Weekly Race Report - 22nd June 2025
The weekend saw George Brien return home from the NI Masters Track and Field Championship with two gold medals, while Fiona Prue got an age category win at a hot and humid Comber 10k on Friday evening. Friday also saw the Hill and Dale Series draw to a close after ten races over the Mournes.
Lisburn Half Marathon & 10k
The Lisburn Half Marathon and 10k races took place last Wednesday as temperatures began to rise in the middle of the week. It seems that traditionally this event falls on one of the hottest evenings of the year, and this year was no different. However, athletes can be thankful that this year’s race didn’t fall 24 hours later when temperatures were 5 degrees warmer!
The organisers had changed the route of the half marathon this year. The races all still started and finished at Lagan Valley LeisurePlex, however the half marathon route now took in the Eikon Centre and Maze Long Kesh site for the first time.
We had 14 Springwell Members compete in the Half Marathon, and 2 in the 10k, with everyone running fantastic times despite the warm and humid conditions.
Half Marathon
123rd Mark Gardiner 1:35:02; 225th Ryan Pierce 1:40:56; 244th Paul Laverty 1:41:53; 275th Shaun Carton 1:42:48; 277th Paul Quinn 1:42:55; 292nd Conall Doherty 1:43:54; 338th Fergus Thompson 1:46:26; 384th Alanna Millar 1:48:24; 394th Alan Platt 1:49:07; 434th David Shiels 1:51:17; 562nd Louise Hanna 1:56:16; 716th Liz Dowey 2:02:53; 726th Rachael Campbell 2:03:36; 735th Roberta McKenzie 2:04:09; 1018th Pauline Duke 2:28:48
Lisburn 10k
455th Kate Alison 0:54:11; 1190th Rhona Laverty 1:13:18
Comber 10k
Fiona Prue was among the 670 participants who braved the hot and humid conditions in Comber on Friday evening for the Ballydrain Harrier’s Comber 10k. Starting near the Cricket Club, the course is 2 loops around the bypass and back down through the town before finishing in the square in the middle of the town, where a local publican offered free pints of beer to help cool the finishers down!
Fiona had an excellent run even in those conditions, finishing 122nd in a time of 0:43:37, and also taking 1st place in her age category.
NI Masters Track Championships
The Northern Ireland Masters Track and Field Championships took place at the Mary Peters Track on Saturday, with George Brien the sole representative of the club. George made the trip to Belfast to see how he compared against the other masters athletes across the province in his age category, and he was delighted to return home with some bling.
George won not 1, but 2 gold medals. One for the 200m where he ran a rapid 33.57 seconds to win the M70 category, and another for the 400m where 1:14.09 saw him take gold in the M60+ category.
Belfast Women’s 10k
The ladies of the running community took over the Titanic Quarter on Sunday morning, with over 2,300 participating in the Moy Park Belfast City Women’s 10k. Among the 2,300 there were seven of our Springwell Ladies who made the trip. Runners were fortunate enough that the temperatures had dropped a bit from Friday and Saturday’s heat wave, which made conditions a bit more favourable.
Jenny Chartres had a great run to finish inside the top 20, with a time of 0:43:00 seeing her home in 18th place. Fiona Walker ran a personal best 0:53:06 to finish 268th. Patricia Craig was next home in 0:54:20, with Karen Garvin following Patricia in 1:02:17. Paula Chartres finished with a chip time of 1:01:49, and next to cross the finish line was Pauline Duke in 1:07:06. Sheila McConnell then finished with a chip time of 1:05:24, marking the full complement of Springwell Ladies across the finish line after super performances from each of them!
Hill & Dale: Drinahilly
The 10th and final race in the 2025 H&D series was a short and sharp 6km and 850ft elevation gain course in the shadows of Slieve Donard. Starting in Donard Park, runners raced through Donard Forest heading up to the mast at Drinnahilly, before a fast downhill finish on the forest trails to return to Donard Park.
Peter Tees wasn't hanging around and flew around the course finishing 17th in 25:56. Leaving it until the last race of the series to make her H&D debut, Fiona Martin finished 117th in 33:59.
Kate O'Loan was that excited about finishing the Hill and Dale series that she forgot to enter herself in the final race. Managing to talk her way into an entry on the night, Kate finished 159th in 37:16.
Using Drinahilly as a pit stop en route to Morocco, Sarah Milligan finished 211th in 39:47. Conor Duffy was that determined to finish the series after injury that it was calf taped, ibuprofen pinned and caution thrown to the wind to finish 249th in 43:23. Carolyn Crawford sacrificed her own race to ensure Conor got around safely and finished 250th in 43:25.
Post race it was into O'Hare's for the H&D awards ceremony.
Hill & Dale Series Recap
And so another Hill and Dale Series comes to a close. It's been a long time since runners descended upon Castlewellan in early April. Since then, there have been 10 races covering 39 mountain miles with over 12,500ft of elevation while visiting 15 summits.
Overall, 718 runners had registered for the series with Springwell fielding 10, of which 5 completed the required minimum 6 races to complete the series - with your best 6 races scoring for your final standing.
The final standings for the series for the Springwell Members who met this quota are:
126th - Fergus Thompson
150th - Adele Tomb (3rd F50)
207th - Kate O'Loan
213th - Sarah Milligan
285th - Conor Duffy
Honourable mentions to those who took part in at least one H&D. For the ladies, shout out Carolyn Crawford and Fiona Martin. For the men, Peter Tees, Jonny Rowntree and Adrian Finlay.
Parkrun
It was another beautiful warm Saturday morning for the 51 Springwell Runners at 16 different parkruns around the world this weekend.
It seemed to be all about parkrun tourism this weekend with Catherine Byers at Whitley Bay in NE England and Michael Alcorn at Crimean Canal in the West of Scotland, but this week’s double prize winner for the farthest travelled parkrunners and for the best named parkrun goes to Heather and Brian Harper at the Bill Thorpe Walking Bridge parkrun in New Brunswick, Canada.
Many other members were out around parkruns in Ireland, north and south. Comber (Adrian Finlay), Hillsborough (David O'Neill), Dundalk (Karen Campbell), Longford (Majella McAteer), River Valley near Dublin (Ryan Kennedy), Inch Beach in Kerry (Sinead Graham) and Newry Greenway (Sarah McVeigh).
The PB awards this week go to Ciaran Blake in Limavady, and in Christie Park on its 6th running there were PB's for Rodney & Deborah McPhee and club President Kenny Bacon.