East Down runners enjoy a wide variety of races across the country
Glen of Aherlow Trail Half Marathon
On Saturday morning down in Co Tipperary saw trail runners head to Lisvarrinane for the Glen of Aherlow trail Half Marathon writes Martin Willcox.
The route is a 21.1km loop on a mixture of hiking trails, forest roads and quiet country roads, this is a very picturesque route taking in the valley between the Galtee mountains and Slievenamuck.
John Taylor was the lone EDAC to make the trip south, with good conditions John will be happy with his run coming over the finish line in 2 hr 04 mins, a great effort from John.
Moy Park Belfast Half Marathon
Early Sunday morning 6 East Down AC athletes made their way to Ormeau Park for the biggest Half Marathon event in Northern Ireland.
The 2024 race will start on the Ormeau embankment and take in South, East, North and West Belfast, including a new section in the East of the city.
This year the race will use more of the greenways, instead of Sydenham Bypass, before traveling through Victoria Park and into the Titanic Quarter.
With warm conditions over 6000 runners took to the start line, Martin Willcox was the first EDAC member around the course, this was his first Half Marathon for some time and was pleased with his effort of 1 hr 24 min 56 sec.
The next two athletes across the line were Gareth Kelly and his pacer Neil Curran, Garth had a great run coming in 1 hr 33 min 45 sec with Neil just ahead by a couple of seconds.
Another runner on pacing duty was Niamh Kellet helping Eamon Kelly to a new PB for the distance, taking 3 minutes off his old time breaking the tape in 1 hr 36 min 47 sec, with Niamh 5 seconds ahead of him.
17 year old James Wright took on his first Belfast Half Marathon and ran a steady race in the warm conditions crossing the line in 1 hr 44 min 15 sec. A well run event with lots of support along the route.
Dublin Half Marathon
At the same time down south Ashley McGrady took on her first Half Marathon and decided to take on the Dublin Half. The course takes in a number of small and large laps of Phoenix Park.
6364 runners took on the race with warm conditions, the race was on. Ashley was aiming for 2 hours and paced a great run coming in 1 hr 59 min 30 sec, well done to her.
Well done Ashley!
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Mourne Mountain Marathon
Over the weekend Niall Gibney and James Cuffey teamed up again to take on the Mournes Mountain Marathon.
This event is broken down into a number of distances and categories.
The name of the game is to get as many checkpoints in 6 hrs as possible.
These checkpoints are scattered throughout the Mounes.
With maps market up Niall and James took on this difficult challenge, with more checkpoints placed out on a larger area this year they put in an amazing effort, coming in 2nd place out of 30 teams, only missing out on first place by one point.
In their 6 hrs on the move the guys covered 19 miles with just under 6000 feet of climbing.
TJ McElmeel Cup Cross Country
Sunday afternoon saw the start of this season’s first Cross Country League race. This event which was open for juniors and seniors is held at the Palace Demesne, Armagh.
The only yellow and red vest to make the trip was EDACs Sharon Madine who took on the senior ladies race which was run over a hilly 5 km course.
Well done Sharon for representing the club on a tricky course on a warm day.
