LAUREN STIRS THE FLAHAVAN’S PORRIDGE SERIES
It was quite a week for East Down’s young runners, beginning on Tuesday at windswept Castlereagh where the 2nd round of the Flahavans Porridge Primary Schools Cross Country series was being staged at the Henry Jones Playing Fields in Castelreagh. I was surprised to find such excellent facilities in such a location – or perhaps I should say I was surprised to find out about them, as apparently they have been there for decades. There must be something in the air in Belfast which causes the powers that be to provide playing fields on or near wind swept mountain tops. This venue bears striking similarities to Mallusk. Anyway the course route was in very good condition and surprisingly well sheltered from the lively wind.
Mind you I don’t think the conditions would have affected the result in any event as the talented Lauren Madine bided her time in second place until the finish line was in view before unleashing her characteristic supercharged sprint to claim a comfortable victory.
Her East Down Club colleague Anna Gardiner also ran her best for some time to take third place and just to put the icing on the cake Lucy and Jodi Foster were 5th and 8th respectively. So with 4 in the top 8 it has to be said that it was a really good day at the office for the Club.
SATURDAY SANTA RUN IN HILLSBOROUGH
Following the example his two daughters on Tuesday, Davy Foster travelled to Hillsborough on Saturday and took 7th place in the 10K which actually had a very high quality field.
AND ON TO CROSSSGAR
On Sunday the Santa Runners turned out in Crossgar and again it was East Down’s juniors who captured the headlines. Matthew McGrattan fairly flew round the new 5K course in 20.27 ahead of his club colleagues, Mackenzie Murray, Kisti and Lucy Foster, Oran Cunningham and Jodi Foster and who finished 4th 5th 6th, 7th and 8th respectively. Another junior Andrew McGrattan was 14th with Kari and Lily Foster in 39th and 51st places just ahead of their Dad Davy, completing the Foster’s Big Day Out.
Then it was the turn of another family to take the spotlight when the Proctor – Amos’s were led home by Mia in 56th place followed by Dad Gareth in 65th Lara 66th with Gavin Hynds, also on chaperoning mode, taking 135th
10K
There was considerable quality in the 10K field also as recently crowned Irish Marathon Champion, Laura Graham turned out, as is her wont in support of these fun and charity runs and she set what was for me a unique record, by finishing not only first Lady but incredibly first Overall. I cannot remember another occasion when a woman won a mixed race, so well done to you Laura. She was in fact the only person to break 40 minutes, on what was a tough enough course.
East Down runners were well represented with Dee Murray best in 3rd just behind Newcastle’s Patrick Higgins. Michael Kelly, our revered and indispensable “Results Man” making a rare outdoor appearance was 38th ,Mickey Cunningham was 42nd Sean Sealey 64th , Linda Cunningham 79th , Bernice McCann 87th and Simon McGrattan 88th , Frank McCann 94th – great to see you back again Frank, Well Done! Eithne McGrattan was 95th , Karen McFall 96th and me a disappointing 99th. I achieved my oft held aim of finishing last in a 10K and had “improved” my pw (personal worst) by almost 10 minutes over last week’s Griddle time. So why disappointing? Well I would have loved to have been 100th and to say that I’d finally hit the ton – but perhaps next time?
KIRKISTOWN DUATHLON
Gavin Oakes meantime won the Kirkistown Duathlon on Sunday morning
in a time of 54.28, the only competitor(s) to finish ahead of him being a Relay Team! His bike time 27.33 was the fastest overall on the day. I actually think that this particular activity is Gavin’s first love. Tom McClean also competed and finished in 21st place.
ACRONYMS
A few weeks ago I had a bit of fun with the use of acronyms and since then I got to thinking what does the word acronym itself mean. Is it an acronym? A bit of Googling threw up 26 verified definitions. Twenty Six!! But with words like Nomenclature, Alphanumeric, Mnemonics and Rendition fairly common in the definitions you can judge for yourself how contrived they are!
Well here’s mine “Athletic clubs rarely only need young members” and I think I’ll submit it for consideration.
What do you think? Any suggestions?
Joe Quinn