Yes it’s the start of the BRC races series and once again we kick off at Stormont Cross Country and a big thanks to Mags Mathieson and all the NICS team for organising the great event.
Our five ladies and nine gentlemen met at the lovely blue no expense fared pop up gazebo. Two notable absentees from the line up were Ciaran Toner (some sort of excuse about going to a wedding) and Davy Hanna having to withdraw through illness (yes he is human) but great to see him out supporting the rest of the runners.
First off it was the ladies race and Aine zoomed her way round in a fantastic time of 21.49 followed in by Liz, Jill (our current race series champion) Grannie and Donna (showing her competitive edge at the finish).
And the men? Well first in was Callum no doubt galvanised by absence of Ciaran he was flying along nicely followed in by David H (he might have won but was probably thinking about how the hell is he gonna put the results together) and 3rd in was Brendan (who had also ran a sub 19 parkrun at Victoria park that morning amazing running but he could have already blown his race series chances . Big shout out to all our other men half marathon king Mark R who looked as if he was having a nice day out in the country, Andrew (he really needs to get a black top), “Johnny come Lately” Porter, Matthew M on his first cross country which he absolutely loved , a very trimmed out Paul Mcgorry quietly getting on with it and Chris Gilbert who his hid number the whole race except when he passed the familiar looking marshal at the end and the number magically appeared!
A big shout out to Alan Brown for the fantastic pictures which can be viewed in our Club members Facebook page and to the BRC support crew cheering on the runners. Also to Grainne for showing those other two clampets how to fold the “gazebo” up.So where does that leave the standings after race one. Our early leader is Liz, followed by last years champ Jill then Brendan and our two fastest runners Aine and Callum (the joys of being young in age graded scoring) completing the top five. Thanks to David Hynds for compiling the results which can be found here.
Next up for the race series is Queens 5K and maybe Ciaran will turn up as he has some catching up to do , now if only Brendan could have taken the maximum 50 points.
AH