The final bank holiday weekend of 2023 has appeared, but that hasn’t allowed any let up in the activities here at DVRC.

On Thursday night, we headed to the Watergate Forest Park for the Watergate 5k – Alan Vicarage, Sally Ann Greenwell and Sue Urwin donned the white and red vests for us on what was a rare sunny evening in August.

Saturday morning took us to delights of ParkRun, with plenty of tourism to report… Bex and Chris Hewitson headed north of the border to Vogrie ParkRun, while Paul Brunger headed south to Milton Keynes to finish first at Linford Wood! Even further afield, Laura and Rob Peacock were in Eindhoven with the family and they all tackled the course of Karpendonkse Plas.

Closer to home, we had members taking on the courses of Town Moor, Chopwell and Gateshead. As ever, we had a great turnout of volunteers at our home course; with Kirsty Robson taking on run director duties – ably supported by husband Tony, Hazel and Mark Marchant, Sally Ann Greenwell, Chris Morris and Rachael Smith.

Tackling the slightly longer distance of 46 miles, was Stuart Reay completing the Grand Tour of Skiddaw Ultra! Smashing the distance, and over 8000ft of elevation, in just over 11 hours… If the weather here was anything to go by, one can’t imagine what kind of climates Stuart went through in those hours – amazing effort!

On Sunday, Glen Cooper and Andrew O’Malley ran the Annual Beer Belly Run for Willow Burn Hospice from the Grey Horse pub in Consett – the race comprises of half pint each 1k, 4 times, then a pint and a bag of crisps at the end. Glen finished in 3rd place and Andrew in 5th… We’re reliably informed by our roving reporter at the scene, Lindsey Dover that neither barfed – but it was a close call.

The Sunday Social gang took on the sights and sounds of the Red Kite trail – taking in so many of the areas we frequent on our social runs and training sessions. Not to mention the mood-boosting chatting and camaraderie that always goes hand in hand with these runs.

Speaking of tourism – with the summer months bringing travel – we always encourage our members to take their Derwent Valley kit, to snap photos at where they’ve ended up, and allow a fair bit of bragging for the scenery in the background of each!

This summer our members have well and truly delivered – with photos across 3 continents and over 30 pins on our our world map.

When we ask – our members deliver!