Wow, where do we start with this bumper Easter weekend?! Let’s start in chronological order and go from there…
Friday morning saw the annual Good Friday relays at Albemarle Barracks – with DVRC putting out a full roster of male and female teams. Representing us in the female teams – Megan Williams, Carys Watts, Claire Knox; Kirsty Robson, Sue Urwin, Jill Lee; Sally Ann Greenwell, Jane Parnaby and Beth Ramsden.
| 16:43 (Megan Williams) | 16:46 (Carys Watts) | 16:08 (Claire Knox) |
| 18:32 (Kirsty Robson) | 19:01 (Sue Urwin) | 17:35 (Jill Lee) |
| 18:59 (Sally Ann Greenwell) | 19:18 (Jane Parnaby) | 19:47 (Beth Ramsden) |
Team 1 finished in a brilliant 33rd place, with team 2 in 55th and team 3 in 65th, out of 77 teams – a massive well done to everyone for competing and wearing the DVRC vest with pride!
For the mens teams, we had Luke Kelly, Ethan Robson, Grant Ramsden, Paul Brunger; Steven Wade, Chris Morris, Simon Hutchinson and Andrew Walton.
| 14:01 (Luke Kelly) | 16:38 (Ethan Robson) | 14:23 (Grant Ramsden) | 13:11 (Paul Brunger) |
| 17:20 (Steven Wade) | 20:30 (Chris Morris) | 20:13 (Simon Hutchinson) | 16:19 (Andrew Walton) |
Team 1 finished in 41st, with team 2 in 82nd – in a hugely competitive field of 83 teams. Special shoutouts to Chris and Simon for making up the numbers at the last minute! We’ll be back again next year!
Friday night took us to the start of the Pennine Journey North Ultra; John Kirby leading off the DVRC relay team – John’s first leg started at 8pm, smashing out 38.65 miles in the pitch black of the night. An incredible effort!
Saturday morning began at 4:45am with Matthew Scott taking over, to take on the second leg – doing his 40 miles in under 8.5 hours – in Matthew’s own words “I would have been chuffed with 9 hours so to come in under 8.5 is a bit crazy. Knees are wrecked after I got a bit carried away hurtling down Cross Fell” – cake was then consumed at the handover to Francesca… more on that later.
8am saw the start of the 52 miler Pennine Journey, Claire Knox and Marc Runkee donning the club colours to hit the trails for just under 15 hours – with Claire finishing as second placed female and Marc finishing 5th overall. An epic effort from both of them! We’re all very proud of you!
At a time when normal people were doing their running – we had our usual ParkRun favourites out at 9am, as usual. With Chris Morris and Lesley Gregory doing marshal duties at our local, Chopwell Wood; Bex Hewitson volunteered for pacing duties at Tyne Green. There were new PBs for Andrew Walton and Theresa Owens at Chopwell Wood, while Paul Stephenson and Claire Thompson did a bit of ParkRun tourism at Portrush and Ashbourne Recreation Ground, respectively. We also had club members running at Gateshead and Tyne Green.
Back to the Pennine Journey relay, and Francesca Best was taking on the final leg for the team – just shy of 35 miles to complete the loop and return back to Blanchland on Saturday night. I could try to write up this, but instead, I’ll borrow Francesca’s words, because anything else wouldn’t do it justice…
“Soppy post incoming but after finishing the last leg of the relay yesterday I definitely know we are (probably) The Best Running Club in the World
Thank you to Hazel Marchant and Mark Marchant for putting on a mint race — it’s such hard work to make all that run so smoothly (or look that way anyway!).
Cheers to the amazing support from Susan Chambers, Adele Sinclair , Kirsty Robson and Tony Robson , and all the lovely people at checkpoints who were just lush to see and chat to.
Big well done to my fellow DVRC team mates John Kirby and Matthew Scott for putting in absolutely smashing times (also special thanks to John who, after running his ultra and sleeping in his car, had to chase me through a field because I was lost… and sorry for running in the opposite direction because I thought you were an angry farmer…)
Thanks to Claire Knox for the lending of kit and, more importantly, the G&T I necked at the end.
And cheers to Paul Stephenson for lending me his watch and even printing out instructions on how to use it (clearly you all know what an idiot I can be).
Dedicating that Ultra to the best stick-carrying DVRC mascot – Archie – who I’d normally be recovering on the sofa with x“
Getting us right in the feels, there, Francesca… Epic
Also epic in another way was the support crews shouted out, there – we always know the DVRC crew are the best, but throughout the whole of the ultra there were congratulations, support, hugs, food and drink supplied generously.
Sunday morning then took us to the North Tyneside 10k – with a healthy representation from our club, and PBs aplenty on what turned out to be a perfect day for racing. Chris Hewitson lead us home with a new PB in 38:29 in 76th position, with Bex making it a Hewitson 1-2 with another PB at 40:58 in 144th place.
| Chris Hewitson* | 00:38:29 |
| Bex Hewitson* | 00:40:58 |
| Alex Fiddes* | 00:43:11 |
| William Lacey | 00:44:11 |
| Kirsty Robson | 00:51:12 |
| Sue Urwin | 00:51:16 |
| Lauren Smith* | 00:51:34 |
| Sallyann Greenwell | 00:56:43 |
| Lindsey Dover* | 00:59:31 |
| Melanie Armstrong | 01:04:24 |
Alex, Lauren and Lindsey also helping themselves to personal bests – 5 new PBs in total!
Amazing work from everyone – including Melanie, who did well to even make the start line after being almost floored with a heavy cold – but managed to drag herself along and finish the race… after some words of ‘encouragement’ from John the day before!
One final mention to Kieran Ridley who managed to slip under the radar of last week’s roundup – just the small matter of complete the PARIS MARATHON! Kieran got round in 4:05, to finish 27820th out of 50756 – tremendous effort!
The biggest running weekend of the year, so far – and as ever there were more training runs aplenty across the week and weekend – we see you, safe to say that race season is fully upon us… I’m now off for a lie down in a darkened room!
Derwent Valley Running Club 