You thought it was going to be a quiet week after last week? Think again…

We’ll kick things off with Saturday morning’s North East Marathon Club’s 6 hour event at Herrington Park – representing us was Natasha Powell, Lisa Gilbert, Beth Ramsden and Adele Sinclair. Completing 5k loops at a time; Natasha firing out 8.5 laps to complete a full marathon in 4:33, Lisa hit 22.6 miles in 4:18, with Beth hitting 19.55 miles in 4 hours. Adele went over 5 hours to hit 30 miles in 5:23. Incredible efforts all round!

Meanwhile, Jenny Yeo was heading out to the “bog” of the Pennine Way, for a casual 21 miles… just the 1122ft of elevation gain!

ParkRun brought course PB’s for Bex Hewitson and Will Lacey (at Riverside), Paul Brunger (at Chopwell Wood) and Charlotte Bowes (at Prudhoe Riverside). With other club members visiting the courses of Riverside, Prudhoe Riverside, Durham and Larne in Northern Ireland.

Volunteering at Chopwell Wood ParkRun was our very own Kirsty Robson, as run director – ably assisted by Tony Robson, Lesley Gregory and Chris Morris.

Speaking of ParkRun, it’s our club takeover week, this coming Saturday at Chopwell Wood – please get in touch, if you’d like to volunteer. And we obviously hope to see as many of you there as possible (club kit essential, it goes without saying!)

Sunday brought the Manchester Marathon – with Grant Ramsden and Sarah Reay flying the DVRC flag – Grant finishing in a brilliant 3:26, with Sarah getting home in 4:28. In Sarah’s own words, “After doing a marathon 2 years ago with an injury and having to walk run last 7 miles was my goal to run every step of my next one and I did it” – phenomenal effort and not the last we’ll have heard from either of them with marathon efforts, we’re sure!

In non-running achievements, one of our coaches, Chris Haswell, took to two wheels to complete the Bamburgh 100k sportive on the bike.

Taking it more socially was our another of our coaches, Susan Chambers; who marshalled at a Canicross event, before hitting the trails of Chopwell.

And as usual, our Sunday Social group got out and about – hitting our usual loop of Chopwell Wood for a leisurely 7.5 miles in the April sunshine – just what the doctor ordered.

And last but not least – plenty of training runs – don’t think we don’t see those Strava stats – kudos to you all!

So, another big week ahead; with the return of Mark’s Strength and Conditioning torture workouts, more training sessions in the woods, and our ParkRun takeover… did we mention we’re still looking for volunteers? Hint hint…