Arwen doesn’t stop Springwell

Storm Arwen did its absolute best to cancel all of this weekends running events, but it takes more than 100mph winds to shut down the calendar totally.
By Una Culkin
Published 29th Nov 2021, 07:06 BST
Updated 29th Nov 2021, 09:35 BST
Deborah Archibald, Amanda Scott, Elaine Montgomery, Lorraine Abernethy & Catherine Byers at Buncrana ParkrunDeborah Archibald, Amanda Scott, Elaine Montgomery, Lorraine Abernethy & Catherine Byers at Buncrana Parkrun
Deborah Archibald, Amanda Scott, Elaine Montgomery, Lorraine Abernethy & Catherine Byers at Buncrana Parkrun

There were still more than enough Parkruns to go round, Born to Run hosted their trail race in Loughgall and further afield, in better weather, the club marathon record was broken at the 37th Florence Marathon.

37th Florence Marathon

The preparation for a marathon rarely goes smoothly and James Thompson’s run into Sunday’s 37th Florence Marathon was far from easy.

James Thompson at the Florence MarathonJames Thompson at the Florence Marathon
James Thompson at the Florence Marathon
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James’s initial plan was to target the London Marathon on October 3, but a calf injury resulted in James being unable to make the start line in London and a new plan being formulated.

The Florence marathon on November 28 allowed another eight weeks to rehabilitate and prepare but even this didn’t enable a full recovery, and, despite the best efforts of his coach Colin Loughery, doubts remained about his fitness as he put his toe to the start line.

The mark of a great athlete isn’t so much what they can do when things are going well, but how they respond to the challenge of setback and adversity and James certainly dug deep to produce a spectacular personal best time and set a new

Springwell RC record for the marathon with a time of 2:33:17.

Parkrun

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20 Springwell runners braved the cold and windy conditions in three venues with one personal best recorded by club captain Carolyn in Comber.

The conditions made chasing the personal best times rather difficult. Thanks to those who volunteered so that the Parkrun could go ahead.

Portrush - Chris Denton 19:41, Maurice Walker 21:16, Alan Nevin 21:34, Rhys Walker 24:24, Mervyn Thompson 24:57, Alan Platt 26:11, Paul Moore 26:49, Andrew Wilmot 27:35, Fergal Mackle 28:21, Alanna Millar 28:53, Janet Patrick 28:54, Liz Dowey 29:26, Grainne Moore 30:03, Emer Thompson 35:24

Comber - Carolyn Crawford 25:56 PB

Buncrana - Amanda Scott 29:29, Elaine Montgomery 30:07, Deborah Archibald 30:16, Catherine Byers 31:19, Lorraine Abernethy 31:36

Born to Run “Run Forest Run”

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The second race of the “Run Forest Run” 5k trail series took place on Saturday, November 27 at Loughgall Country Park where Caroline Owen was Springwell RC’s sole representative finishing 102nd in a time of 38.01.

Related topics:Loughgall