WITH Storm Ciara hitting the headlines last weekend, the prospect of taking part in a cross country race wasn’t very appealing.
However, Murlough AC turned out in force at the Stormont cross country race last weekend to help earn some more well needed points for the club.
Pat Shields, once again, was very productive in her team recruitment, encouraging an impressive field of 16 runners to making the journey to the ‘House on the Hill’.
We met in Clough to organise the car share and headed up the road with the gazebo and an impressive spread of sandwiches, cake and tea/coffee supplied by Norah Walsh.
Once on site and with the gazebo set up, some were heard saying how calm and peaceful it was, which was surprising considering that there was a storm warning for the weekend.
After saying that, we all knew that the gazebo would be in for a hammering later on.
Of all the races in the cross country series, Stormont has always been the driest and has the most favourable running conditions, which makes a welcome break from the some of the past races where most club members have finished their race knee high in mud.
The morning was taken up with all the junior races and then the womens’ race began just after mid-day. Eleven Mac ladies took to the line in a field of 181 — three laps of a 1.1 mile loop up the avenue and back.
Gillian Stevens led the club group right from the start and was first club runner home and 48th overall. She was closely followed by Pat Shields, who was less than a minute behind her, resulting in the same first and second positions as last weekend in the Irwin Spiers Cross Country in Cookstown.
Paula McKibbin was next home and she has shown an incredible improvement this year. Anne McCormick followed closely, then Charisse Poland, Donna Baker, Michelle Graham, Judith Robinson and finally Cindy Rush, Norah Walsh and Teresa Armstrong all finished together.
The five MAC men were next and got better value for money for their entry fee as they were treated to four laps of the course.
Once again, Gary Cull displayed incredible pacing as he set off at a fast pace right from the start, leading the MAC men all the way and finishing overall in 73rd out of a field of 201 in a time of 28:48.
Eamon McCann was next, just over a minute later followed by Hugh Oram, Marty Rawlinson and Stephen McMahon.
As we all gathered at the finish line, congratulating each other on a job well done and celebrating more points won for our club, we soon began to make our way back to the gazebo to enjoy our well-earned sandwiches and tea, only to see our gazebo being lifted by Storm Ciara and blown across the park.
Thankfully, some of our neighbouring clubs grabbed a hold of it before it disappeared down the Newtownards Road, but alas, the feast of food which we had all been looking forward to was not to be as the sandwiches were scattered across the grass.