By Zolene, Massage Therapist · Updated 19 August 2026
The 12th Mallusk 5 Mile Road Race took place on Friday 14 August 2026 at 7.30pm, starting from the Academy Club on Mallusk Road and organised by Mallusk Harriers. Muscle Mint was one of the sponsors, and every runner went home with a code to use on the shop. The course climbs Sealstown Road to a high point around mile two, then spends most of the rest of the race coming back down, and that second half is the reason people wake up on Sunday unable to face the stairs.
- Friday 14 August 2026, 7.30pm, starting at the Academy Club, Mallusk Road, Newtownabbey.
- Organised by Mallusk Harriers, 12th running of the race, with a 1 mile junior fun run alongside it.
- 335 runners finished the 5 mile and 29 finished the fun run.
- Stephen Connolly of CNDR won in 27:02. Kathleen Law of Ballymena Runners was first woman in 32:22.
- The climb up Sealstown peaks around mile two, then the course descends along Boghill Road to finish on Hydepark Road.
- It is the descent, not the climb, that produces most of the next-day quad soreness.
- Muscle Mint sponsored the race with a discount code for every runner. It is a peppermint and eucalyptus menthol cream that leaves a strong, temporary cooling tingle on the skin.
In This Article
- What is the Mallusk 5 Mile Road Race?
- What makes the Mallusk 5 course so hard?
- Why the descent hurts more than the climb
- Who won the Mallusk 5 in 2026?
- How Muscle Mint ended up sponsoring the race
- What Mallusk Harriers said
- The 48 hours after a hilly five miler
What Is the Mallusk 5 Mile Road Race?
It is an annual five mile road race in Mallusk, Newtownabbey, organised by Mallusk Harriers and run on a Friday evening in August. 2026 was the twelfth edition, held on 14 August at 7.30pm from the Academy Club on Mallusk Road, with race pack collection and post-race food at The Cottonmount. Entry was £23 for affiliated club runners and £25 for everyone else, with a minimum age of 15.
Every finisher gets a bespoke medal, the whole field is chip timed, and there are cash prizes down to third male and female plus each age category. There is also a 1 mile junior fun run for under-14s on the same evening, which is why you see whole families at this one rather than just club runners.
The other thing worth knowing is the Newtownabbey Cup, a club-versus-club contest between Mallusk Harriers and Monkstown Spartans that runs inside the race. Small detail, but it tells you what kind of event this is. It is a club race that the wider running community turns up to, not a commercial mass-participation event.
What Makes the Mallusk 5 Course So Hard?
Sealstown Hill. The club's own description of the route is a leg-burning climb up Sealstown Road with the elevation peaking around mile two, then a flowing downhill along Boghill Road and a finish on Hydepark Road. Route mapping puts the total climbing at roughly 545 feet, which is a lot to absorb inside five miles. The finisher medal is explicitly framed as a reward for getting up Sealstown.
| Part of the course | What it does |
|---|---|
| Miles 1 to 2, Sealstown Road | The climb. Calves, glutes and lungs. This is the part everyone talks about and the part everyone trains for. |
| Miles 2 to 4, Boghill Road | The descent. Feels like a reward, loads the quads hard, and does most of the damage nobody notices at the time. |
| The finish, Hydepark Road | Legs already fatigued from both directions, and a fast finish on top of it. |
An evening start in August adds one more thing. You have been on your feet all day, you have probably eaten at some point you now regret, and you are racing at a time your body normally associates with winding down. That is part of the charm and part of why people find their legs feel unusually heavy on this one.
Why the Descent Hurts More Than the Climb
Running downhill forces your quadriceps (thighs) to contract while they are lengthening, which is called eccentric loading, and that pattern causes far more muscle damage than running uphill does. Climbing feels harder in the moment because it is aerobically brutal. Descending feels easy at the time and then presents the bill two days later. A study in Scientific Reports mapping muscle damage after downhill running found it concentrated in the quadriceps, particularly the deeper portions of the muscle.
This is the single most misdiagnosed thing I see in the treatment room after a hilly race. Someone comes in convinced they have done something to their knee, because the front of the thigh is sore and the knee feels unstable on stairs. Nine times out of ten the knee is fine. The quads are damaged and temporarily weak, so the knee has lost its shock absorber. Treat the muscle and the knee complaint resolves itself.
The other giveaway is the timing. Genuine injuries hurt during the race or immediately after. Eccentric muscle damage is quiet on the night, mildly annoying on Saturday, and worst on Sunday. If your Sunday is meaningfully worse than your Saturday, that is normal soreness rather than something torn. My guide to how long DOMS lasts sets out that timeline properly.
Runners train for the hill going up. Almost nobody trains for the hill going down, and then they spend the following week wondering why their knees feel wrong on the stairs.
Zolene, Massage Therapist and founder of Muscle Mint
Who Won the Mallusk 5 in 2026?
Stephen Connolly of CNDR won the 2026 Mallusk 5 Mile in 27:02, from Conal McCambridge of North Belfast Harriers in 27:13 and Ashley Dixon of North Down AC in 27:34. Kathleen Law of Ballymena Runners was first woman home in 32:22, finishing 39th overall, ahead of Holly Collins of North Belfast Harriers in 32:24 and Sarah-Jane McFadden of North Belfast Harriers in 33:39.
335 runners finished the five mile and 29 finished the junior fun run. Full results are published on the SiEntries event page.
For context on the winning time: 27:02 over five miles is 5:24 per mile, and that is on a course with 545 feet of climbing in it. On a flat course that same effort is worth considerably more. Anyone reading their own Mallusk time against a flat five mile PB is comparing two different things.
How Muscle Mint Ended Up Sponsoring the Race
Mallusk Harriers approached us, which is the honest version of the story. They were looking for sponsors for the 2026 race, we said yes, and what they asked us for was a dedicated discount code rather than anything physical. No samples went out at this one. Every attendee got the code, to use on the shop whenever suited them.
It was a good instinct on their part. Samples in a bag are lovely and half of them end up in a drawer. A code that a runner uses two days later, when their quads are actually sore and the cream is actually useful to them, is a better introduction to the product. It also means we only take up someone's attention at the point where it is relevant to them.
Of everything we have sponsored, this is the one people actually acted on. Codes we have given out elsewhere have gone almost entirely unused, so seeing Mallusk runners come and order afterwards genuinely meant something to us, and we are grateful to every one of them. Part of that is simply how close this race is to us. People here want to back something local, and we feel exactly the same way about backing them. What interested me more than anything was what they chose: the 250ml for home and the 50ml travel bottle in the same order, which tells me these are people who train regularly and travel to races, and who want something in the kit bag as well as something in the bathroom. The 50ml is under the 100ml hand luggage limit, which matters more to runners than I expected before I started making it. There is more on that in my piece on taking muscle rub on a plane.
A peppermint and eucalyptus menthol cream in a sunflower oil base, made in Northern Ireland, UK. It creates a strong, temporary cooling tingle on the skin.
What Mallusk Harriers Said
On 6 August, eight days before the race, the club published a sponsor shoutout on Instagram naming Muscle Mint alongside The Cottonmount, Beard Grips and McMillan McClure Estate Agents, with our 250ml bottle on the graphic. They signed off saying they were "excited to see everyone there".
After the race, Mallusk Harriers posted a highlights reel and tagged Muscle Mint in it, thanking runners, volunteers, supporters and sponsors for creating "the best atmosphere and bringing all of the energy last night".
Nobody asked them for either post. That is worth saying plainly, because it is the part that actually matters to me. The people who do remember us tend to be exactly the people the product suits, and I would rather be known properly by a running club in Newtownabbey than vaguely by nobody in particular. Backing local clubs and community races is the part of this we enjoy most, and we intend to keep doing it. We did the same at the Gain Forth Max Out Showdown earlier in the year.
The 48 Hours After a Hilly Five Miler
Keep moving, and keep it gentle. A short walk on the Saturday, a slow spin or a swim, anything that takes the legs through their range without loading them. Complete rest tends to make the stiffness feel worse, and going straight back into hill reps makes everything worse. Sleep and food do more than anything you can buy.
Beyond that, expect the second day to be worse than the first and plan around it rather than fighting it. If you are the kind of runner who books a hard session for the Sunday after a Friday race, move it. There is a fuller version of this in how to ease aching muscles after exercise, and if it is the calves and shins rather than the quads that caught you, that one is covered separately.
Muscle Mint's job in all of this is small and I am not going to pretend otherwise. It puts a strong, cool tingle on the skin over legs that feel heavy and tight. People like that sensation, particularly in the evening, and it is a pleasant thing to have in a routine alongside the walking and the sleeping. It is not repairing muscle and no cream is. Anything claiming otherwise is worth being suspicious of.
The honest limit, and I would rather say it here. Stiffness that eases as you warm up is normal after a race like this. Sharp pain in one spot, swelling, a joint that will not take weight, or pain that is getting worse rather than better after three or four days is a question for a GP or a physio, not for a cream and another rest day.
Congratulations to Mallusk Harriers on the twelfth running of it, and to everyone who got up Sealstown. See you at the thirteenth.
Related Reading
Frequently asked questions
When is the Mallusk 5 Mile Road Race?
How hilly is the Mallusk 5 Mile course?
Who won the Mallusk 5 Mile Road Race in 2026?
Why are my quads sore after a downhill race?
Did Muscle Mint sponsor the Mallusk 5 Mile Road Race?
How much does the Mallusk 5 Mile cost to enter?
Written by Zolene
Zolene is a massage therapist with more than fifteen years of hands-on experience. She created Muscle Mint in Northern Ireland, UK, for the minutes after effort.
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