On a weekend when marathon running grabbed the sporting headlines Ballymena Runners were not found wanting with no fewer than five members of the club - Chris Young, John Hasson, Claire McKernan, Emma Donnelly and Glenn McGall - winging their way to the Windy City to compete in the Chicago Marathon, one of the Abbott World Marathon Majors.
Amongst the many highlights of a memorable event, John dipped under the coveted three-hour mark while Chris claimed a new personal best of 3:20:24. Congratulations to all five athletes.
Also on their travels were Heather McKelvey and Martin Harris who competed in the Manchester Half and Royal Parks Half respectively.
A lot closer to home there was a successful outing at the Armagh 10 mile road race for Bob Dempster and Paul Cupples who both recorded PB’s while Brigid Quinn picked up an age category win.
Indeed, it was a successful weekend for Brigid who was also selected, along with Geraldine Quigley and Ray Curran, to represent Northern Ireland next month following cross country trials in Belfast on Saturday.
And the busy weekend of running all kicked off on Saturday with the Kells & Connor Half Marathon and 5-mile race.
First home for the club in the Half was Jim Moore (1:27:20), followed by Rodney Livingstone (1:32:30) and Steven McBride (1:36:28) while, in the associated five miler, Conor Crilly (30:42) and Nigel McClintock (31:49) occupied the second and third spots overall with Robin Alexander third over the line for the club in 35:39.
