Springwell runners on a high

The biggest collection of club members could be found at the Garvagh Forest Parkrun for the celebration of the event’s first anniversary – course records, personal bests and cake – running at its best.

Carrauntoohill Classic Mountain Race

Sunday, July 17 was one of the hottest days of the year, so the Carrauntoohill Classic Mountain Race was the thing to do. Springwell’s Barry Mullan and Margaret Kearney made the long trip to Kerry for this prestigious event which is part of the Irish Mountain Running Association and the Munster Championships. Beginning at Cronin’s Yard the race is 15km long with a challenging 1100m of elevation, but there is the bonus of spectacular views from the top of Ireland’s tallest peak.

Impressive running from both ‘Springers’ saw them place in their respective age categories with Barry 16 th overall (2 nd M45) in 2:02:09 and Margaret 96 th (2 nd F50) in 3:49:50

Hillsborough Castle Running of Festival

The weekend weather was wet, to say the least, but Sunday morning did provide a window of opportunity between the showers for the Hillsborough Castle Festival of Running to take place. The multi terrain course started and finished at Hillsborough Castle and allowed competitors a traffic free opportunity to take in the sights of Hillsborough Lake and the scenic gardens of Hillsborough Castle. The festival offered the choice of a 5k, 10k and half marathon event and Springwell RC was represented in two of the three distances.

In the 5k Caroline Owen finished 225th with a time of 44:25 while in the half marathon Barry McCluskey was the first Springer to cross the finish line with a time of 1:44:08 for 76th place. Geoff Allen wasn’t far behind in 115th with a time of 1:49:50, with Adrian Finlay 166th in 1:53:56 and Aidan Mooney 422nd in 2:39:08.

Parkrun

This weekend saw 58 Springers out parkrunning at six venues with three personal bests recorded. Saturday was the Garvagh Forest parkrun’s first birthday and there was a great attendance to mark the occasion. Alan Nevin and Peter Tees marked the day with personal best as did Bernadette O’Kane, but hers was also a new lady’s record for the course. The rest had to just celebrate with the excellent cake at the finish.

“Thank you” to all the volunteers and event directors who give up so much of their time to make parkrun happen.

Portrush - David O’NEILL 19:10, Maurice WALKER 19:22, Rhys WALKER 19:47, Gary KENDALL 22:43, Fiona MARTIN 23:21, George BRIEN 24:34, Mervyn THOMPSON 24:47, Shaun CARTON 24:59, Barry MCBRIDE 25:13, Andrew WILMOT 28:02, Liz DOWEY 29:47, Andrew WILSON 31:26, Pauline DUKE 31:45, Amanda SCOTT 33:20, Emer THOMPSON 34:54, Iris WILSON 35:27, Caitriona MACKLE 40:44, Fergal MACKLE 40:44, Lorraine ABERNETHY 42:20, Caoimhe ARMSTRONG 44:07

Enniskillen - Rodney MCPHEE 19:30, Deborah MC PHEE 24:29; Limavady - Chris DENTON 17:36, James HUGHES 21:25, Adrian FINLAY 22:37, Clodagh MCCREEDY 23:51, Pauline MULLAN 24:34, Jim BREEN 25:43, Catherine PINKERTON 30:48, Gary MOORE 32:40, Leanne QUIGLEY 33:19, David MCCOOL 33:31; Deerpark - Elaine MONTGOMERY 32:26, Catherine BYERS 32:58; Garvagh Forest - Alan NEVIN 18:10 PB, James THOMPSON 18:48, Peter TEES 20:02 PB, Bernadette O’KANE 20:17 PB, Ryan GALWAY 20:18, Shane MCLAUGHLIN 23:23, Majella MCATEER 24:04, Mervyn ADAMS 24:09, Cathy ADAMS 24:10, Paul MOORE 25:18, Patricia CRAIG 26:09, David SHIELS 27:26, Janet PATRICK 27:33, Jim BRADLEY 28:06, Alan WHITE 28:33, Antoinette CONWAY 28:40, Mariette MULVENNA 29:25, Alison C DUNCAN 29:53, Nicola WHITE 32:45, Ingrid HAMILTON 32:45, Anne Marie MCKENNA 33:31, Kenneth BACON 44:28, Stacey MONTGOMERY 52:39; Holyrood - Alanna MILLAR 25:57