Off road has very much been the order of the day for Ballymena Runners recently with athletes from the club turning out in a variety of trail, cross country and mountain events.
The Garmin Mourne Skyline Mountain-Trail Race is a 35k race, incorporating 3370m (11057ft) of accumulative ascent, set in the heart of the scenic Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland. Ballymena Runners were represented at the seventh edition of the event on Saturday with Connor Reid first over the line in 5:16:40, followed by Tim Lowry (5:34:02) and William Fleck (5:41:20).
Somewhat further afield, Robin Alexander and Peter Fleming, competed in the V Chamizito Trail in the Andalucía region of Spain, covering over 12 miles and incorporating climbs totalling almost 5000 feet!
Closer to home, the club fielded teams in the Comber Cup, the first cross country league meeting of the season. In suitably muddy conditions congratulations must go to Ray Curran (M65) and Brigid Quinn (F70) for securing age category wins.
A hardy half dozen headed south for the tenth edition of the GR8 Dundrum Run, an eight-mile course over a mixture of road, beach and boardwalk! Barbara Crawford was first over the line for the club in 1:15:01, followed by Louise Weir, Natalie Carson and Janice Wilkins (all 1:30:53) while Hazel McCracken and Maxine Harris also ran in club colours.
The busy weekend continued with Fergal's 10 Miler through the rural landscape of Broughderg and Davagh Forest. Congratulations to Linda Petticrew on her age category win (1:21:14) while also running for the club were Rodney Agnew (1:08:28), Tim Hawksworth (1:25:32), Denise Doherty (1:26:27), Tim Hawksworth (1:26:27), Owen Dempster (1:27:48) and Bob Dempster (1:28:09).
