It’s been a hectic few weeks for all members of Pegasus AC, with our annual Bell’s Conservatories 10k Forest race held at Springwell forest taking precedence.  There’s also been World Championships and local races to compete at, keeping everyone on their toes! (This will be reported on next week).

The forest race saw runners from as far a field as Co. Down competing for the generous array of prizes on offer at our 25th anniversary race.  The early pace setters were Neil Douglas and Nicholas Rooke (both Ballymena Runners) and last years champion Matt Wray (Ballymena and Antrim).  They were neck and neck after the first 6km lap, but Neil Douglas and Matt Wray soon made it a 2 way fight with an injection of pace which Durham University student Nicholas just couldn’t handle.  Going into the last 2km, sub 2.30 marathon man Neil injected more venom into his attack which Veteran Matt couldn’t respond to, leaving him with a straight forward finish to take the win in 34:50 (10 seconds ahead of Matt).  Top Vet 45 was Declan McCarthy of City of Derry in 36:40 to take 4th overall spot.  Top female finisher as usual was the evergreen Anne Paul; only back a number of weeks after her success in the Monaco Half Ironman to record another emphatic race win over Karen Alexander of Sperrin Harriers.

Top Pegasus finisher was Frenchman Alex Huno, putting in a very creditable performance in his Pegasus debut to record 7th overall position.  Stephen O’Hara (aka Frankie) had a stormer of a race to come in just outside the top 10 in 39:50.  Harry ‘the Marathon man’ Reilly (now a newly qualified athletics coach by the way) had a quiet outing, but still finished well up in 23rd.  Peter Bell notched up another good performance in finishing 5th Vet 50.  Colm McIlfatrick made a surprise welcome to the race (after he had just completed an orienteering course) by finishing in 48:55.

Female performances must also get a mention with Sonia Knox leading the charge to take 6th overall female in 46:31.  Not a long way off was Debbie McLaughlin on her race debut to stop the watch with a good benchmark of 48:23.  Debbie Tutty also completed the gruelling course in a time of 1:04:41 on her first time in the forest.  Category prize winners who deserve a special mention are Ruth Dunn (Vet 40) and Cathy Barr (Vet 45).

Congratulations to all the runners and club members in making this race a great success.