New Years day saw the annual running of the ‘Race over the Glens’ at Glenariff Forest Park. Four Pegasus AC runners were amongst the 225 competitors which proved to be one of the biggest fields the race has had. Weather was calm on what would prove to be a very competitive race over 5.5 miles and around 1000ft of climb!  The long 1 mile downhill start sees many runners tire before even beginning the arduous climbs through the paths of the Glenariff Forest.

The race winner for a 5^th time was Jarlath Falls (Ballymena and Antrim) followed by James McIlroy (Larne AC) who incidentally was a former Olympian at the Sydney Games. The winner of the women’s race was super vet Anne Paul (City of Derry) followed by Karen Alexander (Sperrin Runners). First home for Pegasus was Chris Denton who ran a solid race from beginning to end to come home in 16^th overall (36:52) and start off his year in fine style after a successful marathon season last year!  Next was Jason Wilson who, with misjudged pacing, ended up in 34^th (39:08) after dropping many positions along the second half of the race.  Ralph Thom put in a gritty performance to shave nearly 4.5 minutes off his previous year’s effort (50:26) and will be hoping to get under the 50 minutes mark for next year!  Linda Gillen on her first Glenariff experience ended up within the top 20 women in 50:46 to mark a change from her normal road racing.

Thanks to Ballymena Runners for hosting another successful event. Full Results here.