The Causeway Coastal Route/Antrim Coast Road is justly famous throughout the world. Amongst its many attractions, the north Antrim Coast has the Giant’s Causeway, White Park Bay, Ballintoy Harbour and the Carrick-a Rede Rope Bridge; the north east Coast has Fair Head, Torr Head and the beautiful Nine Glens of Antrim; and, closer to home, the east Coast has Ballygally Head with its profile of a face, the Black Arch and, perhaps the highlight of the whole Coast Road, a row of large concrete blocks which the Council or the Road Service are so proud of they book-ended it with sets of colourful lights designed to stop the traffic, thereby giving the occupants of cars more time to contemplate the beauty of the edifice. How lucky are the people of Larne?
‘What has all this got to do with Tuesday evening’s Bank Heads Handicap, the sixth race in the Club’s Hastings Financial Services sponsored 2023/34 Handicap Series?’, I hear you ask. The answer of course is very little, beyond the fact that the twenty-three runners who took part in the race, including guest runner Chris Steele, were able to enjoy close up views of this splendid row of blocks and the cars that had stopped to admire the view. Someone should have been there to sell tea, coffee and ice creams to the drivers as they gazed slack-jawed at the magnificent sight.
Back to the race – if you’re still awake. The field of runners, containing some new faces, some old faces and some really old faces, was topped and tailed by Michelle Woods, the first away, and Will Barham, who had to wait some seventeen and a half minutes before being given the off. In between this pair the mishmash of runner-beens(sic), has-beens and never-beens were set off in order of their handicap ratings. Conditions for the runners were windy at times, with some being affected more than others but, if TV adverts are to be believed, Gaviscon or Tums can usually sort out this type of problem.
With no feedback from the course, the waiting throng at Drains Bay car park had no idea what was happening during the race so who was running well or who was being overtaken remained a mystery until the runners were back within sight of the finish line. At this point, it became clear that Ciara, even though she was being hotly pursued (Can you be lukewarmly pursued?) by Allan was going to be first across the line, thereby claiming victory in her first outing in a club handicap. Ciara’s finishing time of 40:30 is an indication of the steady improvement she has made since setting her recent Parkrun PB of 26:48. Allan, in finishing in second place, crossed the line in a time of 39:01, almost a minute faster than the time he set over the same course in 2023. Third place went to Dom in a time of 35:05, an excellent performance for someone whose training is currently focused on building strength and stamina for two forthcoming marathons.
Full details of all the times and places are set out in the accompanying table but, while it’s a tad invidious to pick out individuals for special mention, it’s worth drawing attention to the superb run of Will. Will, having been set the impossible as it turned out task of clawing back anything from 17:35 to 1:30 on the rest of the field, still managed to finish in 15th place in a time of 30:32, easily the fastest of the night and more than three minutes faster than the time he set last year. Not to be outdone, as the fastest lady on the night, Ashlynn’s time of 36:56 was an improvement of almost a full minute on her 2023 time. The second and third fastest male times of the night, 33:18 and 34:14, were set by Philip and John respectively, while the second and third fastest female times, 39:34 and 40:30, were set by Megan (in spite of having to stop and walk for a bit because of a stitch) and Ciara.
Finally, thanks to Sharon for the tea, coffee and goodies; to Diane for organising and purchasing the prizes; to Jackie and Heather for their help with the timing, to Ian and Tommy for marshalling, to Glynn and Sean for keeping the finishers in line, literally and figuratively; and to all those who turned out to support and encourage the runners, both at the finish and by accompanying some of the racers round the course. Finally, finally, welcome to the new club members and to those runners competing in a club handicap for the first time – Ciara, David (McWhirter), Jonathan and Philip. It’s always good to see new faces and hopefully last night experience won’t have put any of them off handicaps for life.
As usual, the handicap was pulled together using hindsight, blindsight, oversight, out-of-sight and what-a-sight all backed up by more guesswork than homework. If anyone thinks that his or her corrected time isn’t accurate, please let Jackie know so that I can update the results.
As Porky Pig used to say, ‘That’s all folks.’.
| Place | Name | Handicap | Race Time | Corrected Time | 2023 Time |
| 1 | Ciara Darragh | 09:30 | 49:40 | 40:30 | – |
| 2 | Allan McCullough | 11:00 | 50:01 | 39:01 | 39:56 |
| 3 | Dom Dorris | 15:05 | 50:10 | 35:05 | – |
| 4 | Ian Brennan | 06:00 | 50:19 | 44:19 | – |
| 5 | Roberta Barham | 08:40 | 50:28 | 41:48 | – |
| 6 | Eddie Finn | 05:20 | 50:30 | 45:10 | – |
| 7 | David McWhirter | 07:10 | 50:32 | 43:22 | – |
| 8 | Mark Todd | 15:15 | 50:45 | 35:30 | – |
| 9 | Laura Brennan | 08:05 | 50:50 | 42:45 | 42:52 |
| 10 | Diane Hawthorne | 05:15 | 50:54 | 45:39 | 45:35 |
| 11 | Marie Hagan | 03:20 | 50:58 | 47:35 | – |
| 12 | Ashlynn Rogers | 13:55 | 51:01 | 36:56 | 37:55 |
| 13 | Beverley Gaston | 10:25 | 51:03 | 40:38 | – |
| 14 | David Johnston | 15:35 | 51:06 | 35:31 | 36:19 |
| 15 | Will Barham | 20:45 | 51:17 | 30:32 | 33:37 |
| 16 | Michelle Woods | 03:10 | 52:17 | 49:07 | – |
| 17 | Emmett Woods | 13:30 | 52:20 | 38:50 | 37:43 |
| 18 | Philip Rennix | 19:15 | 52:33 | 33:18 | – |
| 19 | Billy Thompson | 18:20 | 52:42 | 34:22 | 34:26 |
| 20 | John Steele | 18:40 | 52:54 | 34:14 | – |
| 21 | Megan McMurray | 13:20 | 52:54 | 39:34 | – |
| 22 | Jonathan Liddle | 05:20 | 55:00 | 49:40 | – |
| Guest | Chris Steele | – | – | 36:39 | 40:52 |