Springwell Running Club Weekly Report - 30th March 2025
Limavady parkrun hosted its 10th birthday on Saturday morning with a party atmosphere in town, Peter Jack on the mic, and plenty of post-race cake and snacks that kept runners mingling afterwards despite the wind and rain. It was a big weekend for some of our road runners who made their way to either Dundalk or Dublin for half marathons, with 1 coming home after a podium finish, and 4 runners coming home with personal bests. Meanwhile, in the mountain running scene, there was a 50k Ultra in the Wicklow Mountains, and the Pat Dunbar Race held by Newry AC in the Mournes.
Dundalk Half Marathon
It was an early start on Sunday morning for 4 of our men, who made their way to County Louth for the Dundalk half marathon, an undulating 2 loop course. Brian Moore, Christopher McNickle, Conall Doherty and Ryan Kennedy all booked their place in this race months ago, unaware of the clocks going forward the night before that would make that early rise an hour earlier.
Well they certainly made the journey worthwhile! From the 4 runners we had 3 Personal Bests, and 1 of them even made the podium.
Christopher McNickle led the purple vests home with a spectacular run to record a personal best time of 1:14:37, over 3 minutes off his previous best time at this distance. This earned Christopher a place on the podium, coming in 2nd place 4 minutes behind race winner Robbie Hagen of Newcastle and District AC, and just in front on Gareth Moran in 3rd place.
It was a Top 30 finish for Ryan Kennedy, with a fast 1:27:28 seeing him finish in 29th position. Brian Moore was hot on the heels of Ryan, finishing just 30 seconds behind him in a time of 1:27:58 – a personal best for Brian, following on from his parkrun PB at Limavady parkrun the day before. Then it was a big 5 minutes personal best for Conall Doherty who had a fantastic day out finishing in 1:41:37.
Dublin City Half Marathon
There was one Springwell Runner who made the trip to Dublin for Sunday morning’s Dublin City Half Marathon. Jenny Chartres joined just under 12,000 runners on the streets of Dublin for this race that started on O’Connell Street before taking in a tour of North Dublin, passing through Drumcondra, Artane, Raheny and Clontarf before making their way back to the city centre to finish on Guild Street.
Jenny ran a superbly paced race, finishing strong and with a personal best time of 1:32:35.
Jenny Chartres at Dublin City Half Marathon
Maurice Mullins Ultra
The Maurice Mullins 50K is an extreme mountain running event organised by the Irish Mountain Running Association, taking place in Wicklow. The out and back race follows the Wicklow Way and covers a distance of just over 50km (31mile) with a total ascent of over 2,000m (6,500ft).
Shirhaan Hameed was obviously the man for the job. Conditions for Shirhaan in Wicklow could also be described as 'a tad windy' given that his storm shell jacket was blown from him on the approach to Djouce Mountain. Shirhaan completed the 50k in 56th position in a time of 5:45:21.
Pat Dunbar Race
Saturday morning saw the third year of the Pat Dunbar Mountain Race hosted by Newry AC. This is a medium category race in the NIMRA Championship, and the second in the Irish Mountain Running Association’s Ulster Championship. Usually held in the general warmth of May, the 8mile and 2,000ft of elevation race was brought forward to March this year.
Starting at Leitrim Lodge, competitors ran south along the Mourne Way before turning back on themselves for the first steep climb up Tievedockdarragh. Descending off the mountain, it was then a riverside run before ascending to the open mountain again visiting Pierce's Castle and Tornamrock, before the final climb of Rocky mountain followed by a fast and furious descent back to Leitrim Lodge.
Conditions were favourable for the majority of the race until Rocky mountain, when the mountain runners were welcomed by some strong winds.
Springwell had two members in attendance with Carolyn Crawford finishing 87th & 2nd F40 in 1:47:51. Still new to the mountains, Kate O'Loan didn't let conditions deter her having a strong run finishing 102nd in 1:56:49.
Reading Half Marathon
Colin Connolly packed his runners and purple vest and headed off to Reading last weekend. On Saturday morning Colin got in some parkrun tourism at Prospect parkrun, before tackling the Reading Half Marathon on Sunday morning.
Colin had a great run at the half marathon and finished with a time of 2:50:08.
Parkrun
On Saturday morning Springwell Running Club saw 60 athletes at 15 different parkruns, but this week it was all about Limavady parkrun, which celebrated its 10th Anniversary in grand style. The event was greatly supported by 19 of the club's runners, with several members also volunteering.
Limavady parkrun has been a fantastic free weekly event on the Backburn path for the last decade, and the club sends a huge thanks to the current parkrun directors Heather McLaughlin and Stacey Lyttle for their dedicated effort in making this happen every week. A huge thanks also goes out from the club to the previous parkrun directors and all the 266 volunteers who have helped over the years.
Limavady parkrun has had 19,337 finishes by 3250 different runners/walkers in that time. Saturday past was the 438th parkrun in the town, with a long gap for Covid reducing the number of races over the 10 years. Springwell looks forward to supporting Limavady parkrun for the next 10 years and beyond.
Elsewhere, it was a big milestone for Maurice Walker, who ran his 200th parkrun at Portrush.
Limavady parkrun
Stephen MCLAUGHLIN 00:18:52; Brian MOORE 00:19:16; Ciara MCSHERRY 00:20:22; Fiona PRUE 00:20:30; Christopher MCNICKLE 00:22:20; Catherine PINKERTON 00:22:22; Darren WALSH 00:22:27; Kevin MCLEAN 00:23:15; Adrian FINLAY 00:23:47; Fergus THOMPSON 00:24:35; Pauline MULLAN 00:25:15; Andrew WILMOT 00:25:25; Alan PLATT 00:26:00; Janet PATRICK 00:27:20; Gary MOORE 00:27:22; Alan WHITE 00:29:44; Nicola WHITE 00:29:44; Leanne QUIGLEY 00:30:10; Aaron STEELE 00:42:43
Portrush parkrun
David O'NEILL 00:19:09; Maurice WALKER 00:19:57; Rhys WALKER 00:20:27; Paul LAVERTY 00:23:13; Mervyn THOMPSON 00:25:26; George BRIEN 00:25:36; Gillian RUDDEN 00:25:38; Patricia CRAIG 00:27:43; Patrick MAGEE 00:28:35; Amanda SCOTT 00:30:32; Aisling HYNES 00:32:29; Pauline DUKE 00:33:13; Rhona LAVERTY 00:34:24; Iris WILSON 00:36:47; Barry MCBRIDE 00:42:03; Caitriona MACKLE 00:44:58; Emer THOMPSON 00:48:23; Deborah ARCHIBALD 00:58:40; Gemma WRAY 00:58:43
Ecos parkrun, Ballymena
Rodney MC PHEE 00:19:55; Ashley MC PHEE 00:21:53; Dara WATTERSON 00:22:01; Deborah MC PHEE 00:22:30; Sonya COLVILLE 00:28:25; Reggie COLVILLE 00:32:34; Kenneth BACON 00:44:33
Garvagh Forest parkrun
Michael MCKEOWN 00:23:52; George MIMNAGH 00:24:06; Ciaran BLAKE 00:25:07; Kay HACK 00:35:42
Henley-on-Thames parkrun
Colin CONNOLLY 00:31:15
Ormeau parkrun
Bernie HANNIGAN 00:31:01
Castlewellan parkrun
Gary KENDALL 00:23:00
Stormont parkrun
Deborah GILLILAND 00:21:26
Falcarragh parkrun
Roisin WALKER 00:29:10
Erddig parkrun
Michael ALCORN 00:26:21
Buncrana parkrun
Liz DOWEY 00:28:21
Itchen Valley Country parkrun
Catherine BYERS 00:36:07
Crawfordsburn Country parkrun
Ali SHAW 00:25:12
Knockbracken Reservoir parkrun
Chris DENTON 00:18:56
Athlone RSC parkrun
Elaine MONTGOMERY 00:33:01