Weekly Report – 8th May-14th May 2023

Marist 5k

Brian Todd was in Dundalk for the Marist 5k on Friday. It’s a fast 5k route and Brian put in a great time on what must have been a lovely evening. The most notable thing about the race from my point of view is that they don’t put the results on their Facebook or Twitter page so it probably took me longer to find your time than it took you to run it.

Brian Todd – 22.44

Law Society 5k

Emily Paisley also ran a 5k on Friday, taking part in the Law Society’s 5k. I don’t want to include any libellous content in the club’s weekly report but Emily has described the run on Strava as a “complete shambles” and her total distance covered in the 5k is 2.79 miles. For any particularly litigious members of the Law Society reading this I would like to confirm that Emily’s views are her own and do not represent those of the club.

Emily Paisley – 23.54

Slieve Donard Race

Well done to Andrew Tees and Michael O’Donoghue who ran in the Slieve Donard race on Saturday. As this is Ireland’s oldest mountain race, first taking place in 1945, it is one of the highlights in the fell running calendar. This year the race was also part of both the All-Ireland Mountain Running Championship and the Northern Ireland Mountain Running Championship. Massive congratulations to Andrew Tees who in a strong field finished in 2nd place. Amazing running Andrew!

Andrew Tees – 55.13
Michael O’Donoghue – 1.54.58

Michael finished the race an hour later in 158th position, however he fared much better in that morning’s parkrun…

Parkrun Report

13/05/23

The highlight from this week’s parkruns has to be Michael O’Donoghue being first finisher at Edwin Carolan Community parkrun in Cavan, his first ever time doing so! Well done Michael! When you told me last week that you thought you had a chance of finishing first at the weekend I told you that you were full of it, so you’ve certainly shown me! The time of 20.13 was also Michael’s 2nd fastest parkrun ever, only bettered in 2016.

Meanwhile Keith Weir ran his fastest ever Stormont parkrun with a time of 18.37 – Keith’s in great running form after finishing first at parkrun the week before – and Elaine Weston was first female finisher at Falls parkrun. Well done Elaine, great to see that some of us don’t have to drive to Cavan to finish first in our gender.

A few of us also travelled to new parkrun locations this week – Emily Paisley in Armagh, Colin Simpson and Verity Cornford in Milan, and Michael O’Donoghue in Cavan of course (doing his 80th location). Out of those I think Milan would have been my choice.

Results

Huddersfield

John Gribben – 35.53

Belfast Victoria

Robin Montgomery – 20.43
Tom Smith – 22.17
Andrew Carson – 23.08
Paul Woodman – 24.37
Emma Smith – 25.32

Falls

Elaine Weston – 27.01

MUSA Cookstown

Gillian McGucken – 27.29

Ormeau

David Montgomery – 21.48
Jemma Smyth – 22.58
Des Fahy – 23.23
Melinda Wilkinson – 30.00

Armagh

Emily Paisley – 28.40

Stormont

Keith Weir – 18.37
Gemma Blake – 23.00
Kimberley Reynolds – 26.22
Alison Canning – 27.05
Jenny Powell – 30.01
Helen Charlton – 30.01
Stephen Hamilton – 30.07

Milano Nord

Colin Simpson – 23.55
Verity Cornford – 28.01

Orangefield

David Gilliland – 23.34
Heather Flint – 25.37

Hillsborough Forest

Alan Martin – 28.32
Mairead Napier – 35.44
Beverley Martin – 35.44

Edwin Carolan Community

Michael O’Donoghue – 20.13

Dunleath Playing Fields

Catherine McIntyre – 31.23
Andrew McIntyre – 31.23