NI & Ulster Cross Country Championships
One of the most important fixtures of the Cross Country League, the NI & Ulster Senior XC Championships took place on Sunday at the Billy Neill Playing Fields in Dundonald. It was a bright day, cold but dry in fact perfect conditions for a run on grass. Mind you runners are a contrary lot and a few were heard to say that it wasn’t quite as muddy as they would have liked but you can’t please everyone. The course is purpose built with a variations of rises and dips, some more challenging than others so most find it testing but satisfying.
EDAC Women’s Team 
The women’s race was off first and the EDAC runners got plenty of support from the men who were warming up before their own event. Catherine O’Connor was the leadout runner for the team and ran well to take 5th place out of 147. She clocked 23.06 for the hilly 6K route. Caroline MacNabb was next home in 13th place in 24.03. Sharon Madine found it tough but enjoyable and was content with 32nd place in 26.42 while Niamh Kellett easing back to form after an injury ran a sensibly paced race to finish in 26.51 in 38th place. The 4 women were delighted to find that they were 4th out of 25 teams in the overall rankings. This is a commendable result so well done to them.
The Men’s Race
East Down AC also had a solid men’s team out with 7 representing the club on the day. Neil McCartan toiled hard from the whistle and did well to stay in sight of the leaders. He came in 8th overall in 39.38. He was followed by Aaron McGrady in 40.08 (13th place). There were 162 finishers in total so a top 20 in this level of cross country is a hard fought ranking. Neil Curran ran a stead 44.44 to come 50th. Adam Withers was 73rd in 47.47 staying ahead of Martin Willcox 78th in 48.08. Ciaran Denvir hasn’t done much cross country recently but gave it a good effort. He enjoyed the camaraderie of the team, placing 80th in 48.16. Daniel Giles completed the team round up in 86th place (49.19). When all the calculations were done the EDAC team placed 6th out of 14 teams.
Time to hit the Roads
That concludes the Cross Country League so it is over to road racing for the seniors. There will be a lot of pacing practice going on as Jimmy’s 10 looms large. The popular event takes place in the town on 12th March at 10.20. The Club will provide pacers for 40, 45, 50 and 60 minutes to enable runners to target their desired time. The entries are online (https://register.enthuse.com/ps/event/Jimmys10K2023) until Wednesday 9th March. After this the only way to get a place will be to call at EDAC Club Rooms in person on Friday 10th March 2-8pm and Saturday 11th March 10.30 – 4pm. There will be NO on the day entries available. You can’t say you haven’t been warned.