East Down Runners do the Mill Hill Mile and more
The Mill Hill Mile
The 2022 version of the Mill Hill Mile took place on Tuesday 6th September, organised by Newcastle and District AC write Joe Quinn and Alison Carroll.
There was just the with the inconvenience of driving to the Upper Square in Castlewellan, finding a parking space, picking up your number from the van parked alongside the Library and walking back down the Hill to start at the bottom… to annoy the runners.
Mind you the challenge is sufficient to call into question the sanity of most normal runners, given that it involves running from the bottom all the way to the top as quickly as possible.
I reckon it is the ultimate challenge and that every athlete should do it at least once.
I don’t know why but I keep getting drawn to it every year, probably because it is only 1 Mile long and that it is a matter of pride to me to prove that I can still do it.
So I turned out on Tuesday night and eventually found myself alongside my daughter Karen back in Annsborough again about 6 minutes before the planned start time of 7.00pm.
Having made our intentions of starting ahead of the actual runners we set off walking as fast as we could but were soon overtaken by everyone else in the field as we struggled to maintain some form of movement towards the far off but unseen finish line.
Eventually we could make out the shapes of the finish line officials and we made it across the line in 28.30, which was better than last year by about a minute.
But just to put it in proper perspective the athlete just ahead of us in the results pages finished in 10.55!
There was, to me, a disappointing total of 57 entries for the race though an excellent turnout of 15 runners from East Down many of whom filled the first places in their age categories.
Leading the way was Ollie Robinson who posted an incredible 5.53 for 4th place, just ahead of clubmate Jacob Crawford 6.03, with Paul Burns filling 8th place in 6.24, the first of the Seniors to finish, before another Junior James Wright crossed in 15th in 6.57.
He was followed in 17th and 18th places by Alex Robinson and Thomas Magee who clocked 7.02 and 7.06 respectively.
These are all tremendous times by the way, given that the majority of them are performed by Juniors, so they can be optimistic about their prospects in future years of possibly winning the race!
Other East Down runners were Sharon Madine 8.36, Maureen Kelly and Patrick Smith 9.15 and 9.22, with Malcolm Leick 9.48, Suzy Smith 10.10, Donal Smith 10.38 and Aine Grant 10.40, all completing the East Down contingent’s night well before Joe Quinn and Karen McFall finished the course to enable the officials to pack up and go home.
Well done to everyone who took part in what was an historic night in the running calendar. All being well I’ll give it a go again next year!
Adam takes honours at Downpatrick Parkrun
Over the moon to report that last Saturday’s Parkrun in Dunleath Park was won by Adam Morgan in as new PB of 20.11 in what appears to have been a very low turnout of 25 runners. However you can only beat who’s there and it’s a massive Well Done to Adam from all at EDAC.
Sam Cracks The Great North Run
Sam Anderson is to be congratulated on completing the Great North Run on Sunday 11th September. She said afterwards that it had been an achievement to get to the start line and a triumph to finish it. She said that the crowd support was tremendous and had buoyed her up all the way through. A race she would highly recommend.
ABI’s Butterfly Breeze
Sharon Madine and Patrick Smith are two of the keenest racers in the club.
Scarcely a weekend passes without seeing one or other of them and often both out representing the club and this weekend was no exception.
They were in Portaferry on Friday night for a 10K race which was timed to coincide with Suicide Awareness Week.
The event – Abi’s Butterfly Breeze -was organised by Andrew and Cathy Brodie to celebrate the life of their daughter Abi who sadly lost her battle with mental health in 2018.
There were 127 runners and the route which started at the Portaferry GAC took the runners out on to country roads. The first half of the race was reasonably flat and while there were a few hills on the way home they were not too much of a hindrance.
There was a spectacular post-race spread for all the runners.
The Dromiskin 5K
Donal Smith wrote that “Older, heavier and a lot, lot slower than when I last ran the Dromiskin 5K (just outside Dundalk) in under 24 minutes 3 years ago, I was over the moon to get round in under 27 minutes (26.47) last night.
“Possibly / probably the best value for money race on the island. Only cost 15 Euros and you get a T shirt, great support around the course, and superb post-race refreshments.
“It all makes the Dromiskin 5K a race a great event. I plan on returning to it every year I’m fit and able to run in it.”
Donal added added that while his widely read reports about his adventures using his well known moniker HaveVestWillTravel haven’t been as plentiful in recent times as they once were, he was hopeful that he’d be heading somewhere else in a few week’s time.
We wish you all the best in that regard Donal, it has been much too long since we’ve heard from you.
