St Patrick, sunshine and Slieve Gullion all in a weekend's work for Springwell

By The Newsroom
Published 20th Mar 2023, 09:56 BST
Updated 20th Mar 2023, 09:56 BST
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A St Patrick’s Day 10k, a mountain run around Slieve Gullion, a sunny marathon in Barcelona and a whole lot of parkruns – just a average weekend in the continuing adventures of Springwell Running Club.

Spar Craic 10k

The traditional Spar Craic 10k in Belfast on St Patrick’s Day attracted a massive entry of over 2600 runners to the city centre on March 17, with four Springwell Running Club members joining in the ‘craic’.

Catherine Pinkerton continued her return from injury with an impressive 44:58 to finish 259th. Shaun Carton ran 53:54 for 966th, and Jonathan Beck 58:38 for 1423rd with Holly Neill completing the quartet with 1:16:22 for 2238th.

Pauline Duke at Portrush parkrunPauline Duke at Portrush parkrun
Pauline Duke at Portrush parkrun

Slieve Gullion Mountain Race

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Hosted by Armagh AC the annual Slieve Gullion Mountain Race took place on Saturday, March 18. Although only 3.9 miles long, the 1115 feet of elevation makes this a challenging event, and this year’s inclement weather added a few more degrees of difficulty for the 90 competitors who put their toes to the start line. The steady downpour created slippery conditions on the open country and mountain trails of the course with everyone relying on the grip and support of their particular choice of footwear.

Springwell RC was represented by Bernadette O’Kane who produced another determined which saw her finish 38th overall, 4th lady and 2nd F35 with a time of 41:58.

Barcelona Marathon

Robert Jamison at the Barcelona MarathonRobert Jamison at the Barcelona Marathon
Robert Jamison at the Barcelona Marathon

The Barcelona Marathon on Sunday, March 19, saw almost 12,000 runners take to the street of the Catalan capital for this very popular event. Among them, and taking on the challenge of the marathon distance for the first time was Springwell RC’s Robert Jamison who opened his marathon running CV with a credible 4:24:07 for 7973rd.

Parkrun

This weekend saw 56 Springers doing their parkruns at eight different venues throughout the country with four personal bests recorded. At Limavady Sarah Stewart, Kathryn Campbell and Lara Walsh all improved their parkrun times with Rodney McPhee doing likewise at the Limepark Playing Fields event.

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Thanks, as always, to the army of volunteers who make parkrun happen, we really appreciate all the work that you do.

Catherine Byers at the Fethard Town parkrunCatherine Byers at the Fethard Town parkrun
Catherine Byers at the Fethard Town parkrun

Highbury Fields - Phyllis MCGRAW 27:30; Ecos - Monica MCCLENAGHAN 34:18; Portrush - Alan NEVIN 19:07, Stephen BEGGS 21:20, Shaun CARTON 23:46, Jonno JOHNSON 24:33, Cathy ADAMS 24:51, Mervyn THOMPSON 25:32, Pamela HOWE 27:05, Alan PLATT 27:51, Barry MCBRIDE 28:06, Alanna MILLAR 28:09, Liz DOWEY 28:22, Pauline