Northern Ireland Mountain Running Association
www.nimra.org.uk

 

Glenariff Mountain Race

Sun 21 March 2004 - Ian Taylor

In very stormy conditions Neil Carty retained his title with Brian Ervine second and Gary Bailey of ACKC third. Junior Jonathan McCloy produced an excellent performance to finish fourth, ahead of top veterans Jim Brown and Billy Orr. Neil was a minute ahead of Brian on the descent but pulled out a further minute on the flat road section.

Race times were considerably slower than the two previous years as the course had to be diverted from the flooded riverside path to the road. In addition the recent heavy rain made the ground very slippery on the upper part of the mountain.

Violet Linton was the first lady but in a slow time due to an ankle injury on the descent. Teams were very closely matched, with Ballymena one point ahead of Larne, themselves only one point ahead of BARF.

In the Vet40 category Jim Brown just finished 5 seconds ahead of Billy Orr to claim the new class award presented by the race sponsor, Glens of Antrim potatoes. Jim Patterson claims he is getting younger so entered the vet50 category, hence taking the vet50 prize off Fred Hammond and in turn allowing a surprised Ricky Cowan to get the vet55 award. Fred & Ricky can hardly complain as Billy Magee, running as a spritely vet60, was well ahead of them both.
Race results are now on the web and thanks to the fast turnaround of Mark Alexander and his Ballymena photographers, photographs will be on shortly.
Thanks again to Ballymena Runners - its especially in adverse conditions that the excellence of the race organisation shows.