Weekly Report – 12th June-18th June 2023

OAC Club Championship Race – Naked Parkrun – Crawfordsburn Country Park

Something different this weekend with our Naked Parkrun – I’m taking the high road and not making any jokes about us remaining fully clothed. Naked Parkrun is a concept where competitors run without their phone and watch so they don’t have anything to monitor their pace. Prior to the parkrun entrants have to predict their finish time, with the winner being the person who finishes closest to their prediction.

The ability of the club members to do this varies greatly (obviously not a skill the Montgomerys possess), but amazingly the top 3 men all finished within 1 second of their predicted race time!

Very well done to Keith Weir and Alison Canning, male and female winners of the 2023 naked parkrun. Thanks also to Ali McConnell for doing the maths, and Sarah Steer for providing the photos.

Placings are below with the top 5 of the club championship table included also.

Men’s Results

Keith Weir – 1^st
Andy Carson – 2^nd
Danny Bradley – 3^rd
Andy McIntyre – 4^th
Michael O’Donoghue – 5^th
Sean Tanuvasa – 6^th
Colin Simpson – 7^th
Stephen Anderson – 8^th
Chris Woods – 9^th
David Montgomery – 10^th
Robin Montgomery – 11^th

Women’s Results

Alison Canning – 1^st
Pauline Bayliss – 2^nd
Jenny Powell – 3^rd
Judith McCann – 4^th
Heather Flint – 5^th
Selina Myles – 6^th
Julie McKimm – 7^th
Emily Paisley – 8^th
Elaine Weston – 9^th
Elaine Bates – 10^th
Catherine McIntyre – 11^th

Male Club Championship Table – Top 5

Female Club Championship Table – Top 5

Belfast 24 Hour – 50km

Following the parkrun Michael O’Donoghue headed down to Victoria Park to see everyone doing the 24 hour race and wish them luck… but temptation got the better of him and he ended up entering the 50km. If anyone else has ever entered a race this distance or longer on a whim please let me know so that I can add you to my list of freaks.

Michael let us know that if anyone wants to escalate from doing marathons to doing ultras this race is a good option as the race is completely flat and there is abundant pizza and chips. On the other hand it is 31 laps of Victoria Park, Jesus wept. Well done Michael, can’t wait to see what you amaze us with next.

Michael O’Donoghue – 5.54.44

Comber 10k

The Comber 10k was back on Friday 16^th June. This is a flat a fast race organised by Ballydrain Harriers Athletics Club. This was the biggest Comber 10k to date with 686 finishers. Congratulations to Elaine Weston representing OAC for taking part.

Elaine Weston – 52.16

Hill & Dale Series – Meels

The penultimate race in this year’s Hill & Dale Series took place on Thursday 15^th June. Starting from Meelmore Lodge there were several gullies to choose from to get to the summit of Spellack, before the runners made their way up Meelmore to the tower. From Meelmore the next checkpoint is the summit of Meelbeg and from there a fast grassy descent to the river crossing at Happy Valley. And finally a long run back to the finish at Meelmore Lodge. Congratulations to Andrew Tees and Sarah Steer for taking part, with Andrew finishing in third place.

Andrew Tees – 43.41
Sarah Steer – 1.18.59

Parkrun Report

17/06/23

With the naked parkrun taking place at Crawfordsburn most of our parkrun action is there this week. Kerris Hamilton did however tick off a new location at Woodhouse Moor in Yorkshire.

As well as getting 3^rd place in the Naked Parkrun, Danny Bradley also managed to finish first in the actual parkrun with Andrew McIntyre finishing in 2^nd place just 3 seconds behind. That’s Andrew’s third 2^nd place finish at parkrun in the last 4 weeks (missing last week to finish 1 place off a podium in the Mourne Half-marathon). Can’t wait to see where he doesn’t win next week.

Crawfordsburn was also a new location for David Montgomery, Stephen Anderson, Pauline Bayliss, Julie McKimm, Heather Flint, Chris Woods and Elaine Bates. Elaine has the most locations from this bunch, with Crawfordsburn being her 16^th. Selina Myles also set her Crawfordsburn PB, over a minute quicker than her previous best there. Well done everyone!

Results

Woodhouse Moor

Kerris Hamilton – 27.18

Waterworks

Melinda Wilkinson – 30.00

Huddersfield

John Gribben – 38.05

Belfast Victoria

Andrew Tees – 26.53
Verity Cornford – 26.59
Alison Hall-Thompson – 51.49

Comber

Ian Wilson – 26.57

Stormont

Kimberley Reynolds – 24.20
Stephen Hamilton – 27.00

Orangefield

Gerald Harvey – 30.22
Jean Stone – 34.50

Crawfordsburn

Danny Bradley – 18.31
Andrew McIntyre – 18.34
Andrew Carson – 19.55
Keith Weir – 21.44
David Montgomery – 22.15
Sean Tanuvasa – 22.37
Michael O’Donoghue – 23.03
Stephen Anderson – 23.12
Robin Montgomery – 23.32
Colin Simpson – 24.15
Pauline Bayliss – 24.45
Julie McKimm – 25.11
Alison Canning – 25.41
Heather Flint – 25.52
Chris Woods – 26.07
Elaine Weston – 27.37
Selina Myles – 28.47
Jenny Powell – 29.30
Judith McCann – 29.34
Elaine Bates – 30.23
Emily Paisley – 30.32
Catherine McIntyre – 35.29