Having survived the night life in Castlewellan Park on Thursday last, several of the more adventurous runners in East Down took on the challenge of the Park Run in Victoria Park on Saturday morning, having heard that it was free of charge and could also be used as an excuse for not running in the Malcolm Cup Cross Country League fixture in Ballyclare in the afternoon. In the event Mark McDowell, Philip Vint and Declan Teague finished in 4th 5th and 6th places respectively timed at 19.03, 19.04 and 19.10 though it has perhaps escaped their notice that their instructions were to target places 1, 2 and 3. Better luck next time! Gavin Oakes and Jackie Glbride also took part in the 5K event but I have no detailed results to advise of their performances.
Later in the day only Peter Morgan and Michael McKeown from the club took part in the Masters cross country race in Sixmilewater Park with Michael clocking 20.59 and Peter 23.11 in a race in which several of the older Park runners also took part, having used the morning activity to warm up. Indeed Gary Keenan of Orangegrove, principal organiser of the Park run, participated in both the Masters and Open races. I remained remarkably consistent by not taking part in any, as all critics must preserve an element of detachment from the heat of battle.
This fixture was lost to the weather last year but conditions were well nigh perfect on Saturday as over 100 set off in the Masters and Ladies race with a further 75 turning out in the Malcolm Cup showdown itself. A feature of the race was the performance of Willowfield teenager Ryan Holt, second in last week's Griddle 10K, who from a mid table position at the end of Lap 1 had moved into the top 10 as they began the last lap. Amazingly he passed all but the long time leader Declan Reid City of Derry and given another few metres he would have caught him as well.
The pity is that this race represented an opportunity for East Down to collect some more League points, especially in the absence of Annadale, as on last week's form Brendan Teer would have won and backed up by some of his faster club mates could have posted a reasonable team score. But runners cannot race every week and given the pressure of the Christmas shopping season and the need to accumulate brownie points instead it is understandable that some events have to be given a miss.
Earlier Mary Jo Tumelty was 9th home in the Girls Under 11 race and was followed soon after by good performances from Aoife Cochrane, Amy Godfrey and Eimear Connor in the Under 13 Girls race, Aoife finishing strongly to snatch 9th by overtaking Amy 10th on the run in with Eimear in 14th place. It's clear that the increased levels of training are starting to pay off for these girls.
Next weekend it is the Dromore Cross Country meeting, which also has age group races and organiser Michael McGreevy will be hoping that the weather is kinder this year than last when heavy snow caused the cancellation of that event too.
Joe Quinn
4 December 2011
