Aoife reaches 100 parkruns

Aoife reaches 100 parkruns

24 April 2024

FOR many of the Newcastle AC junior members, at 9.30am on Saturday mornings you can find them ready to take on their local parkrun.

Throughout the world, the 5K routes take place every week and the parkrun community, regardless of what venue you attend, are always very welcoming of all ages and all abilities. 

Whether you are out for a personal best or just get a chat in with friends, there are so many friendships and fitness stories that start at parkrun. 

Welcomed to the elusive 100 parkrun club this month was Aoife Grant from Newcastle AC’s U-14 squad, joining older brother Rónán and friend Emily Kerr in achieving this milestone in recent months. 

This equates to 500k, and over two years worth of Saturday mornings in total spent completing parkrun. 

Of the 100 parkruns Aoife has completed, 98 of those happened at her local parkrun in Castlewellan. 

A huge achievement for this young 12 year-old, who has been known to spend her parkrun accompanying the younger club members and encouraging them to complete the course in Castlewellan.

She has earned that coveted 100 milestone t-shirt and was found the week afterwards lakeside ready to complete parkrun 101. 

Also adding to their parkrun milestone t-shirt collection was Michael Lynch, who crossed the line in 22.57 to earn the red 50 milestone t-shirt.

Michael completed his first parkrun in 2017 at the sixth Castlewellan parkrun but it was 61 weeks later before he returned, knocking his time down to 25.33 before the pandemic put a brief stop to parkrun. 

He has since brought his parkrun personal best down to 22.10 and continues to improve. 

With four parkruns available in the local area in Castlewellan Forest Park, Dunleath playing fields, Downpatrick, Kilbroney Forest Park, Rostrevor, and the newly established Montalto Estate parkrun in Ballynahinch, each parkrun team are always looking forward to welcoming participants to their free events every week at 9.30am. 

Hill and Dale has kicked off in recent weeks and in the absence of an U-16 option this year, the junior category is considered U-18. 

There has been some phenomenal performances across the first two events in Castlewellan and Tollymore. 

At Castlewellan, Euan McIntosh and Karim Jaidane powered their way around Slieve na Slat and managed to stay upright as they navigated very wet ground on what would be one of the fastest courses of the series. 

Meanwhile, Ethan McMullan and Patrick McDaid travelled to Limerick to take part in the Irish trials for the European Mountain Championships. They both opted to compete in the uphill race on the Friday evening and then head out again on Sunday for the Classic Race. 

Ethan secured his place in the Irish squad with third place finishes in both events and will travel to France in June to represent Ireland. 

Patrick has age on his side and although he narrowly missed out this time on qualifying, he will have learned many lessons over the weekend. 

One lesson he did take with him was to draw the line and focus on the next race. 

Arriving to Tollymore on Thursday to join Ethan and Karim in race two of the Hill and Dale series, Patrick gained valuable places on the descent to come up the final hill in a poetic shoulder to shoulder finish with Ethan to complete a full Newcastle podium with Ethan placing second in 32.37 and Patrick two seconds behind in third. 

This was a well needed boost to both boys’ confidence as they head for the open mountain next week at Slieve Martin. 

Karim no doubt loves a good race series after many years of completing the Born2Run series, and he has his eyes set on the Hill and Dale series for this year. 

He has entered the series with optimism and is doing exceptionally well, gaining second and third age category finishes in both races so far. 

Juggling training and racing alongside GCSE and A-Level study and exams is a huge undertaking but as the boys have highlighted, the welcome break to the hills helps the brains to function better.