Warm, humid conditions present challenges for Springwell athletes

The warm, humid conditions presented additional challenges, but the purple vests rose to the occasion with personal bests and age category wins wherever they went. The club even had representation at the Canadian Half Marathon Championships.

Mountain Races

Race 9 (Meels) of the Newcastle AC Hill & Dale series on Thursday (June 15) saw three of the usual Springwell suspects in action in the Mournes. A testing course of 4.2miles with over 1800 feet of elevation made for a challenging evening in the hot weather, but the intrepid three were not found to be wanting with Bernadette O’Kane first to finish with 54:56 for 43rd overall (2nd F35), closely followed by Peter Tees who was 53rd in 56:32, with Carolyn Crawford completing the set with 1:15:50 for 173rd.

Sunday’s Flagstaff Race, with just over ten miles of running and almost 4000 feet of elevation saw four of Springwell RC’s finest mountain goats in action along Carlingford Lough. Age and experience led the club home as Colin Brennan crossed the line in 32nd with a time of 2:25:06 to win the MV60 category. Shirhaan Hameed was 47th in 2:52:44 with Carolyn Crawford 57th (2nd FV 40) in 3:43:33 and Adele Tomb 58 (1st FV50) in the same time.

Comber 10k

Friday (June 16) was a road trip for Springwell Running Club as a bus load headed for Comber and a well organised 10k hosted by Ballydrain Harriers. A hot, muggy evening did not make for ideal running conditions but the promise of a free beer from McBrides On The Square for the first 60 medal holders at the bar obviously provided the necessary motivation as some impressive times were recorded, including seven personal bests.

Captain Ryan Galway led the club home finishing in 20th with 35:48 closely followed by Gordon Mawhinney just seven seconds later in 23rd. David Shiels continued his great run of form with another age category win and Ryan Kennedy also made the age category podium with a second place in his group.

Springwell RC - 20th Ryan Galway 35:48, 23rd Gordon Mawhinney 35:55 PB, 45th Rodney McPhee 37:30 PB, 61st Stephen McLaughlin 38:37, 71st John Butcher 39:13, 75th Ryan Kennedy 39:36 (2nd M45), 99th David Shiels 40:29 (1st M55), 140th Shaun Carton 42:42 PB, 149th Jonathan McNabb 43:03 PB, 162nd Stephen Beggs 43:17, 195th Fiona Prue 44:29, 214th Fergus Thompson 45:24, 240th Pauline Mullan 46:32 PB, 277th Deborah McPhee 47:41 PB, 309th George Brien 49:00, 335th Patrick Magee 49:44, 479th Adam Henderson 54:56 PB, 498th Andrew Wilmot 56:15

Almac Ladies 10k

Sunday (June 18) saw 800 ladies on the streets of East Belfast for the Almac Ladies 10k at the Titanic Quarter. For a few this would be their second race of the weekend but there didn’t seem to be any tiring as Pauline Mullan, closely followed by Deborah McPhee led the club home.

Springwell RC - 35th Pauline Mullan 47:27, 40th Deborah McPhee 48:09, 140th Patricia Craig 53:31, 203rd Ashley McPhee 56:25, 282nd Pauline Duke 59:11, 348th Roisin Walker 1:00:30, 419th Fiona Walker 1:02:55, 423rd Sheila McConnell 1:03:02, 488th Emer Thompson 1:04:37, 561st Lorraine Abernethy 1:06:46

Marple Runners 10k Trail Race

Brabyns Park, which is in Marple Bridge in Stockport, saw Maurice and Rhys Walker racing in the Marple Runners 10k trail race on Sunday with impressive results. Maurice finished 13th (1st M50) in 41:52 with Rhys hot on his heels in 17th with a time of 42:33.

Canadian Half Marathon Championships

At the Canadian half marathon championships in Manitoba on Sunday (June 18) Springwell Running Club’s America Aznar put in an impressive performance to finish 48th overall out of 1764 finishers, 12th female and 2nd f45 with a time of 1:29:33.

Parkrun

This weekend saw a total of 54 ‘Springers’ doing their parkrun thing at twelve different venues. The personal bests were to be found at Limavady with Gael Butcher and Sinead Graham raising their respective bars, while Betty Deighan went international with a trip to the Netherlands and the Maxima parkrun.

A spokesperson for Springwell Running Club said: “Thanks to all the volunteers who make parkrun happen.”

Woodbank - Maurice WALKER 20:39, Rhys WALKER 21:08; Belfast Victoria - Heather MCLAUGHLIN 28:37; Ecos - Kenneth BACON 42:40 Portrush - Stephen FILLIS 19:21, Andy WHITEFORD 21:04, Catherine PINKERTON 22:46, Paul LAVERTY 23:37, Mervin ADAMS24:57, Reid JACK 25:15, Shaun CARTON 25:24, Cathy ADAMS 25:49, Melvyn THOMPSON 26:03, Gary MOORE 26:24, Pamela HOWE 27:28, Michael JOHNSON 29:03, Colin CONNOLLY 29:42, Andrew WILSON 30:06, David O’NEILL 30:58, Andrew WILMOT 31:03, George BRIEN 31:04, Caoimhe QUINN 35:32, Fergal MACKLE35:53, Kate MCNICHOLL 35:54, Caitriona MACKLE38:19, Patricia CRAIG 1:01:01.

Castlewellan - Gary KENDAL 22:11, Kay HACK 29:43; Carrickfergus - James HUGHES 24:27, Jim BREEN 28:14; Limavady - Chris DENTON 17:04, Peter TEES 19:06, John BUTCHER 19:33, Kevin MCLEAN 21:35, Ryan GRAY 22:09, Fiona PRUE 22:42, Pauline MULLAN 23:06, Gael BUTCHER 23:28 PB, Adrian FINLAY 23:29, Leanne QUIGLEY 24:47, Sinead GRAHAM 25:03 PB, Janet PATRICK 25:12, Alan STEEN 26:42, Alison C DUNCAN 27:42, John MCMICHAEL 30:08, Ryan KENNEDY 31:15, Linda MC MICHAEL 50:20.

Clapham Common - Gemma WRAY 33:22; Máxima - Elizabeth DEIGHAN 24:45; Garvagh Forest - Michael MCKEOWN 24:55, Emer THOMPSON 57:34; Edwin Carolan Community - Elaine MONTGOMERY 32:26, Catherine BYERS 33:59; Limepark Playing Fields - Jonathan MCNABB 22:21.