After the hugely enjoyable midweek relays, this weekend was all about another Grand Prix event with the South Shields to Roker, Pier to Pier event… Regulars at this one will tell you it’s all about the swag bag afterwards, and they aren’t wrong.

Headed with another huge contingent, the white and red vests dropped onto the sand at South Shields for the 11km trip south to the beach at Roker. The early morning sun beating down and making those who forgot the sunglasses very envious of the likes of Lindsey and Glen, who, no doubt, stepped off the plane from Alcudia wearing them and straight onto the bus to the start…

As of posting this, the official results aren’t yet posted – but thanks to club photographer Dave, we know it was Glen Cooper who crossed the line first for us and collected those sweet, sweet GP points.

Andrew Walton picked up the second DVRC place, and the man sitting in 2nd place in the GP table, piled the pressure on GP leader John Kirby with this result.

Next in, and first for the ladies was Natasha Powell – building off a quick parkrun 24 hours earlier – Natasha will be pleased to grab those points and move further up the table – she even celebrated with a dip in the sea at the end… (we’re fairly sure that’s why)

Quite the changeable course/terrain – dry sand, wet sand, grass, tarmac, trail… you name it, today had it!

As we said – a great club turnout!

Kudos also to Sunderland Strollers for a tremendous swag bag at the end – a special pint glass with can of lager, Mars bar, packet of crisps, glass memento, T-shirt and backpack – lovely stuff!

Rewinding back to ParkRun on Saturday morning – we had members running at Town Moor, Rising Sun and Chopwell Wood; with Kieran Ridley posting a new PB at the Town Moor! Great work, Kieran! We also provided a number of volunteers for our home run at Chopwell, with Mark and Hazel Marchant joining Lisa Hutchinson, Beth Ramsden and Chris Morris.

This coming week sees the return of Strength and Conditioning sessions with Mark Marchant, before we head back out onto the Derwent Walk for regular training.

Finally, a date for your diary, which will see us host the Captain Callcott Canter on Wednesday 12th July.

EDIT – full P2P results are now available: https://my.raceresult.com/229573/results