We have a Duathlon, Crawfordsburn, Mallusk, Slieve Croob, a Triathalon, Seven Sevens, Knocknarea, parkrun and even more over the jump!

Warmup
Some weeks, the club is involved in so many races and events that it is an RSI inducing week to the write the windup. This week is for sure another of those weeks – but that is all good, as it is fantastic to be able to celebrate it get your name in lights – all in good time!  From time to time, I like to relay sensible information here, so check your bank statements.  I was looking through my own statement the other day and there were a load of purchases I didn’t recognise: oversize shoes, face paints, trick flowers – turned out my card had been clowned!

#DubsDo a Duathlon (again)
With special thanks to Brian Grimes for organising this one: 2 mile run around Victoria Park, 12 mile cycle around the docks, finished with a 2 mile run around Victoria Park.

There’s no official times, and you’re not all on Strava, so I’m not even going to try and go there, so a special mention to everyone who took part: James T (not Kirk), James S, Brian D, Nessa A, Gareth McA, Chris C and Karen McB (who wondered why she didn’t get a mention for this Wednesday evening event in last Tuesday’s roundup?!) Well done everyone – I hear there wasn’t a competitive bone in any of your bodies..!

Crawfordsburn Trail Race
North Down’s annual trail race usually brings out a mix of Dubs – but with changeable conditions forecast for the evening this year, we just had a solo Dubber taking part. Through forest trails, along the coastline and through fields to the finish – this has a bit of something for everyone. I think we can all guess which Dub Legend did this one?

Pos	Name	Time	Notes
171	Maureen Oliver	00:30:17	1st Age Category!

Ah Maureen – you’ve not lost the speed and passion for your trail races in the last weeks! Brilliant running and representing – not to forget the age category win, the silver lining on a dull evening. Thanks to our friends over a NDAC, we have a snap from the race:

Mallusk 5 Mile Road Race
By some miracle, the rain held off on Friday evening, but there was always going to be a constant threat of it. Despite many pointers on Saturday evening of how to define this race, it is a loop around Mallusk – with a small speed, peaking around 2 miles into the race. The hardly noticeable speed ramp made for just over 150 meters of elevation change over the entire course! Who braved the elements for this one?

Pos	Name	Time	Notes
17	Brendan McIlhennon	00:31:26	---
80	Paul McFlynn	00:36:52	---
114	Steven McDermott	00:39:24	---
183	Stacey Orr	00:42:48	---
226	Julia Orr	00:45:26	---
233	Danielle McCluskey	00:45:48	---
257	Anne Marie Ryan	00:47:26	---

A nice gang of Dubs out in blue on Friday evening – and not just representing but doing us well proud after a hard week’s work too (well, I was told to say a ‘hard’ week’s work)! A challenging course, in humid conditions, but impressive finish times from all seven Dubs present made for a successful Dub trip! You know those awkward photos where people stand on the podium..?

Slieve Croob 10k
Mountain races are like buses, you wait all week for one – and you get two on one day! If seven peaks in seven hours wasn’t your cup of tea (I’m with you on that one), then how about 5k uphill to the peak of Sloeve Croob – then freewheel backdown home again for the second 5k? 350 metes of elevation change – and some stunning views* as you near the peak, this must have attracted some Dubs?!

Pos	Name	Time	Notes
Ukn	Claire Tonry	00:45:00	1st Place!
Ukn	Paul McFlynn	00:46:00	---

Woah, great, great running from our blue topped duo on Saturday morning. Claire raced the hell out of this one, keeping the competition behind her and stealing first place – magic! * Ha, we’re fooling no one, you could see sweet nothing from up there this weekend! Brilliant going folks, while the course wasn’t very photogenic, the prizegiving was:

Lough Neagh Triathlon
There’s a nice new road that partially opened this week – and it takes you almost straight out at Ballyronan. On the shore of Lough Neagh this triathlon consisted of a 1,500m swim, a 40km bike cycle and finished with a 10km run – exhausting. Oh, think back to Saturday morning for this one – the conditions were absolutely horrible. We had two Dubs lined up in the lough:

Pos	Name	Swim	Cycle	Run	Time
75	Gareth Mcallister	00:40:33 72	01:15:21	00:51:10	02:50:00
98	Kate Moffett	00:49:49	01:17:12	00:46:36	02:56:08

Kate and Gareth – take a bow, another stunning performance from the three-event specialists! That bike ride had over 1,000ft of elevation change, then a 10k run with about 100m of elevation change – and all that after an epic swim too! It’s a good job you had the BBQ to relax and enjoy after this assault challenge – but no better two people for the job. Thanks for the photo too Kate:

Seven Sevens
There were weather warnings, but not much stops these mountain races, so coats, trousers, maps and food were packed into backpacks (like camping with even less fun [who said camping was fun, Jim?]). It rained. Everything was mud, every river a torrent, every stony path flooded. So then, let’s see who got packed their waterproof socks.

Pos	Name	Time	Notes
32	Steve Todd	05:50:32	Legend!
40	Bernadette o’Kane	06:11:04	Legend!
46	Niall McCrory	06:24:09	Legend!
58	Owen Largey	06:58:15	Legend!

The word amazing is thrown about here quite a bit – we need some context. This an annual race across the seven highest peaks in the Mournes, 18 miles and an incredible 2,500m of elevation all done in 7 hours. So collectively amazing running, outstanding efforts – and we’re still not sure how some of you made it to the BBQ that evening! G’wan the Dub goats!

Knocknarea 8 Mile Loop
A group of (self-titled I have to add) brave Dubs took on the Knocknarea 8 mile loop in the scenic surroundings of the Sligo mountains. By the sounds of thing, we’re not sure if loop refers o the course or something else, this challenging run contained a brutal 1k climb at mile 3, followed by lots more hills! Sounds like an ideal trip:

Pos	Name	Time	Notes
107	Kathy Mayhew	01:15:02	---
109	Nuala O'Connor	01:15:34	5 min PB!
129	Brona O'Doherty	01:20:07	---
137	Jane Patterson	01:26:28	2nd Age Category!
144	Lynn Donnelly	01:28:27	---

Now that was one hell of a run, but the reward for crossed the line was a great spread and a warm welcome at the finish! Cracking times posted by all our ladies – special mentions to Nuala who through club training bagged a five-minute personal best over the course and to Jane who snatched second place in her age category. Just got the one photo, which I believe was taken post-race:

parkrun
Look, we’ve all been there – it’s been a long week, you heard the rain bouncing off the window for most of the night and your bed is far too comfortable to even want to stick a toe outside of the covers. Luckily though, none of those thoughts crossed the minds of any of our club members this week as we returned to parkrun in force:

Name	Time	Notes
Victoria
Collette MCCOURT	00:19:20	2nd Place!
Richard CONN	00:19:21
Brian DERBY	00:20:04
Queen's
Liam LAVERY	00:23:19
Mark HAMILL	00:23:30
Edward CALDWELL	00:23:44
Dermot DAWSON	00:24:10
Ormeau
John CLOSE	00:18:30	3rd Place!
Shaun O'HAGAN	00:20:57
Marie SWEET	00:22:04
Sarah MAYBIN	00:22:59
Eamonn MCKEEVER	00:26:51
Danielle MCCLUSKEY	00:26:54
Stormont
Brendan MCILHENNON	00:19:51	3rd Place!
Mark SHIELDS	00:21:15
Catherine BAILLIE	00:22:24	1st Place! New PB!
Stranmillis College
Nessa AGNEW	00:24:33	3rd Place!
Paul CURLEY	00:27:22
Frances MC CAMBRIDGE	00:29:44
Sixmilewater
Ronan MCCAUGHEY	00:22:45	Newbie PB!
Maire MCCAUGHEY	00:23:43	Newbie PB!
Ronan O'FLAHERTY	00:26:12	Newbie PB!
Sligo (Ireland)
Kathy MAYHEW	00:27:39
Inverness (Scotland)
Roisin BYRNE	00:24:54	Newbie PB!
Drumpellier Country (England)
Mike SMITH	00:25:18	Newbie PB!

25 out on a damp, grey Saturday morning – impressive well done. Let’s start tipping our hats, as first home was Catherine at the Stormont event (who also set a new course PB), while over the Victoria we had Collette grabbing second place on the podium, then we’d quite a few third placers including John C (at Ormeau), Brendan (at Stormont) and Nessa (at Stranmillis College). Some first timers at events were Roisin (at Inverness) and Mike (at Drumpellier Country), while trying out NI’s newest event was Ronan Mc, Marie Mc and Ronan O (who is now once again a NI regionnaire having run all the parkrun events) at the new Sixmilewater event. Photos?

Warmdown
Well, well, well that was a week and a half wasn’t it. Thanks to our wonderful social secretary Claire, who orchestrated a fantastic BBQ evening for over fifty club members on Saturday evening. I think that we can all agree that it was a great night and we’re all looking forward to seeing what is planned for Christmas now! Finally, back to being educational, we have a fun fact for you: did you know that there is no official training to become a binman/woman? It’s true – they just pick it up as they go along.

Live long and prosper.

Disclaimer: Every effort was taken to ensure the results above are correct (you have a go and try and keep up!) If you’d also like to make a complaint, then you’ll automatically volunteer yourself for writing duties