Springwell Running Club Weekly Report - 20th April 2025
The past weekend was all about Portrush parkrun, which celebrated its 600th event with almost 600 runners and walkers turning out to help mark the occasion despite less than favourable weather on Saturday morning. Also, Easter weekend means the return of the Ballyliffin Coastal Challenge, which traditionally takes place on the afternoon of Easter Saturday. This event is generally quite well attended by club members, however, with Easter being quite late this year many who are targeting a Spring marathon decided to enjoy their taper weeks instead of lacing up to race. The Hill and Dale Series continued in Tollymore Forest Park on Thursday evening, and some results are reported that came through late from last weekend.
Next week, the Hill and Dale Series continues at Slieve Martin, City of Derry Spartans host the Bay Road 5k, and several of our members will be putting in final preparations for London and Manchester marathons which both take place next Sunday.
Ballyliffin Coastal Challenge
Easter weekend saw the return of the ever popular Ballyliffin Coastal Challenge. This event, with a capacity of 1200, sold out back in February and had both 7 mile and 10 mile race options available.
Despite the damp and blustery weather, there was a great atmosphere in the start area in the middle of Ballyliffin before the race took off and headed into the countryside for a lap of the Isle of Doagh peninsula. This is very much so an undulating course, with a challenging climb for the runners approximately 2 miles from home, after which the course takes in the full length of the beach before reaching the finish line.
The club were well represented, with eight Springwell Runners travelling for the 10 Mile race and one for the 7 Mile race. First home for the club in the 10 Mile race was Brian Moore, in 1:05:35 to claim a PB of 3 minutes for the distance and 5 minutes quicker than his run in this race last year. Jonny Clarke (1:14:51) and Adrian Finlay (1:16:12) both had great runs continuing their recent good form. Nicole O’Connor has shown fantastic improvement over the past 12 months, running a PB of 1:27:53, which is over 12 minutes quicker than last year in this race. Alison Duncan, fresh off a half marathon PB in Ballybofey last weekend, continued her PB streak with a time of 1:28:52. James Evans (1:30:25), George Brien (1:32:10) and Heather McLaughlin (1:42:18) all with great runs also on a challenging course.
In the 7 Mile race, which follows mostly the same route as the 10 Mile race, Alison Clarke had a fantastic run finishing in a time of 1:21:50.
Ballyliffin Coastal Challenge
(L-R) Brian Moore, James Evans, George Brien, Adrian Finlay, Alison Duncan, Heather McLaughlin & Nicole O'Connor at Ballyliffin Coastal Challenge
Giants Causeway 20 Mile Coastal Race
Last weekend, before the spell of sunny weather broke, runners had a glorious morning for a race along the Causeway Coastal Trail route, with a few miles on road & beach bolted on the end to round Ramore Head and finish on the Portrush West Strand.
Runners could not have asked for better conditions, apart from the ever increasing heat of the late morning, and the high tide which dampened some trainers on mile 2 before coming onto Whitepark Bay beach.
Springwell had a smaller sized contingent running on the day; as Aaron Steele was stretching his legs and leading the Purple Vests. Mark Goldsworthy, and the 2 Jonnys (Jonny Rowntree and Jonny Clarke) stuck together to set a steady pace for much of the race before splitting to push for the finish line on their own.
Helen Carey put in a great performance to finish just outside the top 100, as she eyes a 'bigger fish' later in the year.
25th Aaron Steele 3:02:57; 58th Mark Goldsworthy 3:22:33; 74th Jonny Rowntree 3:27:01; 111th Helen Carey 3:39:50; 138th Jonny Clarke 3:49:21
Hill & Dale Tollymore
The second race of Newcastle AC’s Hill and Dale Series was held last week in the picturesque Tollymore Forest Park. Competitors were in for a lovely course of 4 miles distance and taking in 1,000ft of elevation which climbed through the forest trails bringing them to the open mountain.
After all of that climbing and returning to the forest trails, competitors were greeted by a crowd lined uphill finish to the race that tested the tired legs.
First back for club was Peter Tees, finishing 33rd in 0:34:31. In a return from injury after rolling her ankle on Slieve Gullion just over a month ago, Adele Tomb finished 163rd in 0:42:28. In his first ever Hill and Dale race, Adrian Finlay had a strong run and finished 268th in 48:50. Despite some car trouble, Kate O’Loan found a way to get to Tollymore and finished the race in 277th in 0:49:13. Conor Duffy had a strong run finishing 302nd in 0:51:13.
Newport Half Marathon
Colin Connoly was on his travels yet again last weekend, this time visiting Newport in Wales. Newport hosted a ‘Marathon Festival’ on the Sunday with marathon, half marathon and 10km race distances all on offer.
It was the half marathon for Colin though, where he earned his ‘Wales Half Marathon Badge’. This completed the UK Half Marathon set, with Colin having now completed a Half Marathon in each of the four countries of the UK! Colin completed the half marathon in a time of 2:18:20.
Parkrun
It was another busy weekend for Springwell parkrunners with 65 club runners out at 9 different venues. However, this week it was all about Portrush parkrun, which hosted its 600th event on Saturday morning. To mark the occasion there were 542 finishing the course, of which an amazing 43 were from Springwell Running Club. Well done to Mervyn Thompson and his team of volunteers for hitting this huge milestone.
On the parkrun tourism front this week, we had Sinead Graham at Ganavan Sands in the West of Scotland, Karen Campbell at Templemore in Tipperary, Aaron Steele at Ury Riverside in North East Scotland, and Catherine Byers at Zielony Jar in Southern Poland.
There were a couple of PBs to note as well, for Deborah McPhee in Limavady and Gillian Rudden in Garvagh.
Portrush parkrun
Andy WHITEFORD 00:18:29; Maurice WALKER 00:19:18; Rhys WALKER 00:19:45; Stephen BEGGS 00:21:13; Dara WATTERSON 00:22:21; Fiona MARTIN 00:22:38; Paul LAVERTY 00:22:53; Shaun CARTON 00:22:56; Cathy ADAMS 00:23:10; Alanna MILLAR 00:24:28; Mervyn THOMPSON 00:24:40; David O'NEILL 00:25:41; Michael ALCORN 00:26:00; Pauline MULLAN 00:26:10; Patrick MAGEE 00:26:20; Patricia CRAIG 00:26:32; Jonathan HUDDLESTON 00:26:47; Janet PATRICK 00:27:28; Mervyn ADAMS 00:27:46; Liz DOWEY 00:29:44; Caitriona MACKLE 00:30:07; Julie CORBETT 00:30:33; Amanda SCOTT 00:30:38; Roisin WALKER 00:31:14; Bernie HANNIGAN 00:31:28; Brian HARPER 00:31:56; Pauline DUKE 00:33:03; Reid JACK 00:33:12; Anne JACK 00:33:16; Rhona LAVERTY 00:34:08; Lorraine ABERNETHY 00:34:24; Aisling HYNES 00:34:27; Fergal MACKLE 00:35:10; Iris WILSON 00:35:41; Caoimhe QUINN 00:38:47; Barry MCBRIDE 00:40:15; Gemma WRAY 00:40:35; Deborah PURDY 00:42:14; Rosanna JACK 00:48:09; Andrew WILSON 00:50:47; Emer THOMPSON 00:52:12; Andrew WILMOT 00:57:29; Elaine MONTGOMERY 00:58:33
Limavady parkrun
Rodney MC PHEE 00:18:18; Chris DENTON 00:18:52; Stephen MCLAUGHLIN 00:19:10; Fiona PRUE 00:21:09; Deborah MC PHEE 00:22:10 PB; Kevin MCLEAN 00:22:30; Alan PLATT 00:25:22; Gael BUTCHER 00:26:25; Leanne QUIGLEY 00:28:14; Elizabeth DEIGHAN 00:28:33; John MCMICHAEL 00:33:33; Peter JACK 00:46:09; Heather MCLAUGHLIN 00:49:38
Garvagh Forest parkrun
Gary KENDALL 00:22:36; Bernadette QUINN 00:24:54; Gillian RUDDEN 00:25:32 PB
Ganavan Sands parkrun
Sinead GRAHAM 00:27:47
Stormont parkrun
Ali SHAW 00:23:52
Templemore parkrun
Karen CAMPBELL 00:27:29
Dungannon Park parkrun
Aidan MOONEY 00:35:03
Ury Riverside parkrun
Aaron STEELE 00:20:15
parkrun Zielony Jar
Catherine BYERS 00:33:45