Portaferry Gala 10 Mile Road Race

The Portaferry 10 mile race on Tuesday 21st July was the tenth round of the Orangegrove Club Championship and so a big turn out was to be expected. In the end seventeen of us made it down to the tip of the Ards Peninsula for this great race.

Even if it hadn’t been a round of the Club Championship, most of us would have been there anyway. It is such a well organized and welcoming event that it makes the considerable effort of getting to Portaferry mid week certainly worth while.

The journey down was rather forbidding though. Heavy rain and several motor accidents slowed progress. However, as race time approached conditions improved, the rain ceased and a weak sun made a fleeting appearance from amongst the clouds. This is not an easy race. The route is undulating to say the least and ten miles is a fair old haul in the final analysis. However, with points at stake at a fairly critical moment in the Championship off we set to make the most of the challenge but, above all, to enjoy the wonderful scenery and hospitality for which this part of the world is famous.

The results appeared very quickly and were as follows for Orangegrove competitors:

Men

Thomas Leitch 1.03.50 (22nd)
Andy McIntyre 1.04.22 (23rd)
Robin Montgomery 1.05.08 (24th)
Darren Houston 1.11.29
Chris Downey 1.12.26
Rodney Corrigan 1.13.08
Michael O’Donoghue 1.13.24
Stephen Hamilton 1.15.28
Brian Todd 1.17.23
Fintan Hurl 1.30.06

Great running from Thomas, Andy and Robin at the business end of the race. Spare a thought for Robin Montgomery, running a fast ten mile race so soon after his Energia 24 exploits. At least Eleanor Acheson had the good sense to turn up and just spectate. Darren Houston is obviously enjoying his running at the moment as is the ever improving Stephen Hamilton.

Michael O’Donoghue ran an ultra marathon at the weekend and here he was setting a ten mile personal best at Portaferry. He is either the proverbial ‘machine’ or a little demented. It is a close call!

Ladies

Julie McKimm 1.17.10
Jill Holland 1.21.08
Ashleigh Collim 1.24.13
Verity Cornford 1.26.55
Catherine Fearon 1.35.17

Julie McKimm dominated the OAC ladies race and very well done too, but all the ladies did their Club Championship positions no harm at all by turning up and doing this one. Jill Holland is running very well at the moment; Verity Cornford finished so fast that an organizer had to run after her down to the harbour to tell her that there wasn’t another lap to do! We could hear Ashleigh Collim in the distance well before she reached the finish line and Catherine Fearon too enjoyed her run and finished with that familiar quizzical expression on her face.

Gerald Harvey and David Fletcher plumped for the relay event instead of the ten miler. Gerald took the first leg and set a very respectable pace to the Bar Hall dog-leg and then upwards to the water station and change over point. David took it from there and made good progress to the finish. Their race time was 1.13.51, which gave them 7th place out of the 32 teams competing. Well done!

The Portaferry 10 miler was won by Brendan Teer (East Down AC) in 53.28. Collette McCourt (Dub Runners) was first lady in 1.07.33. The relay was won by a North Belfast mixed team of K. Swann (m) and R. Hughes (f) in 1.01.32.