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

Binevenagh Race

Thu 4 March 2010 - Ian Taylor

Congratulations to all who participated in the Binevenagh Race.  The winner was Jonny Steede of Ballymena Runners, closely followed by his shadow Alex Brennan.  In case you think the winning time of 68 minutes was a bit slow - ten minutes down for Jonny from his 2009 time - the athletes had a nice dry run through the forest only to find a foot of snow on the mountain slopes.  Further up there were deeper drifts.  Indeed race organiser Ivan had frantic efforts the previous evening to check if competitors were happy to race.

Ladies'winner was Karen Alexander with strong performances from orienteer Ciara Largey of Fermanagh and NI Mountain team member Diane Wilson.  Denise Mathers was not so fortunate, having to be helped out of a snow hole by a scout on an expedition - who just happened to be related to a NIMRA member!  Hazel McLaughlin tried out a real mountain race, as distinct from the "toy" Hill and Dale ones while her husband was even greener and will need a large bribe to be back.

A great variety of clubs appeared with Springwell springing a surprise with second team place and appearances from Sperrin, Lagan Valley, Triangle Triathlon and Abbey.  Team places were

1  Ballymena Runners    9

2  Springwell   41

3  Larne     53

4  Lagan Valley  74

5  BARF   75