It’s a weekend roundup, but really, this is all about Sunday – Ullswater Lakeland Trails, Hadrian’s Wall Half Marathon, Yorkshire Marathon and NEHL Cross Country. Yes, all of that. Yes, all on the same day.

We’ll start with the annual coach trip to the Lake District; tremendously organised by men’s skipper John Kirby, picking us all up from Rowlands Gill at 8:30am-ish, eh Rachael?!

Fuelled by great craic and diesel fumes, we were on our way – the back seat bad lads and lasses made up of both Hewitson’s, Knox and Ridley… Stopping off en-route at the poshest services Lindsey Dover had ever seen, it even had a cinema, showing the Taylor Swift gig, (at this point we almost lost a Hewitson and a Knox).

We arrived in good time at the finish area to collect numbers – Kirby’s militant time-keeping and register taking skills had not gone to waste. Joining us in Glenridding were the Armstrong’s and Natasha Powell – who’d run there from somewhere (unconfirmed reports it was from home).

We boarded our ferry and prepared ourselves for the cold journey across Ullswater… It soon became apparent we had no need to fear the cold – the live singer who accompanied us on the crossing soon made us forget all about the temperatures on the water. Treating us to a back catalogue of 80’s hits to fit in with the day’s theme of that era.

After clocking up 5000+ steps purely from the toe-tapping and seat-based dancing, we were almost sorry to get off the boat – a number of the group asking if we could maybe sack off the race, get a few beers and head back with him for a bit of a booze cruise…

We lined up at the start, prepared for the off; a mixture of cold, excited, nervous, but most of all ready! The countdown started at 10 and before we knew it, we were off – heading down a little country lane before we hit the real terrain of the race. Lots of hills and lots of trail. Knox, Kirby, Peacock and Hewitson made the early break for the front while the field settled itself down in the first mile or two.

At the front of the pack it was Kirby and Hewitson who were setting the early pace – with a nice group of two others, taking turns to lead and wayfind for the first couple of miles. With precious Grand Prix points of offer, Kirby and Hewitson had been full of the trash talking all morning, but now it was time for business!

Chris would pull away from John and would spend the rest of the race with the mental image of John 2 paces behind him… without knowing it, this pushed Chris into first… not only for DVRC, but the whole race! Getting to the final marshal and hearing him say “you’ve got a good 100 yards lead or so”, Chris assumed this was just of whoever was behind… not of the entire field.

Finishing at the glorious scenery of Glenridding, with the rolling hills all sides was a real privilege to be a part of – the sun shone from start to finish, no worries of waterlogged trails or running down waterfalls. This was the Lakes at it’s absolute best – and wow, did we love it.

With Chris finishing first in 1:14, John was 2 minutes behind in 1:16, in third place. Josh Robson coming out of nowhere to finish 7th overall – proving those Robson genes are as strong as ever! Glen Cooper’s ankle survived to get him round in 1:20 for 9th place, with Bex Hewitson coming in 11th and first female overall, in 1:23. Claire Knox would be the next female in, and second overall, just 10 seconds behind Rob Peacock in 1:27.

Kieran Ridley and Natasha Powell crossed the line together on 1:34 for the 37th and 38th places – with Natasha 9th female overall.

Finishing strongly next and doing the DVRC vest proud was Laura Peacock and Kirsty Robson in 1:39 to sneak inside the top 50 places. With Eleanor Shotton and Neil Frediani bagging themselves a top 100 placing, Lindsey Dover got round and will be very pleased with her sub-2 hour time for our next DVRC finisher, Sue Urwin, Rachael Smith and Sarah Reay following soon after.

Full results can be found here: Lakeland Trails Ullswater 14k

Precious GP points bagged, beers/prosecco/ciders drunk and we were back on our way home – Kirby fearing the mocking, did NOT do a returning register home, much to the disappointment of the, by now, fairly merry, coach trippers. All in all, a brilliant day and one we’re all looking forward to repeating as soon as we possibly can – if you get the chance for a day trip like this, with this bunch of belters, do not turn it down.

Closer to home, was the Hadrian’s Wall half marathon – where we had Deborah Swann and recent recruit Peter Taylor flying the flag for us.

Peter lead us home in 2:32, with Deborah taking that rugged terrain down in 3:02. Great running from both of them, on what was another glorious autumnal day. Full results from that can be found here: Hadrian’s Wall Half Marathon

Also closer to home and ensuring we had members representing the club at the second Cross Country fixture of the season, was Vic Brook, Ellie Binns and Stephanie Edgar, with Sam Spratt flying the lone male flag for us. While Luke Kelly made his u17 debut!

All four of them did us proud with Vic in 112th, Ellie in 218th and Stephanie in 322 – out of 454. Great running from all 3 lasses. With Sam finishing 335 out of 551. Luke finished 13th out of 39 in the boys race. Well done to all five of them! Full results, here: Druridge Bay XC

Heading slightly further south, to the Yorkshire Marathon, we had Will Lacey flying the flag for us, making his marathon debut, no less!

Aiming to get round in 3:45 – Will surpassed his own expectations and finished in 3:39! Huge congrats to Will, no doubt bitten by the marathon bug, will be back to smash that PB now it’s set…

Rewinding back to Saturday morning and ParkRun, to finish off – we had members hitting the courses of Town Moor, Prudhoe Riverside, Whitley Bay, Riverside, Tyne Green and Chopwell Wood. We had Bex Hewitson doing pacing volunteer duties at Tyne Green, while Kirsty and Tony Robson were joined by Chris Morris volunteering at Chopwell Wood. Duncan Marshall hit 25 ParkRuns, too.

Carlsberg don’t do weekends, or running clubs – but if they did – it would be this weekend, and this running club.

We’ve 100 reasons why this is an interesting roundup… If you need to know why, ask Natasha Powell and Stuart Reay. Our daring duo were taking on the 7 Valleys Ultra, in and around the Lake District National Park.

Yes, you read that right – 100km, around the Lake District. This is what the pair of them spent their weekend doing.

Starting in Keswick at 6am on Saturday morning, the pair of them battled all 4 seasons, as is the norm for Lakes, regardless of what time of year you visit. Eventually finishing in the early hours of Sunday morning just before 4am.

We caught up with Natasha to get some words, exclusively for derwentvalleyrunningclub.co.uk:

“Thank you everyone for your supportive messages over the past few days. Stuart Reay and I completed our first run over 100k and wow did we pick a tough one! Conditions on the day meant that the route had to be changed during the race due to strong gales and the whole day was just very wet. Stuart finished in 78th place in 21:17:08 and I finished in 85th place in 21.38.13“

“My longest run to date and my first over 100km. Over the moon with how I did and even though conditions on the day were tough I had a fantastic time. One too many slips on the wet ground caused some knee pain which got progressively worse particularly on the downhills and wet feet led to blisters which by the end felt like I was walking on glass. It was great to see my mam and Aaron at the various checkpoints and all of the marshalls were brilliant, particularly those at Glenridding and Threlkeld. Thank you to everyone who messaged and tracked me throughout the event, it didn’t go unnoticed. I just need to decide where to sew my new patch!”

We certainly have our own definitions of ‘fun’ here at DVRC! Madness!

Also heading out to the Lakes was our matchy-matchy fave Claire Thompson, along with Alan Vicarage – to tackle the 2 Valleys event.

The two of them took down the distance and elevation in less than 3 hours – Alan was 84th in his class, with Claire 59th in her class. Brilliant work!

Also hitting crazy distances and elevation was Jenny Yeo taking on the Pathfinder 25, in North Yorkshire.

Not only did Jenny finish it – but she was the first female home! Amazing work!

Those of us who prefer our Saturday mornings slightly shorter, were at ParkRun for the usual 9am 5k. This week our members were taking on the courses of: Whitley Bay, Rising Sun, Marshall Drive, Volksgarten and of course, Chopwell Wood. Our Kirsty Robson donned the run director bib, ably assisted by Kieran Ridley and Sue Urwin.

Down the coast at Saltburn, there was another Hewitson double as Chris finished 1st at Marshall Drive, with Bex finishing as first female.

Sunday brought news of one of our newest members taking on the Trail Outlaws Penshaw 10k, as Rebecca Campbell claimed her first bit of bling in the white and red DVRC vest.

We’re sure it’s going to the first of many for Rebecca, who happily reported afterwards, “The sessions with DVRC are definitely helping”

Rounding off the weekend, of course, was the Sunday Social gang – taking on the full 15km trail loop of Chopwell Woods.

This weekend was all about the return of the North East Harrier League Cross Country, with the traditional season opener at Wrekenton, on Saturday. We had a big squad on the day, with plenty of debutants experiencing the thrills and spills of XC for the first time.

As ever over recent years, the females massively outnumbered the males (howay fellas, we need to do better!) – starting in Division 3 for this season, our ladies finished the day at the top of the league; with Bernie Gibson, Natasha Powell, Claire Knox and Jenny Yeo finishing 13th, 15th, 21st and 52nd respectively, to finish with 28 points, nine points clear of the next placed team.

Table toppers to start the season! And our other team members got teams to joint 12th and joint 17th – with Vic Brook, Laura Peacock, Kirsty Robson and Sue Urwin getting the 12th placed team home. A strong season for the ladies beckons!

John Kirby, Kieran Ridley and Rob Peacock literally flew the flag for us, but with the low numbers, we ended up with an incomplete team – XC rules needing 6 in the men’s leagues to register a full team. Great results from John, Kieran and Rob to all finish inside the top 400, none the less; and we’ll be aiming for bigger numbers next time round.

Ladies results: http://www.harrierleague.com/results/2023-24/Wrekenton/SenF.htm

Ladies photos: https://stuartwhitmanphotography.pixieset.com/nehl-wrekenton-women/

Men’s results: http://www.harrierleague.com/results/2023-24/Wrekenton/SenM.htm

Men’s photos: https://stuartwhitmanphotography.pixieset.com/nehl-wrekenton-men/

As ever with cross country, there was an abundance of cakes, baked goods and great craic – it never disappoints, and neither does DVRC.

Those of us who weren’t doing XC were at ParkRun – with our members hitting the courses of Whitley Bay, Queen’s Belfast, Riverside and Chopwell Wood. Simon and Lisa Hutchinson took on volunteer duties at Chopwell Wood, while Bex Hewitson finished first female at Queen’s in Belfast.

And of course no weekend is complete without the trails of Chopwell Wood for our Sunday Social…

After the trials and tribulations of last weekend, it was always likely to be a slightly quieter one this week… But you try telling that to Beth Ramsden or the baker’s dozen who ran the Northumberland Coastal Run.

Beth was taking on the Hardmoors 60 Ultra – starting at 8am on Saturday morning in Guisborough, just south of Middlesbrough, on a cold and drizzly morning, tackling the 63 miles of coastal route down to Filey, before heading inland to finish in York.

Ably crewed by husband Grant, she flew through the first three checkpoints in just under 6 hours.

The next three checkpoints were taken down in a cumulative time of less than 12 hours, but alas this was to be the final checkpoint of Beth’s day, retiring with only one more checkpoint to hit before the finish. Amazing effort and a day that will surely live long in the memory of the long-running Ramsden household. We’re sure Beth will be back to take down even more next time.

ParkRun saw our members hitting the courses of Town Moor, Gateshead, Riverside, Rising Sun, Keswick, Chopwell Wood and Denton Dene. With Natasha Powell getting a course AND 5k PB at Rising Sun, along with Steven Wade PB’ing Town Moor. Great efforts from both of them!

Sunday morning saw 13 of our lot head up to Beadnell Beach for the annual Northumberland Coastal Run. A half marathon taking in the views all the way to Alnmouth… even if certain DVRC members rocked up expecting a 10k… They shall remain nameless, though, eh Lindsey?!

On the day it was Natasha, fresh from her 5k PB, who led us home in 1:58, closely followed by Jenny Yeo (great to see you back in the club colours again!) and the Peacocks of Laura and Rob.

Name	Time	Cat Position
Natasha Powell	01:58:02	7th
Jenny Yeo	02:01:50	8th
Laura Peacock	02:05:19	10th
Rob Peacock	02:05:19	28th
Kirsty Robson	02:07:42	10th
Sue Urwin	02:12:03	4th
Eleanor Shotton	02:12:26	13th
Claire Thompson	02:13:38	9th
Deborah Swann	02:27:10	20th
Lindsey Dover	02:33:20	33rd
Lisa Lawson	02:34:10	23rd
Rachael Smith	02:47:26	27th

Tremendous results from all club members – with Lisa getting back into racing for the first time in 2023 and we’re pleased to announce that Claire brought the matchy-matchy socks and shoes back for the day.

This coming week sees the return of cross-country! Oh yes, there will be mud…

As weekends go, this one was a biggie… The Great North Run, The Chopper, Pilgrims Ultra, ParkRun and Sunday Social. You name it, if this weekend had a running event, DVRC were there.

But let’s rewind to the early hours of the weekend; with Claire Knox, Glen Cooper and Grant Ramsden heading to Holy Island for the start of the Pilgrims Ultra. With Glen tackling the 50k version, while Claire and Grant took on the full 100 mile route.

Glen took down the 50k with ease – tracking just over 55km’s in 7 hours – and remember Saturday was the baking hot, 26c degree day… Quite the effort to hit that distance in that time! Great going, Glen!

Meanwhile, as Saturday continued, our friends at Greener Miles Running were kicking off The Chopper 6 and 12 hour events, in our favourite, Chopwell Wood. We had Matthew Scott taking on the 12 hour event, whilst the rest of this motley crew opted for the 6 hours.

When all was said and done, Matthew took home the win with 12 laps in 12 hours! Amazing effort to start at 10am, finish at 10pm, all whilst nailing 80km’s and 1800m of elevation gain.

Over in the 6 hour event, Marc Runkee came 3rd overall, with John Kirby in 4th – both hitting 7 laps in the time limit. With Susan, Laura, Kirsty and Sue using Backyard Ultra Tactics to complete a lap every hour.

Again, that heat was brutal – as the day wore on, it got hotter and hotter. With plenty of the non-running club members taking on marshal duties or just good old fashioned cheerleading, (more of that later).

Back over on the coast, Grant and Claire were still going on their 100 mile pilgrimage in the Pilgrims Ultra. As day started to become night; fuelling and recovery were the aim of the evening – Grant opting for pork pie, with Claire going straight for fish and chips! All washed down with full fat coke, of course.

Completing the Saturday portion of the weekend, of course we were representing at ParkRun – with our members hitting the courses of Tyne Green, Fountains Abbey, Chopwell Wood and Whitley Bay. No PBs to report; but Charlotte Bowes volunteered as tailwalker at Chopwell, Chris Hewitson marshalled at Tyne Green, with Bex donning the pacer bib.

Moving into Sunday, and Claire and Grant were still going – running and resting overnight to eventually tick off the 100 miles around the same time as loads of us were running the Great North Run – Claire even rocked her GNR shorts for the occasion!

Grant polished off the distance to finish around 3pm – ably crewed by Beth all along the way. Claire finished 3rd female overall and took home more hardware to add to last month’s bling! Absolutely gargantuan efforts from both of them… Word actually fail us. Incredible.

Over on Central Motorway in Newcastle, a whole load of us were lining the dual carriageway and getting a sweat on just waiting in the starter pens. Not the ideal start for a half marathon… the warm-up felt like somewhat of an afterthought, despite the efforts of the chap in the cherry-picker!

Sunday couldn’t have been more different in terms of weather… we started off in roasting hot sunshine and by the time we were inflatable unicorn spotting in South Shields, the storm clouds were gathering.

By the time we’d all crossed the line, it was a Hewitson 1-2 with Chris bringing us home first; in 1:33, with Bex following in 1:42. It was somewhat comforting to hear everyone talk about just how sapping the heat was and that even the elites had been slowed down. Not that that seemed to bother wor Natasha, as she knocked out a new 1:51 PB!

Chris Hewitson	01:33:19
Bex Hewitson	01:42:22
Steven Wade	01:48:59
William Lacey	01:49:51
Natasha Powell*	01:51:15
Alex Fiddes	01:52:34
Kieran Ridley	01:55:25
Duncan Marshall	01:57:09
Justin Turner	01:59:22
Claire Thompson	02:07:55
Lauren Smith	02:13:51
Chris Dunn	02:15:44
Katharina Reichelt	02:21:16
Charlotte Bowes	02:23:10
Caroline Smith	02:38:59
Gemma Carr	02:51:40
Susan Hey	03:43:35

Biblical, end of days, apocalyptic rain followed – everything you’ve seen or heard about the flash flooding on the coast, on the metro and the roads is absolutely true… Most of us decided to seek refuge in the beer tent, passing the time with a tremendous crowd led rendition of Sweet Caroline, as we all serenaded our own Caroline Smith in the process!

Excellent results from all of the club members who took to the old course – it has to be one of the hottest ever, and definitely the wettest finish ever. Again, with so many of the non-running members getting out on the streets to support and cheer everyone on. This really is the best running club in the world.

We even featured in local AND national media; with Chris featuring in the BBC tv coverage:

Claire Thompson on the BBC website:

And Duncan in the Evening Chronicle, thanks to his kilt and hat!

What can we say, the camera loves DVRC!

And as ever, no weekend round up is complete without the Sunday Social – yes, even with all of this going on, we still had members hitting trails of Chopwell Wood for a chatty run.

We now move towards the start of the Cross Country season – if our skippers don’t have your name to get you registered – give John or Claire a shout… We’ll be there, come rain or come shine… This weekend more than proved that.

They say variety is the spice of life – usually we’d start from Saturday news and continue onwards, but our biggest club triumph came on Sunday, so we’ll being there…

Our plucky pair to tackle the Prudhoe Miners Race at 9am this morning was Lindsey Dover and Claire Knox. Both ladies did us proud on the day, with Lindsey knocking out an even 50 minute time, with Claire going one better to finish first in her category and SECOND female overall!

Stunning performance from Claire, who was only pipped to first place by a mere 16 seconds! Massive congrats to Knoxy from all of us!

Whilst this was all going on, we had a load of the Sunday Social lot taking on a whole other kind of adventure – heading to the wilds of Parkhead to head all the way back down the hill to Rowlands Gill and Blaydon.

They couldn’t have chosen a better day for the 20odd mile route along the Waskerley Way, past Derwent Reservoir to the other end of the Derwent Walk and down into the Derwent Valley.

We’re one week away from the biggest weekend in north east running – but that didn’t stop our lot from taking this in their stride and taking down those picturesque traily miles.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable morning and one we’re bound to repeat again in the near future – maybe when it’s even more scenic with a bit of a white dusting…

While those less foolhardy took on the classic Chopwell Wood loop with Simon – 3 humans, 3 hounds. Can’t say fairer than that.

Circling back to the start of the weekend and we’ll finish up with the ParkRun results – our members were tackling the courses at Chopwell Wood, Town Moor, Prudhoe Riverside, Durham, Riverside, Tyne Green and Gateshead. There were course PBs at Tyne Green for Bex Hewitson and at Riverside for Steven Wade. Of course we had our squad adding to the volunteer crew at Chopwell – with the Robsons, Charlotte Bowes and Lesley Gregory all lending a hand.

As we head into September and draw a close to holiday season – we’re still continually adding pins to our map of world dominance – with 35 pins and counting.

As previously mentioned, next week is the north east’s biggie – the Great North Run! We’ll have a brilliant club turnout on the day – be sure to follow us on social media to stay aware of how our members get on…

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!

Goodness me, you take two weeks off reporting and you miss marathon wins, yet more ultras and trail races!

While your intrepid reporter was taking a couple of weeks out of the country, our members were hitting the marathon and ultra at Isaac’s Tea Trail, Gateshead Trail 10k. Then today at the Tynedale Harriers Jelly Tea 10 miler and Lambton Castle Trail Run.

Going back to the Greener Miles Isaac’s Tea Trail – our very own Glen Cooper finished first in the marathon and took home the teapot! Glen has put loads of work in with his trail running recently, after coming back from injury to force him into a bit of a reset, we’re very proud to see his effort paying off with this win!

Vicky Parker, Peter Storey and Matthew Scott completed the ultra on the day too. Great work from all three!

The 12st August took us to Blaydon Rugby Club for the annual Gateshead Trail 10k – the motley crue above took the trails of the Derwent Walk on what was a typically hot and sticky Saturday morning!

Today took us to an airfield in the middle of Northumberland, for the newly revamped Jelly Tea 10 miler from Tynedale Harriers. Steven Wade brought us home first, with Kieran Ridley two minutes later, and Lauren Smith getting some valuable GNR training miles in.

Over at the Lambton Castle Trail Run, Deborah Swann and Claire Thompson opted for the 15 miler – with them both laughing in the face of the warning that 10 miles had to be completed in 2 hours…

Claire said afterwards:

“By far the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and with the added pressure of being told at the start that if you want to do the 15 mile, you have to do 10 miles in 2 hours…now I know what the Chevy Chase feels like!!! We managed it and we powered on; lots of hills and so much mud, only 1 fall between us, luckily it was a soft landing!!! The most traily – trail run I have done but an absolutely lovely route, fabulous setting and brilliant marshals.“

ParkRun saw our members hit the courses of Ashton Court, Town Moor, Prudhoe Riverside, Windy Nook, Riverside, Chopwell Wood and Denton Dene. Chris Hewitson helped himself to a new course PB at Denton Dene with a 2nd placed finish, while Beth Ramsden, Claire Thompson, Bex Hewitson and Lesley Gregory all took volunteer credits home.

And no weekend roundup would be complete without the happiest bunch of runners you’ll ever see – our sunday social group..

A bit of downtime last weekend meant we had to go big this week, didn’t it?

And go big, we did – a Grand Prix event through the week set the tone for a couple of days filled with activity – Lakeland 50 & 100, Northumberlandia 10k trail race, Red Kite Trail Race, ParkRun and the Sunday Social… phew, best get this show on the road!

Where else can we start, other than with these three… Alex Fiddes, Claire Knox and Paul Stephenson hitting the mind-boggling distance and elevation of the Lakeland 50. Beginning their adventure just before lunchtime on Saturday morning, (Strava syncing their runs later that day as “Lunch Trail Run” – like it was no biggie), our terrific trio set out together – no doubt enthused by Alex’s determination, Claire’s boundless energy, and Paul’s terrible banter; they picked off checkpoint after checkpoint along the way – staying as a group to pick each other up as required.

Eating checkpoint grub like it was going out of fashion by the end of proceedings, they finished the whole course just under 16 hours and 45 minutes. Gargantuan efforts and hopefully gargantuan portions of ALL OF THE FOOD has and will follow over the next few days.

Giving us some exclusive words for derwentvalleyrunningclub.co.uk, we spoke to each of the three…

Claire: “It was a long way… It was windy and wet… Warm and windy… Windy and chilly… We started together and finished together… The support at the CPs was awesome; we ate like we’d never been fed in 3 days until it all got a bit much for Alex and Paul… I was eating cheese toasties cooked over an open flame. At which point I asked “what time is it in real life” reply “2.45am””

Alex: “Oooof, I don’t even know where to start! Hardest thing I’ve ever done! The ascents seemed to go on forever. Great marshals and feed stations at checkpoints. Great camaraderie running as a 3 with Claire and Paul, particularly when we were moving through the night. Genuinely couldn’t have finished it without them.”

Paul: “I’m sure Claire or Alex have a better memory of it than me, but it was a lot harder than expected, terrain wise”

Understandably wrecked, maybe asking them for something eloquent, so soon, might not have been the best timing! Either way, it’s amazing to hear they worked together and finished at 1:41am, this morning. Let’s also remember that Claire tackled, and was 2nd DVRC female on Wednesday night – remember what we said about “boundless energy”.

Legends.

Also attempting the Lakeland 100, was one of our run leaders, Susan Chambers, along with her partner Jamie. Devastatingly, they had to retire in the early hours of this morning due to injury, around 4am, with only a couple of checkpoints still to go. We’re absolutely sure Susan will be back again next year and will smash all 100 of those miles.

Hitting the trails of the brand new Northumberlandia 10k were stupendous six, above. Carys Watts leading our team home, in 52:53, with Kirsty Robson second home in 57:53, and Sue Urwin in 59:20. Thoroughly enjoyable course and setting for the 253 runners at this brand new event. Brilliant work from our ladies – full results can be found here: Northumberlandia 10k results.

Sunday brought the return of the Red Kite trail race, hosted by our friends at Derwent Valley Trail Runners. Of course we had the white and red vests out on show with our fantastic five, with Charlotte Bowes taking the matchy-matchy title after Claire Thompson went for the black socks… we’re not angry, just disappointed.

Andrew O’Malley led us home in 1:13 and a brilliant 23rd place overall, with Carys clearly taking a Knox-approach to this weekend and pulling double duty, next to finish for us, in 1:22, with Claire shrugging off criticism of the black socks to finish 3rd for us in 1:32 – Charlotte with the matching ensemble finishing 4 minutes later. Chris Morris sporting his Canary Island sun-kissed look, completed our finishers in 1:49.

Full results can be found here: Red Kite Trail Race 2023

We even had the next generation of DVRC’ers, aka the members’ offspring, hitting the course of the Red Kite Kids Trail Race… The future is bright!

ParkRun Saturday saw our members hitting the courses at Blyth Links, Chopwell Wood, Denton Dene and Gateshead. Kieran Ridley helped himself to a new course PB at Chopwell – showing that the hard work does pay off!

No weekend roundup would be complete without our favourite trek around trails of Chopwell, lesser numbers with all of these activities, but we still had our people out, pounding the paths.

What. A. Weekend.

Do not sleep on Derwent Valley Running Club.