Ballymena Runners in the mountains, on the roads and at Ecos!
Congratulations to Peter Fleming who completed the Hagley Mountain Race last Wednesday night.
Peter reported:
'This event is a challenging, off-road 10km, the first of the Worcester Summer Mid Week Series. The race forms part of a popular series hosted by Halesowen, Droitwich and Bromsgrove & Redditch running clubs.
Hagley is a large village in Worcestershire, on the boundary of the West Midlands and Worcestershire counties.
It’s an event which has a reputation for being a hilly trail race as it's close to the Malvern Hills. Advice from the locals was to go out fast. The reason being that 800m from the start beside Haybridge school runners were pointed down a narrow country path. Following the turn off it was single file for a good half mile or so.
The 2 x 5k loops had a wide variety of terrain including sandy paths, farm tracks, bridle paths, forest trails and a couple of hundred metres of road. Loose sand and mud underfoot was energy sapping and required focus & careful footwear choice.
Steady pacing from the start ensured I had a strong second 5k and picked up a few more places along the way. As with most trail races it's not one to chase PBs but it was a great test of stamina & most importantly a lot of fun.
A great event and a classic club race.'
Peter finished 62nd out of 143 finishers in a time of 46.41.
Peter Fleming
Annalong Horseshoe Mountain Race
Tim Lowry represented the club at the fourth NI Mountain Running Association’s 2022 championship event, This is the first long category race of the series, hosted by BARF on 21st May at Carrick Little in the Mournes.
The race itself is over 20km in length, with 2000m at least of ascent. From Carrick Little the six summits that are to be visited in order are Chimney Rock, Slieve Donard, Commedagh, Cove, Lamagan and Binnian’s North Tor.
As always, there is large room for error on route choice between these checkpoints so a good map study and recce on unfamiliar sections is essential. Full mountain running safety kit was required - including waterproof whole body cover, hat, gloves, map of the route, compass, whistle, thermal (foil) blanket and emergency food.
Tim Lowry (Ballymena Runners) had an impressive run finishing in 32nd place overall in a time of 3 hours and 20 minutes.
Tim Lowry
The next NIMRA championship race is the medium category Flagstaff to Carlingford Race (Sunday 19th June) hosted by Armagh AC. Another race entry currently open is the Cairncastle Classic race (Saturday 11th June) which is hosted by East Coast AC.
Runners continue to perform well at the Mourne Mountains ‘Hill and Dale’ Race series.
This week saw runners complete the fifth race in the series. Known as ‘Rocky’ the course takes in Altataggart, Pierces Castle, Tornamrock and Rocky Summit Cairn.
The club were represented by Tim Lowry, Mark Alexander, William Fleck, Duncan Millar, Ruth Aiken and Emma Donnelly.
The sixth race event will be on Thursday 26 starting at Meelmore Lodge. The race is known as ‘Luke’s’ and is a 7km event climbing over 500m.
Ballymena Runners at Rocky Mountain race
Mark Alexander
Duncan Millar
Woodburn Forest Series
The club team positions after race 2 have Ballymena Runners in the lead, closely followed by East Coast AC in 2nd and Pace Running Club sitting in 3rd place. So, the pressure is on for the final race!
Race 1 covered 3 miles, Race 2 covered 4.5 miles, and Race 3 on 31 May will cover 5 miles.
Ballymena Runners at Woodburn
Club Training continues
Ballymena Runners prides itself on being a friendly club, catering for all abilities and firmly believe in our ethos that 'running is for everyone'.
The success and continuing expansion of the club is all due to how we support each other every week, in training and at races. We support both the ‘hares and the tortoises’. It's all about getting you to enjoy your run.
This weekend after our ‘Sunday Morning Social Run’ club members were treated to refreshments at the allotments!
This was our biggest turnout so far for the Sunday run with 33 runners. Sausage baps afterwards provided by and hosted by Scullery O’Tullagh community allotments, thanks to Harry, Teresa, and Chris.
If you want to join us you can find more information on the club website www.ballymenarunners.com
We run for buns….
‘Bring a Friend’ to ECOS Parkrun
Ballymena Runners are the partner running club for our local parkrun at Ecos.
Ecos Parkrun recently celebrated its 10th Anniversary, and part of the year long programme of events includes a number of initiatives to build links with local communities and encourage participation.
Club Chairman Alastair Donaghy said:
“Following on from our Ecos 10th Anniversary video, and last week's Mental Health Awareness week, we are encouraging all our regular parkrunners to 'Bring a Friend' to walk, run, jog or spectate at Ecos on Saturday 28th May.
Think about how you first got to hear about parkrun?
It’s most likely that you heard about it from a friend, a family member, or a colleague – someone else who had discovered parkrun themselves (most likely also from a friend!) and felt that it was so good that they just had to tell someone about it.
Maybe they arranged to meet you at the event on a particular Saturday, so that you weren’t alone the first time you joined.
We want to celebrate this at Ecos parkrun, and so on Saturday 28 May we’re urging all of you who are regular parkrunners to bring someone along who has never before participated at parkrun.
Maybe this is someone who just hasn’t found the time before, or perhaps it’s someone who feels a bit nervous about taking part on their own.
Maybe they don’t really consider themselves a 'runner' but you know that they just need a bit of encouragement and a friendly and welcoming environment.
So have a think who you can bring along to Ecos?
You know what they need to do – register online, print out their barcode, and come along on Saturday morning . . . And you might be helping to change someone’s life!”
Ecos Parkrun #431 Run Report
A lovely morning at Ecos for our runners, walkers, volunteers and spectators.
Christopher Hamilton went and done it again! The young Ballymena & Antrim AC runner finished first in a time of 17:32.
It was great to see Ecos female course record holder Gemma McDonald (Ballycastle Runners AC) who finished first female and forth overall in a time of 18:50.
We saw loads of our regular Ecos Parkrunners, a lot of members of our host club Ballymena Runners AC, as well as visitors from PACE, Mallusk, and Springwell.
In all 154 completed the course, many of whom were first timers, with 23 reaching a 'pb' along the way.
The event was smoothly managed by Run Director John Hasson who was supported by the following volunteers:
Alan O'Neill, Alastair Donaghy, Amy Donnelly, Charlotte Thompson, Christopher Hamilton, Denise Doherty, Francis McGuigan, Gerry Meehan, John Hamilton, Kay Thompson, Raymond Ruck, Stuart Reid (thanks for the pics) and Susanna Allen.
If you would like to find out more about taking part in parkrun or volunteering at Ecos have a look at the website: https://www.parkrun.org.uk/ecos/volunteer/
