East Antrim Harriers AC

Another diverse set of races for the runners of East Antrim Harriers this weekend as Chris Collins completed the Highland Fling in Scotland, Nick Weston finished on the podium in The Wall Duathlon and Ross Mercer ran a track personal best over 5000m on the track. In the 53-mile Ultra Trail Race, Chris ran strongly to finish inside the Top 30 of the prestigious Highland Fling in a time of 9 hours and 35 minutes. Yet another impressive ultra performance from Chris which is good reward for another strong training block. Then in the Mourne Mountains, Nick Weston ran and biked in the front group from the off in The Wall Duathlon Race. In an excellent return to racing, Nick battled for the lead in the early stages before finishing in 2nd position. Finally, at the highly competitive ‘Afternoon of 5000s’ organised by North Belfast Harriers, Ross Mercer continued his fine season of racing over shorter distance to record yet another impressive time. This time Ross finished 6th in his race in a s

It’s great to see our club colours represented on different continents as two of our club members have been racing overseas in recent days. Mark McElhinney was our sole representative at today’s 126th Boston marathon and he finished in a time of 3.41 to complete yet another marathon. Well done Mark! David Turtle also continued his return to form with an excellent run in the Middle Eastern heat to finish 4th in the Dubai 10k in plus 30 degree heat despite being at 6.30am in the morning! This brought Davy a first place position in his category.

It’s been a busy week of racing culminating in some podium appearances. Firstly, well done to Chris Collins & David Turtle who finished 1st & 3rd respectively at the Glenarm Half Marathon. Chris took the win in a time of 1.23.06 while David showed a great return to form by taking 3rd in 1.25.31. Elsewhere in the 10k, Phil Smyth finished in 49.46 while Davy Lennon crossed the line in 53.30. Nicole & Peter Tucker also ran in the Vet65 Category finishing in 1.04 & 1.24 respectively. Earlier in the week, Billy Reed completed yet another epic race, this time in the form of the Northern Traverse - a 189 mile route crossing England from coast to coast. Billy showed his incredible endurance to run for 58 hours to finish in 12th position. Also this week, Ross Mercer competed in the Queens 5k Road Race, continuing his good form this year to record another impressive time of 16.44. Well done to all!

Another impressive weekend of running from some of our athletes. This time it was the start of the road marathon season with Colin James, Rick Hill & Peter Fraser putting their winter training blocks to the test in Manchester. Colin James notched up yet another fast marathon, finishing in a time of 2.42. Rick Hill took 5 minutes off his PB to run 2.54 and Peter Fraser finished in 3.17, which was also a PB. Elsewhere, John Neill continued his fine form by finishing Omagh Half Marathon in 16th position in another PB time of 1.16.10.  We are also continuing to monitor the irrepressible Billy Reed who is currently approximately 180km into a 300km race across the breadth of England!