This time last week, Claire Walton was running the marathon in Edinburgh in memory of her partner, and our dearly departed captain, Andrew Callcott. Joined on her training over the last few months by a few of our other members, Claire was running to raise money for MacMillan – she has already smashed her target of £300 and her current total stands at £915.
If you’d like to donate to Claire’s ongoing total and push her towards one thousand pounds, you can do on her JustGiving page.
Another bank holiday rolls around in May… and there’s still no let up in the activities of your favourite running club. ParkRuns, socials, marathons and ultras – this weekend had it all.
We’ll start at 8am on Saturday with Grant Ramsden heading out to complete his unfinished business at the Hardmoors 110, after a previous DNF, Grant was determined to get the job done… and get the job done he did! Finishing the 110 mile course in 30 hours and 37 minutes. Incredible effort after the first experience – and as he said on his Strava – “mission complete”
Meanwhile, Joanne Cutmore and Susan Chambers were lining up to tackle the relay version, and it only seemed right to hand over the reins to Susan to give us a blow-by-blow account…
A chat started about Hardmoors 110, a run from Filey to Helmsley covering approximately 112 miles of beautiful coastal trail turning in land at Saltburn to take on Roseberry Topping (not flat), Bloworth Crossing (always windy as) and skip and hop over the Three Sisters gently winding to Helmsley… what the brochure omits is it is a challenge, you have to dig deep and rely on a support crew and have from 8am Saturday until 7pm Sunday (always love the question so where do you sleep – answer you don’t!)
Jamie, Brian and myself have completed the race with fantastic support from Joanne, who if Carlsberg did crew Joanne was it! I had a sense Joanne was missing out (think Joanne was good with it) so a relay was agreed. Team Ninjas and Nuggets were born! (you can work out who is who I’m sure) We planned out sections and handover points, mainly discussions were about food, toilet stops and fish n chips / ice creams essential fuel for athletes. Joanne ran the first leg smashing it to Robin Hoods Bay in blistering hot sunshine (challenging for a ginger ninja) and battled against flies and many many steps then I took over and got a wiggle on to do battle with crowds in Whitby… “coming through a lady with poles” was my fishwife screech!
After navigating through Runswick Bay and dancing up and down past pride of the north sunny Skinningrove I met the team in Saltburn where my last section was Valley Gardens to hand over section 3 to nugget number 1 Jamie. Jamie kindly escorted me through this last bit as anyone who knows this patch it is usually littered with youths and their love of green-plants so section 3 and Jamie sped off into the night and the hills. The was the lumpy bit, and he did brilliantly, handing over to nugget number 2 at 5am. Brian brought it home gliding up to Square Corner (he may not describe it as such) and completing the team relay triumphantly arriving in Helmsley just after midday… tremendous!
All in all a fab experience, total example of team work in every sense and I had my Derwent Valley buff proudly on all weekend!
Hardmoors definitely delivered!
Saturday 9am means only one thing – ParkRun! We had a new PB for Natasha Powell at Chopwell Wood, whilst other members took on the courses of Prudhoe Riverside, Blackhill, Riverside, South Shields and Chopwell Wood. While Kirsty and Tony Robson took on volunteer duties, alongside Lesley Gregory at Chopwell.
Sunday morning took the Sunday Social group to take on the sights for the upcoming DVRC event – the Captain Callcott Canter. A nice chilled Sunday morning route, taking in some of the memories of the previous George Ogle race, to boot.
On the slightly less relaxed side of Sunday morning, four of the club headed north to tackle the annual Edinburgh Marathon. Starting in the centre of the Scottish capital, before heading out along the coast of the Firth of Forth, to eventually loop back into the finish at Musselburgh.
Leading us home, after battling off a chest infection, was Chris Hewitson in 3:16 with Bex Hewitson, Alex Fiddes and Deborah Swann all coming home in PB times – Bex in 3:33, Alex in 3:41 and Deborah in 4:53. Stunning work from all 3 ladies, in what was gruelling heat… something that hadn’t been forecast (the overcast, 13c temps would’ve been more ideal).
Next week sees us back to normal training sessions before another group attempt at a recce of the Chevy Chase… If hilarity ensues, you know we’ll be here to report it!
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
Another favourite on the race calendar – despite that massive hill, we put out an incredibly strong roster of 8 mixed teams. Particularly impressive when you consider there were 50 teams in total.
We prepared ourselves at the start/finish area with a mix of nerves and excitement – the Steelworks veterans sharing insights on how bad the hill was, tactics for attacking it and strategies for not blowing up on first bit “there’s two more hills after that first one” – how right they were.
Setting off on the first leg for each our teams were:
With all eight getting teams off to a flying start, in what was probably perfect running conditions, not too hot, not too cold, and barely a breath of wind to complain about!
Leg two saw our initial 8 head over the finish line, to release the next from their teams as they crossed over – really well managed by the Blackhill Bounders team. Second leg runners were:
The final leg change overs saw the last push for the finish, with anchor runners:
Tremendous efforts from all 24 of our runners and brilliant to see so many other club members and committee out supporting on the course to cheer everyone on.
With the final results processed, our 1st team home were team 1; finishing in a brilliant 4th place overall – coming in at 40:26, only 1min 14 behind third placed Crook. Paul was the joint 4th fastest individual, with Bex coming home as 7th quickest female.
Brilliant efforts and finishes from all of our other teams saw:
Team 3 – Matthew, Al and Laura in 20th in 45:24
Team 4 – Claire, Claire and Rob in 29th in 49:34
Team 5 were hot in their heels in 30th – Charlotte, Vanessa and John, in 49:39
Team 7 – Duncan, Jill and Lauren in 32nd, in 50:12
Team 6 – Eleanor, Alex and Terry in 37th, in 51:49
Team 8 hot on their heels in 38th – Andrew, Megan and Sally Ann, in 51:51
Team 2 rounding out the DVRC squad in 50th with Ian, Simon and Vicky in 1:00:17
In having 8 full teams, we were amongst the biggest clubs represented on the night, and it really shows the strength we have to provide the maximum number allowed – and still have reserves who could’ve formed another 2 full teams between them!
We’re super proud of the efforts of everyone representing the club on the night – we’ll be back next year with the experience of this! Megan and her team even managed to walk away with a prize from the quiz during the presentations.
Full results can be downloaded from the links below
Next stop, Pier to Pier on Sunday…
We’re into race season proper, now – not that the English weather would have you believe that… I must take part of the blame for this week’s changeable conditions, with my words about the start of summer in last weekend’s report!
As usual, the week began with more top notch coaching from our tireless coaching crew, with those hot and humid laps in Chopwell Wood – Adele even joined in with a session “for the first time in well over a year” – in her own words. We had great numbers on both nights; thank you all for your efforts and enthusiasm.
Thursday was a welcome return for our RunTalk evening – big thanks to John Kirby for sorting out a great route and location… and even the weather, as we got to sit and ‘rehydrate’ outside the Boathouse pub. Very enjoyable night and if you can make it, it’s a really good opportunity to chat and get to know everyone – especially ones you might only see in the thick of a training session!
Moving onto races, we had Laura Peacock and Eleanor Shotton in the DVRC vests, across in the Lake District for The Lakeland Trails Staveley 18km
Fuelled by fruit pastilles, gels and lots of laughs, the two of them crossed the finish in 2:09, 125th and 126th position – out of 324! A result not to be sniffed at in that heat! Great work from both ladies!
Meanwhile, Susan Chambers, Jenny Yeo and Peter Storey were in Llanberis for the UTS 50 and 100k Ultra Series.
Jenny completing the 55k route, with 3486m/11437ft of elevation, in 10:33, to finish 4th in her category – clearly that backyard ultra was just a warmup for this… hats off to you!
While Peter bowed out of the 100km race at halfway due to heat related issues – he certainly wasn’t the only one, we hear… and it’s not a surprise in those temperatures, with that elevation!
Susan toughed out 37km and over 9000ft of climbing, before taking the experience of what she’d achieved away for another day… We’re sure she’ll be back for more!
Over at ParkRun, we had new course PBs for Lauren Smith and Sue Urwin at Tyne Green, in Hexham, while Matthew Scott and Kirsty Robson claimed course PBs at Chopwell Wood – where we also had Beth Ramsden and Tony Robson volunteering. We also had other members running the courses of Tyne Green, Prudhoe Riverside, Town Moor and Chopwell Wood.
Sunday brought the delights, once again, of the Sunday Social, as the gang hit the trails of Chopwell, in more glorious May sunshine…
This week sees our return to the track in Blaydon, with Mark Marchant delivering what will undoubtedly be another hugely enjoyable session – see you all there at 7pm!
Wednesday night sees us head to the Steelworks relays – teams are now in place with our thanks going to Mark and Hazel Marchant, Neil Frediani, Kirsty Robson and Carys Watts for acting as reserves.
| Team 1 | Team 2 | Team 3 | Team 4 | |
| 1st leg | Chris Hewitson | Ian Maddison | Matthew Scott | Claire Thompson |
| 2nd leg | Bex Hewitson | Simon Hutchinson | Al Rook | Claire Knox |
| 3rd leg | Paul Brugner | Vicky Parker | Laura Peacock | Rob Peacock |
| Team 5 | Team 6 | Team 7 | Team 8 | |
| 1st leg | Charlotte Bowes | Eleanor Shotton | Duncan Marshall | Andrew Walton |
| 2nd leg | Vanessa Armstrong | Alex Fiddes | Jill Lee | Megan Williams |
| 3rd leg | John Kirby | Terry Owens | Lauren Smith | Sally Ann Greenwell |
And you didn’t think we were going to end this without mentioning the Chevy Chase recce, did you? If you’re in our members Facebook group, you know there were a few of the club headed over to scope out part of the route…
At this point I’m just going to hand over to Matthew Scott to let you enjoy what happened.
I was hoping to be able to file something sharp and snappy in time for Chris’s weekend roundup print deadline, but I’m afraid I can’t stop giggling for long enough to get any serious thoughts down.
What a day out. In one sense, it was successful – we completed our recce of CP3 and CP4 of the Chevy Chase, no ankles were harmed, and the conditions were perfect. We climbed up from Langleeford to the Cheviot Knee fairly uneventfully, and the slow slog up to the top of Cheviot was fairly enjoyable. There were only a couple of bog induced stumbles between us, and just one of any note – Vicky’s shoe, thankfully, escaped the clutches of the peat monsters that had initially tore it away from her heel.
From there it was all downhill – and I don’t just mean the Cheviot descent, which Nick absolutely flew down. From there, let’s just say the climb up Hedgehope made the Wallace and Gromit episode A Close Shave look like an episode of Countryfile, and our decision to stick our feet in the stream when we got back to the car via the crags turned out to be extraordinarily unfortunate. Moments later, after a weird but seemingly innocent shudder, the car display was flashing warning lights and telling us to stop – something about a tyre problem? “It’s probably just knocked the sensor”, came Chris Morris’s reassuring voice from up front, a statement which turned out to be as accurate as a boxer with no arms.
The left rear tyre was blitzkrieged. We were still in the Harthope Valley, somewhere underneath the southern face of Cold Law, with no phone signal, no spare tyre, no alternative means of propulsion, and sodden wet feet. Around three hours later, aided by a messiah in a blue Ford Focus, an exasperated, slightly nonplussed recovery driver turned up in a van and announced he had space for all of us but one and the dog. He softened when he seen our predicament, and we all piled in to the back of his truck like we were after some obscure Guinness World Record for most humans and canines in a truck covered in peat. Our sole canine companion was soon out for the count, stretched across our increasingly crampy legs in the back, and before long we were deposited in the car park of a random pub in Alnwick, where we made pleading phone calls for our other halfs to come and collect us. As we waited for rescue (again), we took our wet feet inside and ordered alcohol.
I departed first, with my feet covered in hairnets (genius Kirsty!), and got into the car with a grumpy better half who sped us home down the A1. I got home and immediately headed for a shower, only to discover that our hot water was off. And off it remains as I type this, contemplating the merits of a cold shower, and wondering if it’d be easier and truer to the spirit of our day to clean myself by going and rolling in the back garden like my dog does.
What a day though. If this is a recce, who knows what the Chevy itself will bring? And best of all, I think we’re doing it all again in two weeks, if we’ve recovered from this one…
There’s no such thing as a quiet weekend in this club… More races, more achievements and more reasons to be proud.
We had the red and white vests out in force for the Wild Deer Gibside 10k – whisper it quietly, but is summer finally heading our way?!
Leading the way for us, in a brilliant 7th place was Paul Brunger, in a time of 39:42. For the ladies, Claire Thompson was first home for us and the 32nd female overall, in 58:17.
| Position | Name | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Paul Brunger | 00:39:42 |
| 62 | Nick Armstrong | 00:50:45 |
| 126 | Claire Thompson | 00:58:17 |
| 137 | Ian Maddison | 00:59:24 |
| 142 | Terry Owens | 00:59:35 |
| 201 | Sally Ann Greenwell | 01:06:02 |
| 202 | Susan Carney | 01:06:01 |
| 208 | Neil Frediani | 01:06:54 |
| 210 | Charlotte Bowes | 01:07:22 |
| 217 | Lindsey Dover | 01:08:15 |
| 238 | Theresa Owens | 01:11:25 |
Great results from everyone, on what was a glorious night for running!
Moving into yet another long weekend, and Saturday morning is always ParkRun day, with our members visiting the courses of Chopwell Wood, Riverside, Prudhoe Riverside and Silksworth. Terry Owens claimed himself a PB at Riverside in 24:30! Great work, Terry! We also had the Robson’s on volunteer duty, where Tony and Kirsty were joined by Alan Vicarage as high-vis heroes.
Sunday brought more great news from the Sunderland City Runs Half Marathon, where Carys Watts, Sally Ann Greenwell and Lindsey Dover fought the heat of the morning sun, to smash out 13.1 miles.
Lindsey claimed herself a new PB in 2:14! Amazing effort! Carys got home in 1:44, with Sally Ann following in 2:08. What a day!
And, of course, no Sunday can go by without our usual social loop of Chopwell Wood – where the gang meet for the usual chatty and muddy run round our favourite trails.
Plenty of other training runs and recce runs over the weekend – those miles don’t go unnoticed, as we’ll enjoy the fruits of your labours on a weekend roundup soon, no doubt!
If you missed it yesterday – we crowned our first Trainer of the Month, with Luke Kelly taking home the award for the first time.
Another new website feature we’ve been working on behind the scenes – together with your club coaches, we’ve been keeping track of effort, performance, attitude, commitment and attendance…
Every month, we’ll be recognising the club member who made the biggest improvement in training sessions and races.
The first awarding of this was an easy decision with one clear winner. Someone who has “come on brilliantly, shown commitment, took part in the relays and got well out of his comfort zone every week”
He’s also “worked hard at encouraging others” in training sessions, “even when he speeds past me”
April’s Trainer of the Month is…
And well done to everyone for your efforts over the last month… and now you know – your coaches see everything!
You’ll remember a few weeks ago when we had our three person relay team – taking the middle leg over that weekend was Matthew Scott… Now the dust has settled, Matthew has written a first-hand account of his day to share with you.
After being bounced by DVRC pals into doing my first ultra – the weird and wonderful Jedburgh Three Peaks – I knew it was only a matter of time before I’d be bounced into my second. This time, it was the allure of the Pennine Journey. Having concluded a little earlier that the 52mi option was probably a little too soon for my little legs, the open call to be part of the DVRC relay team was too hard to resist. 40mi from Greenhead to Dufton, over challenging but not awful terrain, seemed a good next step in my quest to run 50mi before the end of 2023.
And so it came to pass that I found myself sitting in Greenhead Village Hall at 2.30am on the night/morning of the race, trying to resist eating all of the sweets that the checkpoint volunteers encouraged me to ‘help yourself to’. I was joined shortly afterwards by our Arch Enemies for the day, the actually-very-canny relay team from Swaledale Runners. We had a bit of a chat, and soon realised that our respective first leggers – going through the night from Blanchland to Greenhead – were running together. I also soon realised they had taken a somewhat relaxed approach to recce’ing the course, and it therefore seemed natural that my fellow second legger and I should set off together. I’d recced most of the route, and therefore had only a mildly bad, as opposed to wildly inaccurate, idea of where I was going. Soon enough, our club captain John Kirby and his Swaledale companion arrived, and we were putting on our headtorches and heading out the door. We departed together, although I clocked immediately the ease with which my fellow second legger seemed to be moving (more on that soon).
We plodged across Blenkinsopp Common, which had been absolutely atrocious on my recce, but which had dried up (a bit) and was also covered in a touch of frost. As a result, it was only my feet and ankles that were drenched after a couple of hundred yards. My knees followed shortly afterwards as we failed to navigate effectively round what turned out to be a pond, and from then on it was wet legs all the way home. But we made good progress, chatting as we went and helping each other find the least bad lines and the stiles that marked the way through the dark. Soon we were off the common and moving towards the sunrise through a couple of farms and some fields, catching up with the doomed-to-retire yet hugely admirable early leader of the 112mi race. It was at this point that – as I suspected – my compatriot made his move, easing away like a Dalek going up a staircase as I struggled up a little incline to the road into Lambley. Fortunately for me he then made a wrong turn, continuing up the Pennine Way instead of turning left, so we were back together as we came past Lambley viaduct and onto the mercifully firm gravel of the South Tyne Trail.
Here we (or more accurately I) contemplated exchanging a Chia Charge bar for some eggs that were advertised on an honesty box basis at the side of the track, wondering if someone could do me poached eggs on toast at the next checkpoint. I was eggless though as we came into Slaggyford checkpoint, ably managed by the Ramsden clan of DVRC. We joked that the medics parked outside would soon be rescuing us from somewhere further south and headed back out onto the trail, which soon gave way to a nice narrow path along the river and some more fields. Soon, my compatriot made his second move, and this one stuck. In fact, he got away so quickly that my attempts to shout good luck to him didn’t seem to be heard in the wind, and I settled in for what I knew would likely be a solitary few miles west up to over Alston, before the descent back down into the start of the 52mi race at 8am. Later I learned that he’s a proper, proper runner, which is fitting, considering he was also a proper, proper inspirational companion for the 15mi or so we were together. Thanks Steve, if you’re reading this, for the company and the shared miles, and I’m pleased you weren’t too quick for me to see you at Dufton once we were done.
Departing Alston onto the bit of the course I knew best was welcome, but it’s also where my legs started to complain a bit. On reflection, we’d been going a little bit too fast for my ‘ultra pace’ over some pretty rough ground, and as a result, the complaints started early. I really like this part of the world though, and it’s only 4mi or so between Alston and Garrigill, so I was able to zone out a bit and enjoy the steadily improving weather. On arriving in Garrigill, I got into the checkpoint just as the tail end of the 52mi runners were leaving, giving me people to chase up and over the long climb to the shoulder of Cross Fell. In the checkpoint, I ate sausage rolls, swiss roll, biscuits, and a couple of snide Milky Way bars before filling up my water bottles and getting ready to head out again. Joining me there was our club captain, fresh from his first leg after a nap in his car, and who would incredibly spend the next 15 hours following his teammates from checkpoint to checkpoint to make sure we were alright.
On leaving the checkpoint, I used the sum total of eight years of university education in a geography department to declare to myself “it’s f*****g hot.” Flaming hot indeed. The sun had risen and you’d have been forgiven for thinking it was the height of summer – in Greece. I abandoned a warm layer with our club captain, searched in vain for some suncream, and ended up putting my hat on to try and minimise the coming burn. Luckily, the climb up Cross Fell in the clear morning was so beautiful all thoughts of sunburn were erased from my mind. Jokes aside, this is why I love doing this, the moments where a landscape unfolds in front of you and you are just overcome with awe that such a landscape can even exist. It severs you from the worries and stress of day-to-day life, and makes you realise (or remember) just how moving being in the world actually is. Weeks later, I still find myself daydreaming about those long, slow miles up to Cross Fell, longing to re-experience the childlike wonder I felt going up.
Anyway, that’s enough of that. My legs were struggling now, and the rough undulation of the early climb prevented me from getting into any kind of rhythm. I was worried – briefly – that I might be tanking too early, but the combination of the incredible views and the sugar I’d thrown down my neck at Garrigill soon started to help. As I approached the top of the climb I felt, dare I say it, good, and started moving through the backmarkers of the 52mi race. At almost 800m up, right on top of the shoulder of Cross Fell, I thought to myself give me five of these over one of the Cheviot any day, and as we dipped over the crest the bumps of the Lake District loomed on the horizon, with the Eden Valley revealing itself below. Doing better than expected and still taken by the surroundings, I started down the other side of Cross Fell feeling like Finlay Wild, but Garmin reliably informs me that I didn’t come anywhere close to the sub nine-minute mile I’d achieved somewhere on the South Tyne Trail. And I paid for it. At the bottom, my knees – in complete shock at what I’d just forced them to absorb – joined a union and noisily picketed me for the rest of the day.
The remaining 8mi or so was a bit of a slog, moving at what felt like an okay pace but unable to sustain it for long before my knees balloted my muscles for wider industrial inaction. Not even consuming what I refer to as the ‘big lad’ – a 40p 500kcal flapjack from B&M Bargains – helped much. Happily, there were enough little inclines and so many places to get the nav wrong that I was stopping plenty, and I continued to rumble through some of the 52mi backmarkers, exclaiming ‘we are simultaneously 2nd and last in the relay’ to forced laughs and bemused stares as I went. I pushed as much as I could though, and soon I was heading into Dufton and – just as soon – heading out of Dufton, following the GPX on my watch and having failed to realise where I was. My tour of Dufton complete, I arrived at the checkpoint and finish line for leg two, where Francesca Best took over the baton and headed off towards High Cup Nick. I sat, a little sore, dazed, and happy, as more 52mi runners came into the checkpoint. I’d finished in just under eight and a half hours, well inside my initial stretch target of nine hours. The endlessly caring Kirsty Robson ensured I had a cuppa and some biscuits, and a little later my dad appeared with a change of shoes, socks, and some foot cream, as well as my dog, upset that I’d left his eyeline for more than 15 seconds, as usual.
Fran brought us home with a brilliant third leg, and Claire Knox and Marc Runkee were soon finished in the 52mi race too, far too swift for me to have had any chance of catching up with them. As I started to cramp up as my dad drove me back to Greenhead to collect my car, I reflected back a bit. I joined DVRC in around April 2022, having never had the courage to join a running club before. I messaged the page and immediately got an invite to come along that night. I was already signed up for the Chevy Chase with a friend, but at the last minute she got Covid and couldn’t make it. I lined up for my first ever fell race feeling very scared and doubting myself, but all the DVRC team there persuaded me I could do it, even making sure I got in the mandatory group photo despite ruining it by not having a club vest yet. I even still remember the first time I met John, a couple of weeks before Chevy on a Tuesday evening, where I told him I’d signed up and he ran a couple of laps of a Chopwell loop with me to ‘see where you’re at’. ‘You’ll be fine’, I remember him saying, and he was also on hand with some sage words on the Chevy start line that, to my detriment, I only partially followed. He later persuaded me to sign up for Jedburgh, and this time I did listen to his words on pacing and fuelling and had a great, largely pain free day out.
Ultimately, then, this is the account of a nervous average runner joining a running club because it happened to be based in a place he liked, and finding endless support and encouragement to do things that scared him a bit. It strikes me now that this is the main (but certainly not only) reason I find DVRC great – no matter where you start, the leaders help you take the baby steps towards the next challenge or scary goal, whether that’s your first ultra, your first fell race, or your first full loop of Chopwell Woods. To the growing alarm of my fiancée, I am starting to identify and believe in myself as long-distance runner, and feel like I’m not far away from trying to ‘race’ longer races instead of just trying to survive. This is in no small part down to the support of the club over the past year. I never thought I’d have the guts or ability to run an ultra, but now I can’t wait to do more.
So cheers to you all at DVRC, you little belters, and I’ll see you on the start line of the next one with my block of Soreen and my Nutella. You know it’s the fuel of champions.
So there you have it – fancy it next year?!
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…
Lots for us to be be proud of this weekend – we’ll start with the club takeover of Chopwell Wood ParkRun.
Getting people to give up their time, not run and allow others to, is something that Run Directors must always worry about; but our very own Lesley Gregory had none of those on Friday night and confessed afterwards that she’s had no trouble sleeping on Friday night! We more than filled the volunteer roster, with even the optional marshal positions filled… as if the spirit of this club could ever be doubted.
Our volunteer crew was: Vanessa Armstrong, Sally Ann Greenwell, Lesley Gregory, Chris Hewitson, Simon Hutchinson, Chris Morris, Terry Owens, Theresa Owens, Jane Parnaby, Laura Peacock, Kieran Ridley, Kirsty Robson, Tony Robson, Claire Thompson, Sue Urwin and Megan Williams.
We doubled up our club takeover with a food bank appeal for Gateshead food bank – it should come as no surprise that both elements of Saturday morning were a huge success. Despite the gloomy pre-run conditions, the showers disappeared once 9am hit and by the time we were clearing up – there were over 10 bags and boxes of items to drop off at Rowlands Gill library, which will find its way to Gateshead.
Those who weren’t in time to make the volunteer roster had to make do with running the trails of Chopwell Wood – we had John Kirby, Chris Dunn smashing out a new course PB, Graham White, Ashleigh Hancock with another course PB, Lauren Smith, Claire Knox, Paul Stephenson, Alan Vicarage, Charlotte Bowes and Hazel Marchant. Away from Chopwell Wood, Paul Brunger was busy finishing first at Linford Wood.
Marathon Sunday saw the running of the London Marathon, but closer to home brought us results from Durham, Blackpool and the virtual London Marathon!
Incredible efforts from all three – in what was definitely ‘changeable’ weather conditions, we’re sure!
So the weekend ends exactly where it began, and as the picture suggests – we even saw some some sunshine.
We still see those training runs and recces – keep hitting those miles and kilometres… A new training week begins tomorrow…
Derwent Valley Running Club 