In the first full week of the new year NBH runners were taking advantage of the unseasonably mild weather and recording fine performances at various events up and down the country.
Race Over The Glens (Monday 2nd January)
With New Year’s Day falling on a Sunday this year, the annual race over the Glens took place instead on Monday the 2nd of January. A total of 17 NBH athletes competed, with fine weather conditions belying some dangerously icy conditions particularly on the road sections near the race start. At the front of the field in the men’s race Mark McKinstry was attempting to lead from the gun with Zak Hanna (Newcastle & District AC) in close attention in the early stages. Lying third, Kent Swann was running a fine race a little behind the battle for the lead and maintaining a significant gap over talented athletes behind. In the ladies race, Penny Lindsay was leading it out with Martsje Hell in contention and with all 5 of the NBH ladies well inside the top 20, things were also looking good for the ladies team competition.
By the finish, Zak Hanna had opened up a 30 second gap on Mark McKinstry who crossed the line in 2nd place. Completing the podium in 3rd place was Kent Swann in possibly a career best performance reaping the rewards for his hard work and dedication.
In the ladies race the top two places also changed hands before the end with Martsje Hell crossing the line in 1st place, with Penny Lindsay in 2nd not far behind, and despite having fallen twice in the icy conditions. Janice Plumb maintained a strong run from start to finish for a 6th place finish and with Ita McCambridge in 11th and Una McConnell in 14th, the ladies team prize was secured.
There were also age category wins for Nat Glenn (M50), Penny Lindsay (F45) and Ita McCambridge (F55) completing a successful event for the club.
Full results:
| Pos | First name | Last Name | Cat | Chip time |
| 2 | Mark | McKinstry | MO | 0:35:50 |
| 3 | Kent | Swann | MO | 0:38:15 |
| 14 | Vernon | Shiels | M35 | 0:40:43 |
| 16 | Nat | Glenn | M50 | 0:41:18 |
| 37 | Stephen | Walker | M35 | 0:43:56 |
| 47 | Martsje | Hell | FO | 0:45:05 |
| 51 | Penelope | Lindsay | F45 | 0:45:22 |
| 79 | Janice | Plumb | F45 | 0:47:35 |
| 89 | Paddy | McCambridge | M50 | 0:48:26 |
| 98 | Peter | McClelland | MO | 0:48:54 |
| 120 | Ita | McCambridge | F55 | 0:50:39 |
| 144 | Una | McConnell | F35 | 0:53:36 |
| 160 | Paul | Williams | M55 | 0:54:35 |
| 163 | John | Steele | M50 | 0:54:43 |
| 165 | Gordon | Glenn | M50 | 0:54:24 |
| 216 | Sandy | Plumb | M45 | 0:57:54 |
| 264 | Robert | Irvine | M55 | 1:01:25 |
Belfast New Year Victoria Park 5K & 10K
The latest in the series of races in Victoria Park organised by Duathlon NI also took place on Monday 2nd January. With all proceeds going towards Belfast Tandem Cycling Group, these are well organised races with chip timing and split times recorded at the end of each lap. With 57 runners in the 10k and 66 in the 5k the top performance was by our own Brendan Grew who stormed home to win the 10k in 35:06.
Moira Cross Country
The popular Moira cross country races took place on Saturday 07 January, with fine performances by 5 club athletes. The race was won by Gerard Heany (St Peter’s AC) after a late surge took him past Eamonn White in 2nd place and Neil Carty in 4th. In the ‘sticky’ conditions the top 4 were separated by only 18 seconds at the end, with both Eamonn and Neill also securing age category wins.
Full results:
| Pos | First Name | Surname | Cat | Time |
| 2 | Eamonn | White | M45 | 19:44 |
| 4 | Neill | Carty | M50 | 19:51 |
| 26 | Sean | McShane | M40 | 22:13 |
| 35 | John | Patience | M50 | 22:51 |
| 54 | Jim | Newberry | M60 | 24:28 |
Belfast Telegraph RUN FOREST RUN – Tollymore (Born2run)
The latest race in the ‘Run Forest Run’ series also took place on Saturday 7th January and attracted over 700 athletes across the 5k and 10k events, including 7 from the club. In the 5k race, Padraigin Bingham continued her comeback in some style with a 39:50 clocking. In the 10k, Marty Rea was best placed of the club runners in 7th place and winning the M40 category in 38:54.
Full results:
| Tollymore 5k | ||||
| Pos | Firstname | Lastname | Cat | Chiptime |
| 103 | Padraigin | Bingham | F40 | 00:39:50 |
| Tollymore 10k | ||||
| Pos | Firstname | Lastname | Cat | Chiptime |
| 7 | Marty | Rea | M40 | 0:38:54 |
| 105 | Gordon | Glenn | M45 | 0:48:39 |
| 252 | Anthony | Fleming | M40 | 0:55:03 |
| 259 | John | Beggs | M50 | 0:55:11 |
| 513 | Anne Marie | Clarken | F40 | 1:07:55 |
| 514 | Martin | Kelly | M40 | 1:07:55 |
Sperrin Harriers Lough Fea 5k
Race 2 of the Sperrin Harriers ongoing winter league series also took place on Saturday 07 January with runners negotiating a 5k circuit around Lough Fea outside Cookstown. A number of experienced NBH athletes made the trip to take advantage of the fine conditions and record excellent performances.
Full Results:
| Pos | Time | Firstname | Surname | Cat |
| 109 | 0:24:29 | Lynn | McCullough | F45 |
| 121 | 0:25:00 | Philip | McIlwrath | M40 |
| 129 | 0:25:22 | Donna | McLoughlin | F40 |
| 130 | 0:25:25 | Sandy | Carr | F35 |
| 134 | 0:25:43 | John | Burns | M45 |
| 151 | 0:26:55 | Eadaoin | Donaldson | FO |
| 152 | 0:26:55 | Irene | McGreevy | F35 |
| 190 | 0:31:47 | Nisha | Sharma | FO |
Armagh “Beat the January Blues” marathon
In the final event of the weekend, over 100 runners competed in this marathon and associated 20 mile, half marathon and 10k events in Armagh. In the feature event on the challenging 4-lap course the outstanding performance came from our own Louise Smith who gave a demonstration of marathon running to win the race outright and record an outstanding time of 2:57:10.
parkrun
Results from the various parkrun events on Saturday 07 January were:
Falcarragh parkrun # 53 – 07/01/2017
| 2 | Joe DRAIN | 21:36 | PB stays at 00:20:01 |
Malahide parkrun # 218 – 07/01/2017
| 32 | Colin SIMPSON | 21:43 | First Timer! |
Bangor parkrun # 141 – 07/01/2017
| 6 | Luke KELLY | 19:41 | First Timer! |
| 111 | Daniel KELLY | 26:16 | First Timer! |
Belfast Victoria parkrun # 299 – 07/01/2017
| 176 | Philomena DONALDSON | 29:40 | PB stays at 00:28:37 |
| 178 | Bernadette DUFFY | 29:47 | PB stays at 00:29:37 |
Colin Glen parkrun # 62 – 07/01/2017
| 33 | Elaine HOLMES | 30:02 | PB stays at 00:25:45 |
Larne parkrun # 158 – 07/01/2017
| 1 | David CLARKE | 18:11 | New PB! |
| 14 | Callum MCILROY | 24:07 | PB stays at 00:20:41 |
| 20 | Sandy PLUMB | 24:44 | PB stays at 00:22:17 |
Ormeau parkrun # 185 – 07/01/2017
| 17 | Mark SHIELDS | 19:51 | PB stays at 00:19:08 |
| 31 | Eva KISSENPFENNIG | 20:48 | PB stays at 00:20:21 |
| 382 | Drew CRAWFORD | 36:21 | PB stays at 00:27:06 |
Queen’s parkrun, Belfast # 252 – 07/01/2017
| 11 | Damien GILL | 20:28 | PB stays at 00:20:03 |
| 18 | Ciaran HUNTER | 21:15 | PB stays at 00:20:24 |
| 33 | John LAVERY | 23:41 | PB stays at 00:20:04 |
| 82 | Thomas MCKINSTRY | 27:02 | PB stays at 00:26:04 |
Valley parkrun, Newtownabbey # 124 – 07/01/2017
| 20 | Kevin MCCANN | 24:26 | New PB! |
Wallace parkrun, Lisburn # 191 – 07/01/2017
| 4 | John MCCONNELL | 19:24 | PB stays at 00:18:24 |
Waterworks parkrun, Belfast # 327 – 07/01/2017
| 8 | Jim BENSON | 19:36 | PB stays at 00:17:26 |
| 10 | Niall ARMSTRONG | 19:49 | PB stays at 00:19:35 |
| 11 | Simon REEVE | 19:54 | PB stays at 00:17:48 |
| 14 | Conor O’RAWE | 19:58 | PB stays at 00:18:30 |
| 18 | Eamon SHERIDAN | 20:03 | New PB! |
| 19 | Frankie SMYTH | 20:14 | PB stays at 00:20:11 |
| 23 | Matthew LAVERY | 20:43 | PB stays at 00:20:22 |
| 25 | Gerard SOWNEY | 20:47 | New PB! |
| 26 | Drew KNOX | 20:53 | PB stays at 00:18:42 |
| 28 | David CURRAN | 21:05 | PB stays at 00:19:01 |
| 34 | John Gerard MURPHY | 21:58 | PB stays at 00:18:49 |
| 47 | Sandy CARR | 22:55 | New PB! |
| 51 | Tony REID | 23:20 | PB stays at 00:21:50 |
| 55 | Lyle CARLETON | 23:53 | PB stays at 00:22:33 |
| 62 | Katrina MCAULEY | 24:12 | New PB! |
| 66 | Jim CLINTON | 24:29 | PB stays at 00:21:37 |
| 117 | Liam SMYTH | 26:57 | PB stays at 00:26:32 |
| 127 | Jason REID | 27:18 | PB stays at 00:21:46 |
| 133 | Joan GRIEVE | 27:31 | PB stays at 00:27:22 |
| 137 | Chris O’DONOGHUE | 27:38 | PB stays at 00:24:31 |
| 139 | Marian HAYES | 27:52 | PB stays at 00:24:30 |
| 151 | Greg TURNER | 28:40 | First Timer! |
| 166 | Kerry MCSHANE | 29:44 | PB stays at 00:25:04 |
| 168 | Sean MCSHANE | 29:47 | PB stays at 00:18:34 |
| 170 | Claire BRADY | 29:53 | PB stays at 00:27:11 |
| 177 | Jacqueline LAWLOR | 30:03 | PB stays at 00:28:58 |
| 178 | Michael LAWLOR | 30:04 | PB stays at 00:25:44 |
| 196 | Philomena MC LARNON | 31:25 | First Timer! |
| 207 | Ciara SEYMOUR | 32:24 | PB stays at 00:31:29 |
| 208 | Catherine CARLETON | 32:28 | PB stays at 00:31:42 |
| 219 | Mick MURRAY | 33:55 | PB stays at 00:28:38 |
| 236 | James TOAL | 36:56 | PB stays at 00:30:52 |
| 237 | Sinead TOAL | 37:12 | PB stays at 00:35:28 |
| 267 | Rosy RYAN | 69:01 | PB stays at 00:36:00 |