitive spirit kicks in when she is in a race situation. Recently she travelled to Donegal for Gaelforce North Triathlon event and surprised even herself by making the podium when she was third female to cross the line. It consisted of a 15K run and a 24K cycle around Mount Errigal There was meant to be a kayak element as the third discipline but as the winds were too strong it was replaced with a further 6K trail cycle. She completed the lot in 3hrs 29 minutes. Well done to both these members for pushing their boundaries and using their running background to seek further challenges!

BEST WISHES TO ALL DUBLIN MARATHON RUNNERS.

Good Luck to all EDAC members, especially the first timers, like Janine Murray and John and Nuala Taylor, remember it’s about getting it done, the time is irrelevant,  and indeed to all runners from the NM&DD Council area who will be out on the streets on Sunday morning participating in Dublin City Marathon.  I’ll see you there, somewhere along the route.

 

Joe Quinn & Alison Carroll

21 October 2019