Another weekend of typical DVRC variety – DalesRunner 20, London Landmarks Half Marathon and the Allendale Challenge…

We had Claire Knox, Charlotte Bowes, Claire Thompson and John Kirby heading out around Reeth and Arkengarthdale Moor on Saturday morning – over 700m of elevation around the 20km course. All four got round safe and sound and lived to tell the tale, despite the mud… and enjoy the post run cakes!

We also had Andrew O’Malley and Kelly Rodmell over at the Allendale Challenge – both also completed the full distance with Andrew admitting he’d underestimated it – they both still smashed it, though!

Afterwards, Kelly said, “Well I did it. It was more like a bog trotting walk for the first 13 miles, the bogs were ridiculous. The wind was outrageous and I had a little cry the last 2 mile with pain in my hip but I did it.”

Meanwhile, this motley crew headed over to the west coast, and another Lakeland recce… despite Storm Kathleen

The social element didn’t disappoint… of course

While on Sunday, despite all of the efforts of train strikes, rebooked tickets… for the wrong day and kind bus drivers – Sue Urwin made it to the start line of the London Landmarks Half Marathon!

Sue was joined on the start line by Caroline Smith – both tackled the picturesque course and completed the full distance, along with thousands of others. Great work, ladies!

Clearly race season is fully underway with more tales to entertain you in the coming weeks…

It’s been a while… but we are so back!

Clearly, we all needed the training weeks and months to get this one in as our first PROPER weekend of 2024. Ultras and Marathons were the name of the game – Greener Miles Running’s Bridges to Boundaries Ultra, Saturn Running’s Rhino Run and Trail Outlaws Dark Skies Kielder Marathon.

We’ll start on the banks of the Tyne in the very early hours of a surprisingly sunny Saturday morning – we had a huge turnout; many aiming to complete their very first ultras.

We’ve been lucky enough to get some first person accounts from some of the legends who completed the full 55km distance…

Starting with Vicky Parker and Gemma Carr:

“Absolutely fab day out with friends! Running along that beautiful sunny river side was just epic! Highlights being the DVRC celeb spots along the way! It became a game to tick off DVRC royalty and those smiling supportive faces just kept us going and going for 34 miles! Singing GOLD and YMCA just mint! Louise shouting at us to “Look lively!” “I AM LIVELY!!” Gemma’s potty mouth from mile 22 but also her tears of joy when she crossed the finish line. All in all a flipping brilliant day out. Thanks to Greener miles who put on the best event and pull out all the stops to make sure everyone has a great day.”

Pic our your faves!

Next up, Lindsey Dover:

“So last year I decided to sign up for an ultra, it’s canny flat so let’s give it a go. The day came and I was nervous and excited so much so I could barely speak. Got there and I relaxed a bit after seeing everyone and remembering there wasn’t just me running my first ever ultra. We set off I felt great then at just after 10 miles hit the biggest brick wall ever, I was so overwhelmed at the distance I still had to do so what did I do I sobbed! But Glen had my back and I remembered Kev Watlers pep talk before I set off “just enjoy it”. My legs ached my feet hurt it’s not pleasant at all but the achievement is everything! Massive thank you to everyone that supported, marshalled and genuinely had each others back. Extra special shout out to Sarah Reay, who has just been amazing from start to finish with her support”

Charlotte Bowes added:

“Such a gorgeous day and so nice to be at the start line with DVRCers. Never thought I’d run an ultra marathon but all the nutters in DVRC said it would be fun. And truly it was! Very tough after 40k ish, and a mental battle. But knowing there was a shandy at the end spurred me on. Wonder what my next challenge is going to be. And my final note is saying I couldn’t have done it without all the training and support from dvrc with recces etc. With a special shout out to Claire Thompson and Deborah Swann who were my two main lasses pushing me through training”

Claire Thompson continued the theme:

“The Greener Miles Ultra, 34 miles of pure joy. I thoroughly enjoyed myself yesterday, and when I signed up to this, the furthest I had ran was a half marathon. All the training runs (which I thoroughly hated and counted each horrendous mile) paid off and I pushed through to the finish in under 7 hours, smiling and enjoying the sunshine all the way. Greener Miles, thank you for holding such an inclusive event, marshals you were fabulous. Massive shout out to my DVRC team for all the encouragement during training runs and running with you in parts yesterday. Im on cloud 9, I can proudly say, I have ran an Ultra.”

We can’t finish off the report of the day without the special mention to a couple of the Blaydon locals, who truly got into the ‘spirit’ of things in more ways than one – forming a two-person finish line and shouting some slurry encouragement to a load of our lot… I’m sure they woke up this morning with some bad heeds, but their drunken antics certainly took the minds of the miles for our lot!

We’ll leave the last word on the day with Chris Morris and his top tip for Ultras: “My learning point from yesterday’s activities (other than try to remain injury free next time so I can do more training) is that if you make lemon curd sandwiches for consumption around the course- make sure they are tightly wrapped. & if they aren’t tightly wrapped (& you didn’t eat them cos you couldn’t be ar5ed to stop (again) to complete unpack your running vest to find them) then definitely don’t wait until the next day to find that cheap Tesco Lemon curd has leaked all over your running stuff!”

Wise words, Chris. Wise words.

Saturday night took us over to Kielder, where Nick Armstrong was going looking for one better than his 10 miler, last year – over to Nick:

“At this moment in time, yesterday was my first and probably last marathon.

A year ago I took part in the Dark Skies Kielder 10 (actually 11 – there’s a running theme here), which I really enjoyed. Training for that race went well. I gauged my pace as well as I could on the day and came away with a performance I was proud of. I received an email about this year’s races and a little voice inside my head suggested I try the marathon. Where this crazy idea came from considering I always thought 26 and a bit miles was too far for me, I don’t know.

The aim was to train over the winter and see if I thought I was fit enough closer to the entry deadline. What with a couple of niggling injuries, the busyness of Christmas and a virus, I wasn’t anywhere near the distance I wanted to be at on my long runs and by January I felt a bit like glass – adding miles to my schedule made me paranoid that I was going to injure myself again and I didn’t feel strong at all. I kept at it though and within about 7 weeks, a couple of races and a lot of running (for me) I pulled the trigger and entered.

The race start/finish area was based at Kielder Lakeside Tipis, somewhere which I know well from taking the kids to visit Santa over the last couple of years. Registration was well organised and there was a good selection of cakes, snacks as well as hot and cold drinks to purchase. I had about an hour after registration before the race would start and found myself standing there looking around at all the runners looking like gazelles and suffering from my usual imposter syndrome. Before I knew it, the pre race briefing was taking place and we lined up at the start line. And then we were off – 126 of us running through the twilight.

It was nice to be able to start in the light and see some of Kielder Water’s beautiful scenery. Apart from a looped section near the start (up a hill of course), the route wound it’s way anticlockwise around from the southern edge of the reservoir along the well surfaced path, slightly undulating. I found my natural position in the field with plenty of space to run my own race, making some overtakes stick. At mile 11, we reached the dam at the end of the reservoir and my legs started to tire. I’d been warned the north side of the route undulated even more and as the miles ticked by, the hills began to feel harder and harder.

I’d been listening to music all of the way around so far to keep me occupied but my battery on my watch wasn’t looking the best and I didn’t want it to run out before the end so stopped listening. The run was getting harder and harder. The furthest I’ve ever ran was 20 miles (the week before) and as I passed that milestone started to reason with myself that there was only 10k left. There was more than that though. The last miles were really hard. I’d been successfully chugging gels at regular intervals and they’d been doing their job to keep my legs moving but I got to the point where I couldn’t face any more and just decided to face the last few miles without anything. I started playing little mental games with myself – naming a band or singer where the first letter starts with the last letter of the previous one or when I got to about 4 miles left, imagining and visualising the route I was taking along the Derwent Walk on Thursday nights as part of my training to try and tie it into the distance I had remaining.

So close to the end but two things happened in the closing stages which really threw me off. The race director mentioned in the briefing that the race was a little longer due to a fallen tree that hadn’t been removed from the route (thanks Forestry Commission). This meant that the race was actually a mile and a quarter over the marathon distance – on dead legs the end never seemed to come. The other thing was even more cruel.

Around mile 27 I turned a corner and could see the tipi finish line in the distance, what I couldn’t see however due to the darkness was that I was looking across multiple peninsulas and the reservoir water itself. The path kept turning back in to follow the waterline and kept zig-zagging in and out At this point I just ignored the lights in the distance and concentrated on my small cone of light just in front of me and the threat of a headtorch I could see a little way behind, chasing me down, kept my legs moving when I just wanted to stop. The tipi mirage suddenly materialised into reality and I found myself running past static caravans on either side. One final marshal to point me into the complex and I entered the tipi finish line to applause, was handed my medal and after a brief chat with one of the organisers pose for what is probably a ridiculous photo – I was so tired I didn’t know how to hold myself any more.

It was done. I could stop running. The end. I’m pleased I did it, I’m proud of the training that goes into preparing for this distance and my performance (I came 30th, 8th in my category) but it’s hard work!”

Finally, Sunday morning took us to Durham and Kelly Rodmell made her debut in the prized DVRC vest – taking on a full marathon distance at the Save the Rhino timed event.

“Well first run in DVRC vest today must be lucky. Felt so good after spending last few days with sickness bug so wasn’t sure what I would manage. Longest run to date 20 mile today just short of 27. I wish I could have gone further but last 8 miles my IT band was playing up and so so sore but managed to strap it and keep going. Next up 50km!”

The first of many weekend roundups – never let it be said that DVRC doesn’t have range! It’s not all about the times and positions – but the experiences we gain along the way…

The start of the final month of 2023, and the final Grand Prix fixture of the season… Thankfully this weekend’s activities were heavily trail and fell based, after the weather saw off pretty much every ParkRun in the North East.

These hardy souls braved the snow and headed out to Allendale for the 29th annual Hexhamshire Hobble, and the last remaining GP points to be claimed. As we saw last week, the top of those tables couldn’t be closer, so it was all to play for.

With captains Knox and Kirby fighting the Hewitson pair, along with last year’s reigning champ, Kirsty Robson looking for a podium finish.

Heading out, and immediately onto the biggest incline of the course, wasn’t the fast start we were all looking for, “bit unnecessary, this” was heard… probably with added expletives.

Has to be said, the marshals out on the course were the real heroes of the day – running in that was actually surprisingly warm… despite the sweat tending to freeze once it sat on your skin long enough. But to stand around in those sub-zero conditions – we salute you!

Claiming himself maximum points and first DVRC’er home, was skipper Kirby in 1:31 for 43rd overall. Closely followed by Chris Hewitson in 1:32 in 49th, and Sam Spratt in 52nd. For the ladies, Bex Hewitson got home in 1:35 in 62nd, for the maximum, skipper Knox was next home in 100th after 1:47. Kirsty Robson and Eleanor Shotton got back in 118th and 119th, in 2:01. Great work from all of our crazy seven!

Full results can be found here: Hexhamshire Hobble Results 2023

What does this all mean for the Grand Prix standings? As ever, the Christmas party will see year’s winners crowned – and we’ll be here to report those victories… it’s all terribly exciting!

While normal people were sleeping, Glen Cooper, Peter Storey and Stuart Reay were heading to the wilds of the Cheviot Goat Ultra 2023. Starting at 6am(!) in Ingram, our terrific trio headed out on the 100km course, taking in almost 4000m of elevation gain.

We’re very pleased to report that all three completed the full course, with Peter in first for us after 17 hours and 24 minutes, just before 11:30pm, to claim 20th overall. Glen and Stuart came in joint 64th after 20 hours and 24 minutes, at 2:24am! Mindblowing stuff from all three of them!

Our Sunday Social gang took to the trails of the Derwent Walk and Rowlands Gill once again, as the Ultra 2024 prep continued. Plenty of snow and freezing temperatures doesn’t stop DVRC… not much does.

As those temperatures get colder and the mud gets thicker – you know it means we’re into proper cross country season…

Despite the sunny outlook on the photo above, it was cold. Very cold. Some might say perfect running conditions, however. The smiles on faces do, however, reflect the great craic and camaraderie that DVRC always takes with them to any and every event.

And it wasn’t even the team banter that caused some of this lot to miss the start of the women’s race… we’re reliably informed there was quite the ‘mix-up’ for the start of the senior women, 20 minutes delay was actually only 12 minutes. As runners were spotted – “they’re running… and they’re women… we’re women, we’re meant to be running” – and off they went!

Newly promoted to the medium pack, was Natasha Powell, Claire Knox and Bex Hewitson – who had no such worries, but probably got to their starter group a little sooner than they would’ve done normally…

When all was said and done – we had some tremendous performances from our stupendous seven – Bex leading us home in 50th place overall, followed by Natasha in 150th and Claire in 179th. Kirsty Robson was next home to make up the first team of four in the XC league tables, 242nd place. This gave us an 8th place team finish on the day – amazing stuff!

Not far behind was Eleanor Shotton in 244th, Ellie Binns in 254th and Sue Urwin in 292nd. All out of 399. All of our DVRC ladies finishing inside the top 300 places – brilliant achievement, on what was a really claggy course (as ever!).

A mixture of injuries, double bookings and premier league football meant we couldn’t quite fill a full male team – with Peter Taylor making his XC debut for DVRC, joined by Sam Spratt, who clearly wasn’t put off from his debut the previous fixture – despite what he might’ve muttered during that second lap… Rounded off with the ever-reliable men’s skipper John Kirby.

Actually, we say ever-reliable… but you’ll notice on the photos that isn’t a brownie in sight. Mr Reliable apparently forgot to pick up the fresh batch that baker extraordinaire, and wife Rachel, had made for the team. Surely a deduction in Grand Prix points beckons…

With the weight of the forgotten brownies on his mind, John still managed to bring our gents home in 343rd place, closely followed by Sam in 362nd and Peter in 519th. A huge field of 552 runners to negotiate in the last race of the day, with the sun setting and mud deepening. Well played, chaps. Well played.

In the boys under 17’s race – we had Luke Kelly once again rocking the DVRC colours – and boy did he do us proud – getting himself an 11th place finish out of a field of 33. Stunning work Luke – going from strength to strength!

Meanwhile earlier in the day, there was time for plenty of our club members to hit the courses of everyone’s favourite 9am-on-a-Saturday pastime… ParkRun! Whitley Bay, Druridge Bay, Chopwell Wood and Denton Dene – it was PB city for Sarah Reay and Chris Morris at Chopwell, along with Chris Hewitson and Beth Ramsden at Denton Dene! Great efforts in yet more sub-zero conditions!

We also had Terry Owens hitting his 100th ParkRun at Chopwell, while daughter Claire Thompson volunteered and made sure to grab us a photo of the legend himself…

Sunday Social took on a new turn, this morning, as a matchy-matchy group took on the start of their journey to an Ultra Marathon next year. Ably supported by 2 hounds, 3 deer, 1 squirrel and a Susan Chambers. Chris Morris led this merry band of misfits round 10.5 miles around the Derwent Walk and Chopwell Wood. If you’d like to get involved, give Chris a nudge and he can inform you of next week’s colour scheme…

We’re back with a whole host of running achievements to feast your eyes upon…

This month’s Grand Prix fixture: Brampton to Carlisle 10 Mile road race, Slaley Hall Trail Half Marathon, Red Kite Night Trail Race, ParkRun and the Sunday Social all get mentions

We’ll get straight to the business of those precious GP points with four of our lot swapping the north east for the north west, and heading over to Cumbria for the Brampton to Carlisle 10 Miler (we’re informed it’s an old fave of our chair, Tony!).

Our fast foursome for the day was Kirsty Robson, Sue Urwin, Bex and Chris Hewitson, and they all jumped on a 2+3 seater coach for the 10 mile trip out to Brampton… 2 seats on left side, 3 on the right… What a time to be alive!

Anyone would think Mrs Robson might’ve had her mind elsewhere as she boarded the coach (and wasn’t even impressed with the 2+3 seating) whilst she refreshed the Glastonbury website… Sue once again showing what a team player she is, by also loading it up on her phone! As race time neared, there was a real fear (mainly from Chris) that Kirsty was going to get the start of the race delayed if she ever reached the payment screen – such was the multitasking going on!

10am arrived with no sight of the payment screen, and we all reluctantly set off on the 10 miles westward… Rolling roadblocks in place to leave Brampton meant we didn’t have to chase the traffic too much in the early stages. There was a bit of it later, as we entered Carlisle, but by this point the field had sorted itself out into much smaller groups and almost single file, thankfully!

At the end, it was Chris who lead us home in 65 minutes, with Bex in 69 minutes and 6th in her category, with Sue in 9th in her’s after 1:27, with Kirsty coming in at the same time for a 10 mile PB! Great work from all 4, rocking the DVRC proudly!

Kirsty never did get the tickets… But the PB buzz is always better.

Closer to home, we had Sarah Reay and Lindsey Dover hitting the trails of the Wild Deer Slaley Hall Trail Half Marathon.

Oh yes, there was mud… but that didn’t stop our dynamic duo taking down the 1000+ feet of elevation in 2:37 for Sarah and 2:40 for Lindsey. They were both still smiling at the end… but we’re told this photo really doesn’t do the level of clarts the justice it deserves.

Heading back to Saturday… and Saturday night saw Paul Brunger lining up for the Derwent Valley Trail Runners Red Kite Night Trail Race… and he only went and won it! We’ve no pictures to share, sadly… but he did post the little gold 1st place medal emoji on Strava – so that’s nice. Stunning work, as ever, Paul!

Going all the way back to Saturday morning, and it was an emotional one for us, as a whole load of our club headed to Chopwell Wood to run the ParkRun. Tragically, earlier this year, Louise Wilkinson’s husband was killed whilst riding his bike home… Chopwell Wood was the last ParkRun that John was dragged to by Louise, when nagged… in her words… John’s workplace decided to do a takeover in his memory, with Louise and loads of our club heading to run.

Countless members ran, whilst Sarah Reay bagged herself a PB and Terry Owens volunteered. We also had club runners on the courses of Whitley Bay and Riverside. A Saturday morning well spent.

And as always, we finish the weekend roundup with the Sunday Social – as regular as clockwork.

Another great weekend in the life of the best running club in the world…

Another busy weekend for the club; with ParkRun, waterproof-ladies Sunday-Social, but the main spectacle being the annual Jedburgh 3 Peaks Ultra – and it felt only appropriate to turn over the scribing to our man at the scene – men’s skipper, John Kirby…

Saturday brought about another club favourite in Jedburgh 3 Peaks Ultra. With John Kirby, Claire Knox, Jenny Yeo, Kieran Ridley, Glen Cooper, Paul Stephenson, Marc Runkee and Paul Brunger taking part in full event. We also had #SquadGoals enthusiasts of team “Fantastic 4” Melanie, Sarah, Natasha and Lindsey tutu’ing their way round and team “Desperate Measures” Laura aka Helga, Jonno aka Hans, Eleanor aka Heike and Rob aka Heinrich who mistakenly thought they were at Oktoberfest. Rumour has it, running 38 miles is the desperate measures you need to take to get away from your kids for a day.

For Men’s club captain Kirby, the day started a 4:45 alarm and picking up Jedburgh virgin Kieran for the long journey north for an 8am start. Despite warnings the day before about setting off a little earlier, Female club captain Knox decided 6am was a perfect time to leave. As expected, that was delayed even further with Paul “faffing about” before setting off. It’s not clear how they got up in a record time, but we hear they were flown in by borrowing Kevin Keegan’s testimonial chopper.

As the group arrived, we were all greeted with the amazing spectacle of Laura wearing Rob’s favourite wig, and the lederhosen wearing, Team Desperate Measures. The most frequent comments being “WOW” and “I bet that’s itchy”. Pre-race photo taken, with everyone making the picture for the first time ever, everyone warmed up with a bit of YMCA choreography by some unicorns and the squad was off.

It was at this point running down the small hill from the start that we realised the effects storms Anges and Babet – it was VERY muddy from the off! As the group pushed to check point one at Maxton, the early pace setters John and Jenny discussed the upcoming mud alley which, in the past, had been the only bad bit on the full route. Luckily for them, they got through the trench of mud without issue, but this was not to be the case for all…

Only 8 miles in, Kieran decided he needed a lie down so he could ponder the next 30 miles to go. Lying flat on this back in mud alley just happened to be the perfect spot. Knoxy shouting “eeeh get up” was not enough to stop him taking his break. In the words of Kieran it was “death by mud”. It was all ok though, as the squad goals crew were there helping to support all DVRC runners, helping fill bottles and more importantly taking pictures of Kieran, to motivate everyone not to take a nap.

Checkpoint 2 brought about a fallen hero in John’s cheese and pickle sandwiches, which he dropped in the mud, in the climb up the Eldon’s. RIP sandwich – we hardly knew ye. The climb up the hills was gruelling for all, but there would be controversy early on, as Jenny Yeo was spotted, or rather not touching the trig point at the top!

Checkpoint 3 leads you to the much loved play park of doom, where you can be expected to get attacked by a bad T-Rex and Pteranodon. This proved a step to far for Paul S, nursing a few injuries, he called it a day at the play park, but I am sure he will be back for more bonkers fun next year. Those lucky enough to nail their landing on the slide may have been lucky enough to get a free hug voucher to inspire everyone to get back to Maxton for the final 10 miles.

From Maxton, and having been informed of Kieran mud bath by the crewing relay teams at the Rhymer’s Stone, everyone was very cautious going up mud alley. First home was John, who got a second wind in the last miles to pip Ultra Queen Jenny to the finish in times of 7:06:49 and 7:08:06 respectively.

Desperate Measure came in with a time of 7:17:34, with Laura’s blonde locks still looking perfect – who knew you could run with such grace in Bravarian Dirndl! 3rd place was Marc taking 30 minutes off his PB in a time of 7:46:58 who also claimed a spot price for being the happiest person at Bon Jedward! Much to everyone’s disbelief, with Marc stating it was more delirium than a smile. Fantastic 4 finished in a time of 7:59:07 with Linsey sprinting the line to make sure they got under 8 hours.

With a large group of us finished powered by spicy soup and bread, it was all about cheering in the rest of the DVRC crew home. Paul was next with a time 8:24:22 followed right behind with Claire 8:24:24 and Glen 8:24:28. Final man home was Kieran 8:56:33 who powered over the line to claim the top prize of muddies runner! What a day!

Lindsay Dover – “Was fab to be part of the relay team, not only did we get to run it, but we got to support everyone doing the ultra! Best of both. Btw well done everyone it was an epic day”

Claire Knox – “Overall, amazing support from the relay runners and from each other, it got us through the best times, tough times, the muddy times and the finish line”

Thanks John.

This club, man – mint.

Meanwhile at ParkRun, we had club members tackling the courses of Denton Dene, Windy Nook, Whitley Bay, Gateshead, Blackhill, Newbiggin and Chopwell Wood. Will Lacey grabbed himself a first place at Windy Nook in his first attempt at the course! Great work, Will! While there was a new course PB for Chris Hewitson in 3rd place at Denton Dene, no doubt aided by the marshalling presence of better half, Bex. Beth Ramsden took on Run Director duties at Chopwell, however this wouldn’t have the same impact for husband Grant, who managed to turn up late and miss the start – but still managed to pick off a load of the field to finish 8th!

Finally, as ever, it wouldn’t be a weekend round up with the Sunday Social – it was a waterproof ladies special, as Kirsty and Sue headed out to same the mud pools of the woods in Chopwell. Nowt stops those two!

Our Halloween run beckons on Tuesday… If you thought these outfits were bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Shorter roundup than usual, this week… but try telling that to those club members who were completing Ultras – nothing short about that!

Taking on the Wild Deer Ultra and the 53km course around the finest trails of the Derwent Walk and Waskerley Way, was Laura Peacock, Susan Chambers, Sarah Reay, Sally Ann Greenwell, Pam Lane-Jameson and Andrew O’Malley.

We’re very proud of all of them for starting AND finishing, in what was Sarah’s first ever Ultra distance.

We’ve grabbed some words from a few of them, to sum up their thoughts and feelings…

“If you’re going to run an ultra make sure you do it with amazing people. Big congrats to Sarah Reay for completing her first ultra and keeping me company, well done Susan Chambers, Laura Peacock and Andrew for also finishing lovely to see you at the finish line. Big shout out to our fab support and drink supplier Megan Williams and Gem who popped up just when we needed it, think you did nearly as many miles as us. Thanks to everyone who we saw throughout the day and took time to support us, Sue Urwin for the haribo, Stuart and Carys, Lindsey Dover for running us to the finish and Rachael Smith who surprised us at the end. DVRC definitely has the best supporters thank you”

Sally Ann

“Lovely day out doing the Wild Deer Ultra. Can’t believe how lucky we were with the weather. Fantastic views and mostly brilliant route (just some rubbish roads which I didn’t enjoy). Also Coke Zero at the end. What the…?! Fantastic DVRC support all the way around – like a team of Scarlet Pimpernels popping up everywhere!  Thanks everyone”

Laura

And we couldn’t not share this photo of head of DVRC security for the day, Lindsey Dover, seeing the team into the finish, safely and securely… phew!

Amazing work from everyone… Whilst news also reaches us that Grant Ramsden completed the 55 mile Nidderdale Ultra in Pateley Bridge, in just shy of 15 hours!

While over at ParkRun, we had members managing to find courses still runnable at Prudhoe Riverside and Blackhill – with Sue Urwin finishing as first female at the latter! Great work Sue!

And as ever – Sunday Social

12km around the delights of an autumn sun bleached Chopwell Wood trails…

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…