East Antrim Harriers AC

It was Marathon today in both Belfast & London and we were delighted to hear of so many good times from our club members. Many miles of hard training paid off with several personal bests! In London, Nick Weston crossed the line in a fantastic time of 2.43, Ross Mercer also ran another personal best of 2.50, Peter Fraser finished in 3.21 and Matt McDowell in 3:22.   Closer to home, Colin James was our fastest athlete on the day running a brilliant 2.40, John Neill joined the sub-3 hour marathon club by running a time of 2.58, while Larry McAteer & Mark McElhinney finished close to each other in 3.35 & 3.36 respectively. Jonny Craig also notched up another marathon finish as he helped pace a younger runner in just over 4 hours. Well done to all our Marathon Runners for these fantastic results!

Another busy racing weekend with Harriers in action in two separate events over the past 24 hours. First up was Davy Lennon & Karen Hutchinson in the Ards 5 Mile Road Race. Both runners have joined the club in the last year, seeing significant progress in their running through consistent training. Davy backed this up by finishing in a time of 38.19 while Karen crossed the line in 47.48. This morning saw Ross Mercer continue his recent good form with an excellent time of 35.50 in the Washingbay Green 10k to finish in 6th position. Well done to all!

Both Chris Collins & Gareth continued their busy summer of racing with strong performances at the North Coast 10k this weekend. They both secured top 10 finishes on a tough course with Chris coming 6th in a time of 38.04 and Gareth finishing 10th in 39.24. Well done lads!

It was a great day out at the Antrim Coast Half Marathon with excellent performances & plenty of PBs from our 7 runners taking part. Nick Weston, Ross Mercer & Colin James all showed that their Autumn Marathon preparation was going well as they each delivered big personal bests. Rick Hill broke 80 minutes for the first time while Pete Fraser dipped well under 90 minutes & Tim Khanna also grabbed a PB.  Times below - well done to all. Nick Weston: 1.15.15 PB Ross Mercer: 1.15.57 PB Colin James: 1.16.18 PB Rick Hill: 1.19:41 PB Peter Fraser: 1.28.16 Jim Finlay: 1.37:26 Tim Khanna: 1.41:56 PB

Some great performances from Larne to report about soon, but let’s start our weekend round-up at yesterday’s Slieve Donard Mountain Race. Our two regular mountain runners Billy Reed & Gareth Blair both ran well and finished up the field. Billy placed 28th overall in a time of 1.11 while Gareth finished not far behind him in 38th position in 1.16. For reference, this is the time from the car-park to the top of Donard & back! Well done to both our runners.

Well done to Gareth Blair & Andy Liddle for their performances at Race Over The Glens yesterday. Gareth continued his busy summer of racing with a strong run to finish well up the field in 13th position. Andy returned to competitive racing action at one of his favourite races to finish in 75th position. Well done lads & thanks to Ballymena Runners for organising a great race.