Hill & Dale race 1
Last Thursday saw the first race in the Hill and Dale series, this popular event is hosted by Newcastle AC with the first race of the ten in this series being held in Castlewellan Forest Park. The course covers approximately 8.5 km of lake side, forest trails with hills and summiting Slievenaslat and looping back around the castle to the finish. The conditions were fair, but after all the recent rain the ground in places was still wet, muddy and slippery.
EDAC always has a small contingent of runners that take on the challenge and this year some of the old faces came back to test themselves. James Cuffey who had a great first season last year was back for more and had a strong opening race crossing the line in 29th in 41 min 49 sec, a great opener from James. Mountain man Niall Gibney is an old hand at the Hill and Dale and will be pleased with his first race finishing in 73rd spot in a time of 44 min 50 sec. Kieran Keown took on his first Hill and Dale race in EDAC colours and had a great run out in 201st position in 52 min 15 sec.