Striding Saturday into Sunday

(Donovan Jones, Shannon Clegg, Dave Stevenson)

Newtownards based running club Scrabo Striders held their first ever endurance running event on Saturday in the beautiful grounds and trails of the National Trust Castle Ward Estate. In fantastic sunny weather some eighty club members set off at noon on a 4.2 mile loop through the forest. The challenge is to be back within one hour, then go again on the hour every hour until there is only one runner left, the “Last Strider Standing”.

Dave Stevenson, Winner LSS 2019

This title went to Dave Stevenson who completed 17 laps, finishing at 5am and having covered a distance of 71.4 miles (114.8 km). Challenging him all the way to 16 laps was Shannon Clegg who covered a distance of 67.2 miles (108.1 km) and to 15 laps Donovan Jones 63 miles (101.3 km). All three looked remarkably fresh and set consistent times in the order of 49 minutes at lap 15. Dave’s final solo lap was completed even faster in a time of 46 minutes 41 seconds, amazing!

Lots of club members took this on as their first ever endurance event and almost all remarked that they had covered more distance than ever before, dipping the toe in Backyard Ultras. With music blasting, glorious sunshine, lots of food and craic it certainly was a memorable event.

Scrabo Striders Committee would like to thank the organisers namely, Rachel Murdock, Ian Frazer, Kieran McNamara, Gavin McDonnell, Karl Henderson, Hannah Robinson, Sheena Crone and George McGonigal. Roll on 2020 for a repeat performance!

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