Ballydrain Harriers Weekend Report

02/11/2019 0 0

(Gary Long cruises to the finish of the 40th Dublin City marathon)

This weekend, the running started for the Ballydrain Harriers on Friday evening in Enniskillen. Anne McClurg ran the annual Spooktacular 5k in fancy dress and winning a prize for her costume!

Matthew Carville had another very strong run on Saturday in the N.I. Ulster U18 Championships at Greenmount. Mathew finished 17^th in a field of almost 50 runners. He was 2^nd in the Co. Down team who finished 3^rd overall.

Young Matthew Carville running cross country at Greenmount

On a beautiful autumn Sunday, 13 Harriers completed the 40^th Dublin City marathon. The conditions were perfect for running, especially for those doing their first marathon and others looking to achieve personal bests (PBs). The first runner home for Ballydrain was William Brown, with a new PB and an amazing time of 2 hours 58 minutes, well done William! He was closely followed by Stuart McIver (2.59). The 3^rd Harrier home was Craig Bradley, also with a PB and a super time of 3 hours 14 minutes.

There were PBs also for Graham Gibson who ran a very consistent race to break the 4 hour barrier, finishing in 3.59. Nigel Martin achieved a PB too, completing the course in 4.15 (just a minute faster than his wife who runs for Scrabo Striders!). Well done Nigel!

It was a marathon first for Alberto Oscoz who also ran to break the 4 hour mark, 3.58, a super start to his marathon running. Karen Dempster ran 4.49 and Stephanie Smyth 5.21 also made their marathon debut, well done girls on your achievement.

The first lady home for Ballydrain was Christina McConnell (4.48). Other runners included Gary Adams (3.44) who incidentally ran the Chicago marathon only 2 weeks ago, Jonathan Bull (3.57), Gary Long (4.27) and our Iron’woman’ Catherine Miskelly (5.21).

A super achievement for all, the marathon requires lots of physical and mental training and commitment.