April has been a bumper month for us all here at Derwent Valley, and the final weekend has once again delivered! Ultras, fell races, half marathons, parkruns and Sunday socials… it’s all here.

We’ll begin on Thursday night in Durham – with the Cockfield Chase Fell Race – two laps of 3.5km and 160m of elevation gain. We had a team of 11 DVRC’ers representing us on the night, with Matthew Scott leading us home in 20th position out of 97, in a time of 16:49. Claire Knox was our first female home, in 33rd position, after 18:19 (Claire was also 6th female overall).

Position	Gender Pos.	Age Cat. Pos.	Name	Time
20	20	9	Matthew Scott	16:49
33	6	2	Claire Knox	18:19
53	15	6	Laura Peacock	22:10
55	16	7	Eleanor Shotton	22:20
69	28	5	Kirsty Robson	24:18
72	30	4	Sue Urwin	24:56
73	31	12	Claire Thompson	24:59
80	36	10	Sally Ann Greenwell	27:05
81	37	11	Lindsey Dover	27:06
82	45	4	Neil Frediani	29:06
83	38	12	Melanie Armstrong	29:10

Great efforts from everyone and reports reached us to say how much everyone enjoyed the night – including those who were “taken out of their comfort zone” but had loved the challenge of something different.

Saturday morning saw our friends at Greener Miles Running readying the course at Wheelbirks Farm in Stocksfield, for the Cowshed Backyard Ultra – for us, we had the intrepid female quartet of Adele Sinclair, Jenny Yeo, Lisa Gilbert and Natasha Powell lining up to smash out as many laps of the 4 mile course, on the hour, every hour.

With conditions across the day changing almost hourly, Lisa managed nearly 5 laps of the course before calling it a day on 17 miles, with Adele hitting 46 miles and calling it a day/night at 11pm. We caught Adele for another exclusive interview afterwards, this is what she had to say:

“I called it a day at 11pm 46miles. Wanted to do another for 12 laps (50miles) but my legs, especially hips and knees wouldn’t let me go anymore, running in those hideous conditions through thick mud and trenches just proved too much. Other than that I felt great, I wasn’t too tired and my fuelling went really well so under the circumstances I’m happy enough with that. Only Jenny and Natasha went on to do 50 and 54. So the last 3 ladies were all DVRC ladies”

And Adele isn’t wrong – Jenny hit 50 miles and called it quits at midnight, with Natasha finishing at 1am to be the final female standing, at 54 miles. Absolutely mind-blowing efforts from all four – with lots of rain making the course even more challenging with every lap that passed by.

ParkRun saw a couple of PBs with Theresa Owens making her now weekly appearance on this list, with a new best at Riverside, joined by Sue Urwin at Tyne Green- a huge round of applause for both! We also had representatives running the courses at Prudhoe Riverside, Gateshead, Riverside, Herrington Country, Dolgellau, Tyne Green and Chopwell Wood. Bex Hewitson finished 1st female at Herrington Country.

Sunday saw the annual Gateshead Half Marathon – and of course we had numbers there, too…

Kieran Ridley, Paula Soeiro, Claire Thompson and Deborah Swann flew the flag for us – with Kieran first home for us, in 1:46, Paula followed in 1:52, with Claire next up after 1:59, and Deborah in 2:02. Great running from all four, with more rain not dampening any spirits before, during or after. Congratulations to all four!

Also not allowing a few drops of rain put them off, was our usual Sunday Social group – hitting the muddy trails of Chopwell Wood, for 7 miles of easy, feel-good chatty running…

So, we leave April behind and head into May… More bank holidays, but more races – we’ve got the Steelworks Relays, Pier 2 Pier and Edinburgh Marathon… to name a few. Exciting times!

Don’t forget, our club kit is available online at Salto UK – treat yourself, you deserve it…