Weekly Report – 16th October-22nd October 2023
Valencia Half-Marathon
We had a group of globetrotting Orangegrovers make the trip to Valencia this weekend to take part in the half-marathon on Sunday. In perfect weather conditions our runners set some great times before getting stuck into some tequilas at 1pm.
They all had such a good time that they’re now looking at other SuperHalfs to book, with five other prestigious half-marathons in Lisbon, Prague, Copenhagen, Cardiff and Berlin to complete. Lisbon in March seems to be the front-runner at the moment. Anyone that completes all six will, as the SuperHalf website describes it, “achieve SuperMedal glory.”
Andrew Carson – 1.20.36
Desmond Fahy – 1.38.13
Edwina Ternan – 1.38.23
Michael O’Donoghue – 1.41.04
Stuart Bartlett – 1.42.59
Colin Simpson – 1.44.20
Selina Myles – 1.58.48
Emily Paisley – 2.05.52
Verity Cornford – 2.10.59
Bobby Rea International Cross Country
The previous day there was a very different race taking part as brave runners circled a pit of despair at Billy Neill Country Park. Although our numbers were slightly depleted by those who absconded to Valencia there was still a great OAC turnout for the penultimate race in our club championship this year.
For anyone that would like to see their fellow clubmates having a terrible time the full races are available on the Athletics NI youtube channel – unfortunately the cameras didn’t manage to catch the part where David Gilliland lost his shoe.
The full age-graded results are below, with the race time in brackets.
Results – Women
Judith McCann – 32.01 (34.23)
Jenny Cochrane – 32.03 (36.15)
Emma Smith – 32.16 (35.43)
Sarah Steer – 32.28 (33.11)
Results – Men
David Montgomery – 30.57 (35.40)
Andrew McIntyre – 31.21 (32.27)
Keith Weir – 31.43 (34.35)
Sean Tanuvasa – 32.48 (32.53)
Robin Montgomery – 33.32 (39.17)
Chris Woods – 34.56 (42.41)
David Gilliland – 40.14 (47.55)
Tom Smith – 44.20 (44.30)
Brian Todd (5k) – 22.30 (31.33)
Saintfield 10k
On Sunday Saintfield Striders held their 5k and 10k races with Danny Bradley and Elaine Weston representing OAC in the 10k. I suppose they both think that resting the day before the race was an acceptable alternative to doing the cross country at Billy Neill. From the comments online it looks like it was a well organised event, had great support on the route and (in my opinion most importantly) had some great food at the end.
Congratulations to Danny Bradley on finishing 2nd – another envelope stuffed with cash for your collection!
Danny Bradley – 34.53
Elaine Weston – 57.01
Parkrun Report
21/10/23
A smaller turn out at Parkrun this weekend as many of us were involved in races instead, and unfortunately for Michael O’Donoghue there are no Parkruns in Spain.
Well done to everyone running!
Results
Belfast Victoria
Andrew Bates – 23.26
Stephen Uprichard – 23.33
Elaine Bates – 28.48
Jean Stone – 32.04
Ormeau
Melinda Wilkinson – 30.30
Bangor
George Gribben – 32.44
Stormont
Kimberley Reynolds – 28.42
Gillian McGucken – 29.23
Reg Sanlon – 30.18
Jill Holland – 30.32
Lisa Fleming – 30.33
Alison Canning – 34.33
Stephen Craig – 38.57
Anne Devlin – 38.58
Orangefield
Eric Fairfield – 23.06
