Ballymena runners have spring in step at Larne

It was, however, the Athletes in the sky blue vest of Ballymena’s Fit N Running who had an extra spring in their step as they continued their rapid run of improvement with a blistering string of personal best performances over the picturesque coastal course.

The local club’s husband and wife duo James and Paula Wallace were using the event as a fine tuning exercise in preparation for the London marathon in 3 weeks time. They looked at ease as they recorded two considerable personal best performances with James clipping an impressive 8mins 54 sec of his previous best to finish in1hr 33min 6sec.

Paul emphasised her growing prowess when she took a massive 14mins 48secs of her previous best crossing the line in 1hr 54min 12sec to put to bed a sub two hour target she had been chasing for some time.

Also in action was the London Marathon bound Mark Hall who was also using the event as a dress rehearsal. Mark swept untroubled around the course and eased across the line in 1hr 51min 38secs.

The evergreen Geoff McKibbin who was named as the clubs most improved athlete for 2011 continued his rapid run of development when he slashed an incredible 24mins 24 sec of his previous best for the distance when crossing the line in 2hrs 36secs. This was a timely boost to Geoff who is now reaching the closing stages of his Belfast marathon preparations.

Optometrist Lesley Doyle, who is also preparing for Belfast, took time out from her hectic schedule of studying and moving into a new home to record yet another personal best performance.

Using the event as a pre marathon training run the gifted ex schoolgirl hockey international looked superb as she crossed the line in 1hr 47min 6sec trimming an effortless 3min 1 sec of her previous best.

Also in action was Lesley’s father Gareth who finished a further 2 places and 2 sec back.

Peter Drennan was making his début at the distance as he continues his preparations for the Belfast marathon and ran a very creditable 1hour 45min 44sec.

One of the club’s most recent recruits Gareth Atkinson who only took up running 10 weeks ago made his début at the distance and posted a highly promising time of 2hrs 2mins 33secs.