Belfast Marathon round-up
Mon 2 May 2011--admin
Heather Ardis (formerly Martin) had a brilliant run in the Belfast City Marathon this morning, knocking some 5 mins off her PB to set new figures of 3 hrs 12 mins. This great performance in hot conditions placed her as 6th lady overall and 2nd local athlete from the record field of over 3500 in the main race.
It must have been hard for Orla Smyth to get used to seeing her face plastered on billboards all over the city in the build-up to the race, but she’ll be delighted with her run as she and husband Declan Morgan came in a few minutes inside their 4 hour target. Well done to both and of course a special mention to Orla who as a transplant athlete herself and face of the official transplant charity for the event delivered a great run under pressure!
In the relay event City of Lisburn fielded a mixed team who were hoping to beat three and a quarter hours. Heather McLarnon was a late call-up on the first leg for the hamstrung Trevor Carruthers and she got the squad off to a flyer with 41:50 for the first leg which is basically a 10k. Jonny McWhinney took 23:25 for his 3.5 mile leg which wound it’s way up through West Belfast where Sean McGurnaghan was waiting for him for leg three. Sean can be found fell racing up the Mourne Mountains this weather so the notorious Antrim Road stretch held no fear for him and he ran 53:30 for his 7.2 miles. Peter and Callum Shaw took the last two legs, both of approximately five miles. Good runs by both of inside 33 mins saw Callum finish in Ormeau park in 3 hrs 06 mins!
This left the squad in a highly respectable 25th place in the relay event out of 2280 teams and in the top 10 for mixed teams. Sub 3 hrs next year???
Well done to all who competed today.