Three races by the sea and some running a various park – all the gossip over the jump!

Warmup
If you’ve ever felt a little at sea with your training – I think it’s safe to say that our Rathlin team knows how you feel this week! This is officially the last roundup of the summer season (meteorologically anyway) and what a treat we have for you this week. We’re truly celebrating the running achievements of half the club over the last seven days – that’s the way we like it!  I got some news from the doctor last week, I have been diagnosed with a chronic fear of giants – it is called feefiphobia!  Enjoy it this week:

New Arrival
A late entry to the roundup this week – but for all the best reasons!  Congratulations are in order for club member Richard Donald, who has just become a father for the second time to baby Lucy. Lucy was born earlier this morning, 28th August and all four members of the household are keeping well. The future Dub juniors quad is getting even stronger!

Strangford 10k
The weekend is made for big plans: some head out for drinks, others meet for coffee with long lost friends, while runners decide that racing is a great idea! Part of the Strangford Festival, this 10k race (with 5k) option is coastal and rolling for the first thee and a half miles – before a nasty hill to wake you up, with a nice flat final mile to the line. One Dubber took to the line on this one:

Nice running Karen – no bad effects from previous evening drinking in this one! A little lonely out on the course was more than compensated for with a great crowd cheering everyone into the finish and providing that extra energy needed to get there! If we can highlight one complaint, it is simply that we’ve no photos!!

Portrush 5 Mile Road Race
Let’s set the scene for you – it’s the beginning of a long weekend, you’re off by the coast and you hear of a five mile road race, sure it’d be rude to say no to that one! Starting by the golf club and just following the road two and half miles out and back, some gentle rolling hills to add some character to the course! This one has one man’s name written all over it:

Jim – great work, that was some effort, and what a time posted. Looking through the results you can see how competitive a field it was – so your average run at 6:30min/miles is nothing short of spectacular running over the course. A well earned drink was deserved after that one (plus did we mention the long weekend?!) Jim kindly supplied us one of the best finish line photos you’ll see all year:

Rathlin Run
Car share: ✓ | Boat journey: ✓ | Unexpected sun: ✓ | Hills: ✓ – then you’re all set for the Rathlin Run! If you’re ever thought about doing a race that is basically nine miles uphill – with relief of a single downhill mile, then this is the event for you. With no less than 16 blue tops taking on the seriously undulating ten mile course (and one whimping out and doing the 5k), who knew how the day would unfold:

As one of our members said “… that was a great day for the parish”.  Outstanding running everyone – really putting the club on the map.  With cracking performances from everyone (just look at those times), there’s one or two members we’ve to highlight.  Brian D winning his age category, Collette finishing third AND our Claire coming out of the blue (see what I did there) to not just win the race but to obliterate the women’s course record.  All in a day’s work for us, take a look at some of photos from the event:

parkrun
We all love a good tradition – and there’s one tradition that is hard to beat (and you always feel bad for skipping it) – the weekly parkrun. With a considerable number of Dubbers off to Rathlin on Saturday morning, the remaining Dub banded together ensuring that they didn’t let the side down on a cool, but favourable Saturday morning. Let’s see who kicked off their weekend in the best possible way:

When faced with unknown conditions it is hard to guess how many Dubs will come out on Saturday mornings – but always a pleasure to see so many of the club representing, at such a large number of parks across the country. Hat time – first home at the Enniskillent event was Richard, while over at the Victoria event we had Heather grabbing second place with both hands and rounding off the podium paying positions this week was Judith at her home event in Antrim! We had some awesome new course PBs set by Alastair (at Victoria), Peter D (at Ormeau) and for the Rocket powered James (at Orangefield). We had some summer tourists out and about including Daniel on his farewell tour (at Victoria) and from newbie club member Paul C (at Castlewellan).  Did someone say they wanted photos?

Warmdown
Okay, so our official summer may be drawing to a close, but for some of the red-hot Dubs – our racing journies are only beginning. There’s a raft of races ahead in the autum months which are not only firm favourites but fast becoming firm targets for the colder months. As always, we’ll be there with the camera making sure everyone gets their names in lights!  So, I’ve been researching my family tree lately and I have discovered that my grandfather was a baker in the army – he went in all buns glazing.

Disclaimer: Every effort was taken to ensure the results above are correct (I didn’t get much sleep this weekend, so approach at your own peril!) If you’d like to make a complaint, then you’ll automatically volunteer yourself for writing duties next week! 🙂

Chiller
Rathlin boat…