Where else do we start this one, other than the iconic Blaydon Race!

After having a few group photos, we headed over the Millennium Bridge to join the thousands of others lined up on the quayside, for opera singer Graeme Danby’s full rendition of the Blaydon Races – much to the surprise of some, to hear about the actions of Coffy Johnny…

Then we were ready for the off – with the traditional bell sounding the start of the 5.7 mile pilgrimage, gannin’ alang the Scotswood Road…with the DVRC aces!

As usual with the Ninth of Joon, it was a stunning night for running; with the water station at the old Armstrong’s factory probably keeping some from needing to see Doctor Gibbs, before we passed the folks upon the road and headed into Blaydon toon…

Leading the Derwent Valley charge home was the Hewitson 1-2, with Chris coming in 305th, in 36:45, and Bex following in 38:05 for 388th place. Duncan Marshall, Glen Cooper and Alex Fiddes following in quick succession.

In total, we had 35 runners representing the club with other highlights including Sue Urwin coming in 7th in her category, Neil Frediani 32nd in his category, Theresa Owens 14th in her category and Katy Carr was 13th in her category.

Your DVRC rollcall for the evening (with most heading back to Swalwell Cricket Club for a club rehydration exercise) included: Nick & Melanie Armstrong, Susan Carney, Katy Carr, Emma Collins, Glen Cooper, Dave Cowell, Lindsey Dover, Alex Fiddes, Neil Frediani, Sally Ann Greenwell, Ashleigh Hancock, Jo Jarvie, Louise Liddle, Duncan Marshall, Chris Morris, Theresa Owens, Vicky Parker, Jane Parnaby, Natasha Powell, Sarah Reay, Claire Reid, Kieran Ridley, Kirsty Robson, Caroline Smith, Lauren Smith, Rachael Smith, Paul Stephenson, James Toal, Sue Urwin, Andrew Walton and Graham White.

Full and club results can be found at: Timing Up North Results

With a whole host of photos available from Picture Perfect Photography and Ian Harman Photography

Saturday morning’s ParkRun saw Lindsey Dover, Sally Ann Greenwell and Chris Morris volunteering at Chopwell Wood, with Matthew Scott, Claire Thompson and Terry Owens running. Neil Frediani ran Prudhoe Riverside and wrote their run report as a volunteer, while Paul Stephenson ran a course PB over at Keswick.

Speaking of the Lakes, Laura Peacock and Eleanor Shotton were also over that way for the Coniston Trail Challenge 15km – another “scorchio” day clearly didn’t stop our two, as they both finished inside the top 100, in 2 hours flat… before heading off for a dip in Coniston Water!

While over in the Pennines, Paul Brunger was taking home 3rd place and pocketing a cool £15 to spend on pies at the Roman Wall Show Fell Race, Peter Storey also smashing out a tremendous effort in the heat of the midday sun!

Sunday saw the social gang head for the relative shelter of Chopwell Woods

And last, but by absolutely no means least, was our man John Kirby completing the little matter of the 100 mile, Ultra Scotland 50 & 100 Mile 2023

Not only did John complete the full distance but he only went and finished 6th out of 22 who managed to complete the full distance, out of 63 starters!

Monumental effort from John, despite Mr Brunger giving all of the encouragement to continue running at mile 89 – we’re told the air was turned ever-so-slightly blue… probably rightly so! John will be bound to throw a huge amount to credit to wife Rachel for crewing him, as well as Paul for running 32+ miles along the way.

This club… Stunning.

Summer runnin’ had me a blast… It’s June and we’re heading towards Blaydon Race week, so it must be the hottest time of the day, now, surely?! Lots of reports of baking hot races, this weekend, so let’s get this show on the road!

Claire Knox and David Williamson headed over to the Lake District to take part in the Montane Ullswater Way Trail 20 miler, on an idilic Saturday morning… but maybe not for racing…

Both of them turned in brilliant times on the day, with David finishing in 3:40 and Claire in 4:08… especially with over 3000 feet of elevation gain! David ended in 49th position overall, with Claire 21st female.

Also in the Lakes, was Sarah Reay – tackling the Grasmere Gallop 17k trail run… Sarah taking down the course in just over two hours. Despite a fall, Sarah took it all in her stride and completed the race to get the perfect finisher pic.

Heading even further afield, to the north western coast of Wales, to be precise… Our very own Natasha Powell was representing Team England in the Lionsgate Backyard Ultra.

Smashing out 50 miles, across 12 loops, Natasha helped Team England to a third place finish. We’re all very proud of you, Natasha!

In her own words:

“Back home from an amazing weekend at the Lionsgate Backyard Ultra Wales. Welsh Championship 2023 running for Team England and it certainly was beautiful and brutal! Wild horses and the chance of adders on the route made it extra special and threw in a few challenges when the horses decided to fight amongst themselves on the path stopping anyone from passing them. Not ideal when you need to finish your lap in time or you’re out! The heat was another challenge altogether and even though I started the afternoon loops in a wet top it was almost bone dry less than an hour later thank you to Mark Marchant and Hazel Marchant at Greener Miles Running for the opportunity to run in this event as part of the team. I’m lucky to meet such amazing people doing these events. Thanks to my mam Julie Wheatley for crewing not only myself but my other team mates too, your bowl of water for soaking hats and buffs in was a godsend! 12 loops and 50 miles later (my second longest ever running distance) with nearly 7000ft of elevation is something I’m very proud of achieving. Until next time…”

Whilst at ParkRun this week, Duncan Marshall ran his fastest ever ParkRun at Whitley Bay; with other members hitting the courses of Blackhill, Blyth Links, Chopwell Wood, Riverside, Prudhoe Riverside and Gateshead.

Another Chevy recce occurred today… Sadly no hilarity ensued… or if it did, the gang are remaining tight-lipped about it all… Something we can’t imagine being easy for Mr Morris!

This upcoming week sees another date on the Grand Prix calendar – with the Blaydon Race, obviously on the ninth of joon… We’ll all be heading back to our favourite watering hole, Pedalling Squares, afterwards, for appropriate levels of rehydration on a Friday night in the sunshine…

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

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.

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…

You thought it was going to be a quiet week after last week? Think again…

We’ll kick things off with Saturday morning’s North East Marathon Club’s 6 hour event at Herrington Park – representing us was Natasha Powell, Lisa Gilbert, Beth Ramsden and Adele Sinclair. Completing 5k loops at a time; Natasha firing out 8.5 laps to complete a full marathon in 4:33, Lisa hit 22.6 miles in 4:18, with Beth hitting 19.55 miles in 4 hours. Adele went over 5 hours to hit 30 miles in 5:23. Incredible efforts all round!

Meanwhile, Jenny Yeo was heading out to the “bog” of the Pennine Way, for a casual 21 miles… just the 1122ft of elevation gain!

ParkRun brought course PB’s for Bex Hewitson and Will Lacey (at Riverside), Paul Brunger (at Chopwell Wood) and Charlotte Bowes (at Prudhoe Riverside). With other club members visiting the courses of Riverside, Prudhoe Riverside, Durham and Larne in Northern Ireland.

Volunteering at Chopwell Wood ParkRun was our very own Kirsty Robson, as run director – ably assisted by Tony Robson, Lesley Gregory and Chris Morris.

Speaking of ParkRun, it’s our club takeover week, this coming Saturday at Chopwell Wood – please get in touch, if you’d like to volunteer. And we obviously hope to see as many of you there as possible (club kit essential, it goes without saying!)

Sunday brought the Manchester Marathon – with Grant Ramsden and Sarah Reay flying the DVRC flag – Grant finishing in a brilliant 3:26, with Sarah getting home in 4:28. In Sarah’s own words, “After doing a marathon 2 years ago with an injury and having to walk run last 7 miles was my goal to run every step of my next one and I did it” – phenomenal effort and not the last we’ll have heard from either of them with marathon efforts, we’re sure!

In non-running achievements, one of our coaches, Chris Haswell, took to two wheels to complete the Bamburgh 100k sportive on the bike.

Taking it more socially was our another of our coaches, Susan Chambers; who marshalled at a Canicross event, before hitting the trails of Chopwell.

And as usual, our Sunday Social group got out and about – hitting our usual loop of Chopwell Wood for a leisurely 7.5 miles in the April sunshine – just what the doctor ordered.

And last but not least – plenty of training runs – don’t think we don’t see those Strava stats – kudos to you all!

So, another big week ahead; with the return of Mark’s Strength and Conditioning torture workouts, more training sessions in the woods, and our ParkRun takeover… did we mention we’re still looking for volunteers? Hint hint…

Wow, where do we start with this bumper Easter weekend?! Let’s start in chronological order and go from there…

Friday morning saw the annual Good Friday relays at Albemarle Barracks – with DVRC putting out a full roster of male and female teams. Representing us in the female teams – Megan Williams, Carys Watts, Claire Knox; Kirsty Robson, Sue Urwin, Jill Lee; Sally Ann Greenwell, Jane Parnaby and Beth Ramsden.

16:43 (Megan Williams)	16:46 (Carys Watts)	16:08 (Claire Knox)
18:32 (Kirsty Robson)	19:01 (Sue Urwin)	17:35 (Jill Lee)
18:59 (Sally Ann Greenwell)	19:18 (Jane Parnaby)	19:47 (Beth Ramsden)

Team 1 finished in a brilliant 33rd place, with team 2 in 55th and team 3 in 65th, out of 77 teams – a massive well done to everyone for competing and wearing the DVRC vest with pride!

For the mens teams, we had Luke Kelly, Ethan Robson, Grant Ramsden, Paul Brunger; Steven Wade, Chris Morris, Simon Hutchinson and Andrew Walton.

14:01 (Luke Kelly)	16:38 (Ethan Robson)	14:23 (Grant Ramsden)	13:11 (Paul Brunger)
17:20 (Steven Wade)	20:30 (Chris Morris)	20:13 (Simon Hutchinson)	16:19 (Andrew Walton)

Team 1 finished in 41st, with team 2 in 82nd – in a hugely competitive field of 83 teams. Special shoutouts to Chris and Simon for making up the numbers at the last minute! We’ll be back again next year!

Friday night took us to the start of the Pennine Journey North Ultra; John Kirby leading off the DVRC relay team – John’s first leg started at 8pm, smashing out 38.65 miles in the pitch black of the night. An incredible effort!

Saturday morning began at 4:45am with Matthew Scott taking over, to take on the second leg – doing his 40 miles in under 8.5 hours – in Matthew’s own words “I would have been chuffed with 9 hours so to come in under 8.5 is a bit crazy. Knees are wrecked after I got a bit carried away hurtling down Cross Fell” – cake was then consumed at the handover to Francesca… more on that later.

8am saw the start of the 52 miler Pennine Journey, Claire Knox and Marc Runkee donning the club colours to hit the trails for just under 15 hours – with Claire finishing as second placed female and Marc finishing 5th overall. An epic effort from both of them! We’re all very proud of you!

At a time when normal people were doing their running – we had our usual ParkRun favourites out at 9am, as usual. With Chris Morris and Lesley Gregory doing marshal duties at our local, Chopwell Wood; Bex Hewitson volunteered for pacing duties at Tyne Green. There were new PBs for Andrew Walton and Theresa Owens at Chopwell Wood, while Paul Stephenson and Claire Thompson did a bit of ParkRun tourism at Portrush and Ashbourne Recreation Ground, respectively. We also had club members running at Gateshead and Tyne Green.

Back to the Pennine Journey relay, and Francesca Best was taking on the final leg for the team – just shy of 35 miles to complete the loop and return back to Blanchland on Saturday night. I could try to write up this, but instead, I’ll borrow Francesca’s words, because anything else wouldn’t do it justice…

Amazing work from everyone – including Melanie, who did well to even make the start line after being almost floored with a heavy cold – but managed to drag herself along and finish the race… after some words of ‘encouragement’ from John the day before!

One final mention to Kieran Ridley who managed to slip under the radar of last week’s roundup – just the small matter of complete the PARIS MARATHON! Kieran got round in 4:05, to finish 27820th out of 50756 – tremendous effort!

The biggest running weekend of the year, so far – and as ever there were more training runs aplenty across the week and weekend – we see you, safe to say that race season is fully upon us… I’m now off for a lie down in a darkened room!