February 2016 Seapark parkrun round-up

6^th February

It was Carrickfergus’s 100^th parkrun plus their 2^nd anniversary cakerun on 6^th.  The theme was pairs and quite a few people took the opportunity to play dress up (any excuse for some).  There was Team Dick Dastardly, Team 118, Team Disney, Team Alice, Team Peckham, Team Potato Head, Team Mario Bros, Team MIB, Team Seapark and what can only be described as Team Red/Blue WTF (At least they were wearing Seapark colours).

Robert Murray, Jonathan Beattie, Bobbie Irvine, Charlie McCormick, Ruth Hawkins, Trevor Lamb, Derek Kane, Karen Poag, Angela McCormick, Alan Poag, Glenda Murray, Julie-Ann Mitchell, Philip ‘50^th parkrun’ Poag, Beverley Kernoghan, Sara Johnston, Ian Cleland and Neill Harper where all in attendance for this milestone event.

While that was going on Richard Hetherington attended Portrush for the first time, Clive Weatherhead made his 7^th appearance at Wallace, plus Ronald Simms (on his 3^rd parkrun and 1^st at Antrim), Karen Waring, Karen McMaster, Becki Tester and Colin McCrum (who was beaten to the finish line by his son Connor) used Antrim parkrun as a warm-up for the 1^st Antrim B2R 10K.

Back over in Never Never Land Gavin Irvine returned to the Peter Pan parkrun for the 2^nd time, achieving a course PB of 23:10.

13^th February

Attending the 101th Carrickfergus event were Ryan Weatherhead, Iain Hunter, Colin McCrum, Gareth Hamill, Derek Kane, Philip Poag & Brendan Rice.

The 22 NI parkrun crowd took advance of the cake on offer @ Waterworks (thanks to parkrun Jim’s 250^th parkrun) and added another notch to the list of their ever increasing events attended so far this year.  Robert Murray was the first Seaparker home (with a PB for Waterworks), and was followed by Bobbie Irvine (saving his energy for the Last One Standing event the following weekend, and we all know by now how that turned out), Allan Grant, Trevor Lamb, Alan Poag, Glenda Murray and Julie-Ann Mitchell (who was also beaten to the finish line by her son Harry’s sprint finish).

Further afield, but still in NI, Ronald Simms attended Citypark, Craigavon for the 1^st time and achieved an overall PB for parkrun (19:04), while Gary Craig ran Ormeau and Marie Nicholson went to Larne for the first time (testing the course out before Andy’s parkrun challenge starts next month).

It’s a pity no Seaparker did a parkrun in Scotland on 13^th because we had participants in the North and South of Ireland, England and Wales.  Richard Hetherington went to his 2^nd timed run at the original parkrun (Bushy park), Gavin Irvine used some more pixie dust to get to the Peter Pan parkrun, Neill Harper was representing Seapark AC at the first Dolgellau parkrun and Becki Tester achieved an overall parkrun PB of 28:15 on her 25^th parkrun, and first appearance, at Dundalk.  Sorry Becki, but it’s not going to count towards your NI parkrun challenge.

20^th February

It was another good turnout for Carrickfergus parkrun on 20^th February.  Charlie McCormick was the first Seaparker home again (yawn) and was followed by Jonathan Beattie, Patrick Hughes (1^st run at Carrickfergus), Gareth Hamill, Jenny Robinson, Philip Poag, Neill ‘I really kept it quite about my 50^th parkrun outing’ Harper, Alyson Sangster (new parkrun PB of 30:35), Brendan Rice and Julie-Ann Mitchell.

The 22 Group went to Wallace, Lisburn. Robert Murray took 10^th place (obtaining an overall 5K PB of 20:59) and even had time for some tea and cake before the 2^nd Seaparker (Allan Grant) crossed the finish line (yes, with his barcode).  They were followed by Derek Kane, Karen Waring, Trevor Lamb, Alan Poag, Michael Kane (a new member to the Michael Kane 22 NI parkrun 2016 challenge), Ruth Hawkins, who (would you Adam and Eve it) was beat to the finish line by her son Ethan, Glenda Murray and Geraldine Kane.

If that wasn’t enough Becki Tester partook in her 1^st run at Ecos, Ballymena, Gary Craig made another trip to Ormeau, Karen McMaster returned to Valley (achieving a Valley PB for 31:56) for the first time since their inaugural run many moons ago, and Ian Cleland & Sara Johnston (also getting ahead of Andy’s parkrun challenge) went to Larne. 

Ian got a course PB for Larne with 20:12.  That now makes Ian the top Seaparker at Larne, stealing the top spot from Bobbie Irvine (with a time of 20:58).  That sound you hear is Bobbie running down to the Larne parkrun course for a short 126 hour warm-up before he does the Larne parkrun.

27^th February

It was the latest Jog Graduation at Carrickfergus on 27^th February.  The parkrun was attended by Brendan Rice, Robert Steele (with a new parkrun PB of 21:42. Robert’s old PB was still 21:42, but at the much more flat Victoria), Jonathon Bell, Gillian Strudwick (with a parkrun PB of 23:28), Bobbie Irvine, Neill Harper, Karen Waring and unknown runner/s.

It was off to the 4^th Anniversary run at Queens (#BaconButtyRun) for Allan Grant, Derek Kane, Trevor Lamb and Alan Poag.  It was a bit like Thunderdome as four men started but only three men finished.  Alan Poag either ran out too fast at the start, doesn’t understand the concept of laps (there was two, not one) or was just trying to be nice to Michael Kane by letting him catch up with the 22 challenge (as Michael’s only did one parkrun so far this year).  The jury’s still out, but after running an 8:45 mile (his fastest in a while) Alan stopped after the first lap.  Don’t worry folks, he was still well enough to eat the post run bacon butty straight after. 

It was the first time at Queens for Allan Grant and Derek Kane (who just overtook Trevor Lamb at the last second) while Trevor Lamb managed to get a PB for the Queens course (26:03).

Four other Seaparkers went to Ecos (#NoBaconButtyRun).  Mark Welsh (1^st time at Ecos), Richard Hetherington (2^nd time at Ecos), Alison Welsh (1^st time at Ecos) and Karen McMaster (1^st time at Ecos) all participated.  Richard and Karen even used it as a warm-up for the ABO Wind NI Raceview 10K.  That’s the second time this month that Karen’s used a parkrun as a warm-up for a race.  The Larne half is coming up so I wonder if she’ll continue the trend?

I’m not aware of any children beating their parents this week, but if I’m wrong feel free to laugh at said parents to their faces.  I do know that Gary Craig returned to Ormeau (with a new parkrun PB of 24:19), Iain Hunter went to Bangor (1^st run at Bangor), Patrick Hughes attended Valley and Gavin Irvine went back to Hull.

Race to 100

Karen McMaster (AKA Team Chair) is at 73 parkruns as off 27/02/16.

Allan Grant (AKA Team Barcode) is at 72 parkruns as off 27/02/16.

Trevor Lamb (AKA Team Wolf) is at 71 parkruns as off 27/02/16.

Glenda Murray (AKA Team Devious) is at 70 parkruns as off 27/02/16.

Official hashtag #Raceto100

Seapark charity parkrun challenge

We now have 16 confirmed participants (though two have yet to start) for the 22 NI parkrun challenge as Colin ‘No Facebook’ McCrum has now joined.  At the start of the month Bobbie Irvine and Glenda Murray where in the lead with 6 different parkruns each (Wait!!  This is a race?  Well no, but how else should I measure it?) while our leader Michael Kane was yet to start. Now the leaderboard looks a bit different.  As of 27^th February it looks like this.

Allan Grant (8)

Antrim, Comber, Ormeau, Queens, Stormont, Victoria, Wallace & Waterworks.

Bobbie Irvine (8)

Antrim, Carrickfergus, Comber, Ecos, Ormeau, Stormont, Valley & Waterworks.

Trevor Lamb (8)

Antrim, Carrickfergus, Comber, Ormeau, Queens, Stormont, Wallace & Waterworks.

Glenda Murray (8)

Antrim, Carrickfergus, Comber, Ormeau, Queens, Stormont, Wallace & Waterworks.

Karen Waring (7)

Antrim, Carrickfergus, Comber, Ormeau, Stormont, Wallace & Valley.

Derek Kane (6)

Carrickfergus, Comber, Queens, Stormont, Wallace & Valley.

Robert Murray (5)

Carrickfergus, Antrim, Queens, Wallace & Waterworks.

Alison Welsh (4)

Carrickfergus, Ecos, Queens & Stormont.

Geraldine Kane (3)

Queens, Valley & Wallace.

Alan Poag (3)

Carrickfergus, Wallace & Waterworks.

Becki Tester (3)

Antrim, Carrickfergus & Ecos.

Julie Kelly (2)

Queens & Valley.

Colin McCrum (2)

Antrim & Carrickfergus.

Michael Kane (1)

Wallace.

Megan Kane (0)

N/A

Carol Woods (0)

N/A

The two charities are Brainwaves NI and Macmillian Cancer Support.  Remember that if each of the two charities reaches the £2500 target then Michael Kane and Trevor Lamb will get their legs waxed and then run a 10K with nice waxed legs.  You know that the suffering of others will make you feel better so dig deep.

Just Giving link

Official hashtag #AllNIparkruns2016

Andy’s parkrun challenge 2016

March will see the return of Andy’s parkrun challenge, but remember it won’t start until 26/03/16.  The rules are the same as last year but the courses are different.  Between 26/03/16-29/10/16 participants will have 32 weeks to complete three different parkruns, plus volunteer at Carrickfergus at least once.  The parkruns will be Carrickfergus, Larne and the third one will be any of the participants own choosing.  Age grade percentage will decide the winner.  So for most of us that means that the challenge will be stopping all the really fast runners from doing parkruns between 26/03/16-29/10/16.

Official hashtag #APC2016