Make Running a Regular Part of Your Life
Well done to Karen Wilson, Stephanie Hamilton and John Holmes for blasting round the Walled City 10 miler in Derry today. Conditions were perfect with Karen hitting an amazing PB and Steph making her 10mile debut for the club!
Karen Wilson – 1:28:37 (Personal Best)
John Holmes – 1:33:25
Stephanie Hamilton – 1:38:47 (Distance Debut)
Chris Dickey run in the Coleraine Campus 5k with just under 4 laps of the University grounds in perfect conditions.
Time: 23:51
CAH Marathon Superstar Suzanne Kennedy has completed the 2023 Tokyo Marathon this morning running a fantastic personal best of 3hrs 37 mins. Suzanne completed the 6 marathon majors this morning to get her Six Star medal. She is the first harrier to complete all 6 within a year. She ran every marathon from strength to strength with grit, determination and a smile. Suzanne is now also a Guinness world record holder for participating in the marathon with the most 6 star finishers! We are immensely proud of her as a club!
Time – 3:37:14 – Personal Best
Review of CAH Grass/XC Season 22/23
The 2022/23 XC season has come to a close.
It all began on 5th September with Helen and Ruth delivering an outstanding and very enjoyable series of grass training sessions for the 38 Club members who participated. Helen & Ruth’s dedication and hard work ensured we were well prepared for the XC season.
This year 19 Club members participated the various XC races throughout the season. It was by far the best turnout of Harriers for many years.
The season kicked of with the NI Masters qualifying race for the British and Irish XC in Dublin. Wendy once again was selected for the FV70 age category. She ran very strongly in Dublin wearing her NI vest with pride. Margaret was fortunate enough to attend and run in the Open Race. It was a very proud and memorable day for both.
The XC league races followed with the CAH ladies fielding a Team for 6 qualifying races, in Comber, Belfast, Cookstown, Mallusk, Stormont, and finally then NI Seniors XC in Comber.
We were joined this year by Aaron, Andrew, Darren, Sean and Stu who made up a Men’s Team for the Mathieson Cup. The men gave a great performance and we hope they will return next season.
Our new Club member Rachel McCartney joined us gave a fantastic performance in 4 of the League races. We also were delighted to welcome Emma and welcome back Carol Annesley who has recently recovered from a prolonged period of injury.
Overall we had a great XC season. We wore our club colours with pride. We look forward to more muddy adventures next season.
Sunday 26th February saw the last race in the XC season for our ladies XC team. They all put in sterling performances to finish strongly.
Rachel McCartney – 31:01
Irene Downey – 33:05
Karen Wilson – 33:09
Helen Baird – 35:37
Alison Henderson – 36:24
Margaret Beattie – 37:20
Emma Hill – 39:18
Wendy Forsythe – 41:18
Congratulations to John Holmes for running in perfect weather conditions today for the Sperrin Harriers 10 mile trail race at Parkanaur, Dungannon. This was the last race of the Winter series.
Time: 1:39:59
This morning eight harriers set off to gather some important points for the CAH Race Series by competing in the Born2Run RunForestRun Castlewellan 5&10km races.
The course consisted mostly of forest trail paths with a little bit of road. Proceedings started with the 10k event followed shortly after by the 5k. The start of the 10km was slightly delayed due to some congestion paying for car parking.
Conditions underfoot were favourable despite yesterday’s rain. Some mizzle didn’t faze our harriers with the sun even managing to breakout making the run mild but damp.
The 10k route started at the rangers hut, running towards the lake following the lakeside path. At the far end of the lake runners were directed up the Crow Road for the first of many inclines. Following this, we ran down past the rangers hut towards the walled gardens. From here runners ascended up behind the castle to the upper path through the forest. This path undulated with some challenging hills and speedy descents. Back at the lake runners faced the last push along the lakeside to the uphill finish sprint.
The 5k route followed the 10k route down along the lakeside before climbing up some mucky paths to rejoin the 10k route. After reaching the highest point of the race, a steep descent to the lake shore before pushing along the lake to the finish awaited the 5k runners.
10K
Suzanne Kennedy: 50:00
Irene Downey: 53:43
Suzanne Dickey: 57:22
Chris Dickey: 57:55
Carol Conn: 1:02:37
Margaret Beattie: 1:03:59
5K
Davina Catherwood: 33:25
Wendy Forsythe: 33:38
Eight fearless harriers ran a gruelling 3 lap course of Stormont Estate grounds providing a real challenge for the legs.
Rachel McCartney – 25:49
Karen Wilson – 27:20
Irene Downey – 27:29
Suzanne Dickey – 29:29
Margaret Beattie – 29:57
Helen Baird – 30:01
Alison Henderson – 30:21
Carol Annesley – 30:38
Irene Downey stormed round the Woodburn Forest course that undulated through the trails over 13.1 miles.
Time: 02:21:09
John Holmes finished strongly on the tough hilly two lap course at Drum Manor.
Time: 1:03:33
