Larne AC: Club News

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Club News 2010

Details of the Premier Power Larne Half Marathon can be found at:

http://www.freewebs.com/larnehalfmarathon

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BELFAST MARATHON

Congratulations to Paul Gaskell, who yesterday added his name to Larne AC’s ever-expanding list of sub-three hour marathon runners when he ran yet another PB to finish Belfast in a chipped time of 2.59.15. Paul’s racing and training is very much marathon oriented these days and it was good to see all his hard work paying off.

However, Paul wasn’t the only runner in the club to chalk up a PB. Phelim McAllister knocked almost fourteen minutes off the time he set in Belfast last year when he crossed the line in 3.09.41. Phelim’s preparations for this year's race were somewhat interrupted as he had to fit his training in and around his day job and his farming duties so, all in all, getting within two minutes of Greg’s time in London was no mean feat.

Brian Herron was the third Larne AC runner home in a time of 3.16.27. Not knowing Brian’s racing history, I can’t say where this time ranks in his list of running achievements, or even whether he was pleased with his run, but two things I can say with some degree of certainty are that: one, when spotted around the twenty-mile mark he looked far too comfortable and, two, he will run a considerably faster time when he next straps his shoes on for a marathon.

The fourth runner in Larne’s “official” contingent was Amy Beggs, who stopped the clock at 4.39.58. Amy clearly had a bad day at the office, but nevertheless did well to finish. It may well be time for Amy to cut down her training and give her body a chance to fully recover from the long miles she’s been putting in over the past few months.

Rumour has it that Stephen Harkens also made an appearance yesterday, although the only Harkens in the results was “David”. Was it merely a rumour? Did Stephen run under a pseudonym? Is his middle name David? Who knows the secrets of the Black Magic box?

Along with the runners in the marathon, the Club also put out four relay teams, imaginatively called Larne AC “A”, Larne AC “B”, Larne AC “C” and Larne AC “Ladies”. It’s a good job we’re not a walking club or we would have had a team called Larne WC Ladies. I’m lead to believe that, before the messages mysteriously disappeared off the website, there was some debate about how far the A Team would finish in front of the B Team – a minimum of ten minutes was the figure I heard. As it turned out, the A Team did manage to finish in fifth place, two places ahead of the B Team, but the actual time difference between the two teams was just over seven minutes (2.33.05 compared to 2.40.15) so, with the B Team having clearly established its moral superiority for 2010, the A Team, or what passes for an A Team, will have to wait a full year before another opportunity to fail miserably presents itself. One can only imagine how much worse the situation would have been for the A Team had it been made up solely of “open” runners.

The C Team, despite the fears of at least one of its members that it would finish as much as forty-five minutes adrift of the A and B Teams, finished in the very creditable time of 3.02.00. It’s a good job Paul Tilson isn’t responsible for setting handicaps. Not to be outdone or, indeed, outshone, the Ladies Team put together a series of excellent individual performances to finish in 3.44.25. Hopefully the team’s performance will encourage the rest of the female runners in the club to pull on their racing shoes as we enter a particularly busy time in the local athletics calendar.

Ladies Team – Kirsty Sharratt, Jenny Magill, Ruth Wilson, Shirley McGuckin and Elaine Hall

C Team – James Robinson, Eddie Finn, Paul Tilson, Alvyn McQuitty and Peter Marrs

B Team – James Brown, Stephen Kennedy, Kieran Sharratt, John Agnew and Billy Thompson

A Team – Craig Hutchinson, Mark McManus, Ryan Maxwell, Bert Brady and Andy Gregg