Check out this great opportunity to be part of the Northern Ireland teams! Anyone who is interested needs to take part in the Fallows Race.
Visit the NIMRA website for full information – https://www.nimra.org.uk/index.php/2021-nimra-championship-and-internationals/
Congratulations to Newcastle AC member Mark King, and Dale & Denise Mathers of Mourne Runners who recently completed “The Mourne 500 Challenge”.
This is a non-stop challenge to visit all points in the Mourne Mountains over 500m.
Read more about their achievement here – http://mourne500.blogspot.com/2021/07/denise-new-ladies-record-holder-dale.html
Race Report by Hill Runner
Race 3 of the NIMRA championship took place on Saturday July 17th, in stark contrast to what the Annalong Horseshoe was like, Spelga was an absolute scorcher. Race director, Mark Hopkins, did an excellent job transporting water and supplies to Deers Meadow, helped by a team of marshals from BARF club who organised the event. His briefing at the start wisely advised that anyone feeling the effects of the heat should consider retiring, an option some took at the Deers Meadow road crossing.
The race starts at Spelga Dam and straight into the first climb of Butter Mountain before dropping down to cross the road at Ott car park. Here begins the long climb up Meelbeg to C.P 1 on the summit, followed quickly to C.P 2 on top of Slieve Loughshannagh, then a long ascent to C.P 3 at Slieve Muck. A steep descent brings runners down to the road crossing at Deers Meadow where there was a very welcome water station. From here it’s the same route as the Hill & Dale to the summit of Slieve Moughanmore, and then another sharp drop before crossing a river and heading to Pierce’s Castle. Long grass and heather with lots of hidden boulders and holes make this section a lot harder than it looks. From here the next C.P is on top of Rocky, from the summit of Rocky you can see exactly how far you have left to go! Just another 2 mountains and I’m home! The long descent off is quite rough too, followed by another river crossing (bath) and onto the Hen track. A nice grassy trail brings runners to the summit of Hen Mountain followed by one of the toughest climbs of the day, Cock Mountain. A hard mountain to conquer on its own, never mind climbing it at the end of a race in scorching temperatures, that’s a slow, painful experience! Upon reaching its summit it is downhill all the way to Spelga’s dam wall, where runners climb the 28 steps of hell to reach the finish line. Continue reading
Congratulations to all the Newcastle AC Juniors who participated in the NIMRA Trial on Slieve Croob.
Those who took part from Newcastle AC were: Tess McAleavey, Aoibheann O’Gorman, Ciara Savage, Alea Brannigan, Ethan McMullan, Yasin Brannigan and Tom Crudgington
Tom, Ciara and Ethan were selected to represent Northern Ireland at the Home Countries Championship in Ambleside this week. Wishing you the very best of luck from everyone at Newcastle & District AC!
Full details including results are available on the NIMRA website: https://www.nimra.org.uk/index.php/junior-trail-race-entries-open/
Race Report by Hill Runner
Annalong Horseshoe
Race 2 of the NIMRA Championship got underway on Saturday 3rd July, with yet another change to the traditional route. This year seen the start line at the top of Carrick Little lane with the first checkpoint on Chimney Rock followed by Donard, Commedagh, Cove, Lamagan, Binnian North Tor and finishing back at Carrick Little.
Originally race director Trevor Wilson advertised the race as being a traditional fell race with free route choice between checkpoints, before making a last minute decision to put every route around the start line out of bounds leaving the only option for runners to continue on up the track to the corner of Annalong wood.
The forecast was for rain but on the day it stayed dry and the only weather concern was fog, fog so bad that it had reached low down around everything leaving no chance of getting a quick glimpse of a recognisable feature to help one navigate their way! Continue reading
The ChampionChip 5k took place at the Down Royal on Saturday 15 May, where three Newcastle AC runners took part.
In 20th place overall, Newcastle AC Junior 11 year-old Henry Houston ran a PB in an excellent time of 19.17.
The 3rd Lady to finish was Ashlene Mussen in 19:21 and in 12th place overall was Neil McGeough who finished with a time of 17:32. Both Ashlene and Neil ran PBs.
Photos courtesy of Keep Fit Ireland