Larne athlete Thomas runs 111 miles in 24 hours

Larne Athletic Club runners have excelled in some of Northern Ireland’s most extreme and physically demanding events.
Stephen McManus, Bernie Regan and David Noble at Dervock for the annual Kennedy Kane McArthur festival of running.  INLT 30-680-CONStephen McManus, Bernie Regan and David Noble at Dervock for the annual Kennedy Kane McArthur festival of running.  INLT 30-680-CON
Stephen McManus, Bernie Regan and David Noble at Dervock for the annual Kennedy Kane McArthur festival of running. INLT 30-680-CON

On Friday, Amy Beggs and Thomas Craig took part in the Energia 24-hour race at the Mary Peters Track in Belfast.

Thomas put in an outstanding performance in his first ultra event, finishing twelfth of 52 participants at the end of 111.3 miles (448 laps). Amy had an excellent race, finishing in 36th place and running a total of 97.4 miles (392 laps), smiling all the way!

On Saturday, three Larne AC members travelledto Dervock for the popular Kennedy Kane McArthur Festival of running, hosted by Springwell running club. The event included a 10K and half-marathon event which included the famous Dark Hedges.

Bernie Regan ran a strong 10K to win her age category with a time of 51:57. In the half-marathon, first home for the club was David Noble in 10th overall with a time of 01:25:46. Next in was Stephen McManus. Using this event for training for the Dublin marathon, Stephen was 157th with a time of 02:04:01 on a very tough course.

Also on Saturday, Helen Murray, Stephen Montgomeryand Ian McCluggage took part in the Browns Bay Beast Olympic-distance triathlon at Browns Bay.

The athletes battled the extremely windy conditions.The course comprised of a 1.5K swim followed by a very undulating and demanding 40K bike and two-lap, hilly 10K run.

Stephen and Ian’s relay team finished as the first relay and overall 6th position in an excellent time of 2:27:37, which was 28 minutes ahead of the next team.

Helen had a fantastic race and she was the first female to cross the line, over four minutes ahead of the next lady. She clocked 2:42:22, giving her an overall 23rd. Great to see all her training paying off.