PORTAFERRY GALA TEN MILE ROAD RACE
Like most of the road races over the past 2 years, the Portaferry 10 Miles had been forced into the lockdown brought about by Covid 19, so it was with a considerable feeling of pride that the Committee welcomed almost 200 runners to the picturesque Co. Down village to help celebrate the 55th Annual Gala week on Tuesday night. Despite the threatened severe heatwave, the temperature was just about ideal for running by the time the race began at 7.30pm. Portaferry has a very scenic route but when you’re running hard it tends to get overlooked. 
It is also quite a tough course especially if you haven’t ran it before and this is what caught East Down’s Gordy Graham out somewhat. The first half of the route is reasonably flat though the 2nd half contains a few fiendishly placed hills which led Gordy to comment that he found it a very tough second half as he “kept finding hills where he didn’t want them”. However while his 58.05 time was not a pb for him, by about 90 seconds it still counts as a best for the course for him as it was his first time to run the race. That plus an overall 6th place and the prize for first Over 35 runner were compensation for him and he later described it “as a good hard workout!! “
Sharon Madine also had her first experience of running both the course and the distance, and fully enjoyed the buzz of the event, the scenery and the support provided by all the spectators around the route. Her place was 102nd in a time of 82.46, a pb for her as well. Yes, it was tough she agreed, but she has been training over longer distances for several weeks now and such was her feeling of delight afterwards that she has earmarked a half marathon as her next target for the rest of the year. This really is the perfect way to go about training your body for the double figure distances.
Other EDAC runners were Seamus Savage 77th in 77.19, a pb for him, in his first attempt at the distance and he enjoyed the scenery too, although he found the route challenging, and Suzy Smith 145th in 94.02, only running to help her brother Patrick out. So Well Done to everyone for their splendid efforts on the night.
AARON TRIES HIS HAND AT SHORTER TRACK DISTANCE
Aaron McGrady, fresh from his exploits a week ago in the mountains of North Wales, opted for something entirely different this time. He has decided to try to improve his overall fitness and his ability to run cross county races faster, by following a different strategy for his training this year, namely to run a series of 3,5 and 10K races if possible on running tracks, and so he quickly entered a 3K race in the Night of 3Ks organised by Annadale Striders at Mary Peters Track last Thursday night. Approaching the final lap he was feeling good and decided to have a go at distancing himself from the two Annadale Striders in the lead group of three and was delighted to cross the finish line in the lead and to discover that his final lap was covered in just 61 seconds with the final 300 metes in 45 seconds resulting in him achieving an eye catching 8.48.84 for the 3K distance, a pb by 12 seconds!!
Also competing on Thursday night were Neil Curran and Neil McCartan. The former ran in Race 2 and did well to take 6th place in 9.35.51, while the latter ran in Race 6 for the elite athletes and placed 4th in 8.35.66 behind Ben Branagh, St Malachy’s AC, Craig McMeechan, North Down AC, and Patrick McNiff from Newcastle and District AC.
SATURDAY at HILLSBOROUGH CASTLE 
Saturday morning found Sharon at Hillsborough Castle Gardens ready for the warm up for the Hillsborough Castle Running Festival where she had opted for the 5K race. Here she found the warm up provided by the Events Team very much to her liking and she was happy to join in. She described the route as “beautiful”, taking in the gardens, forest tracks and the pathways round the Lake. However she found the heat and the humidity made it quite a difficult run and the fact that it turned out to be 6K rather than the advertised 5K didn’t help matters. Softening the blow was the fact that she placed 2nd Female to finish and picked up a prize in addition to a beautiful medal.
The only other EDAC athlete to compete in the race was Adam Morgan who ran very well to take an eye catching 6th place.
Joe Quinn
25 July 2022