On Sunday 22nd June, seven members of the club tackled the demanding course of Preston Park 10k Trail race. This followed various paths through woods, fields and riverside and on what was a very hot day the shaded area of the woods gave some welcome relief.
There was a mix up just after the start of the race. Some runners claim they were sent the wrong way, ten were disqualified and others only completed 5k but were given times for the distance completed.
Graham Atkins, one of our tri-athletes, had a brilliant run finishing 6th and first V/50, in 45m:50s, followed by John Burnside, 21st 48:10, Dave Blewitt, 26th 48:44, Justin Hindmarch 33rd 49:46, Kelly Smith 51st 53:19, Trish Kay 63rd and 1st F/50 55:34 and finally Ray Todd 95th and 1st V/70 66:26.
On the same day Chris Forster competed in the “Stavely Stampede” 10k and finished in 53:07.
The following Wednesday the club were in action in the Redcar coastal 5k. It was a pleasant summer evening and a few of our athletes got PBs. John Burnside was 1st home for the club, finishing 83rd in 20m:43s, followed by Justin Hindmarch 87th 20:48, Kelly Smith, 97th 21:20 PB, Rob Nicholson, 114th 22:05, Trish Kay 134th 24:19, Ross Garland, 166th 26:45 PB, Dianne Savage, 176th 28:00 PB and Elaine Morgan 186th 29:21 PB.
To complete what had been a busy week, four athletes competed in the Lord Stones 5k Trail Race, near Carlton-in-Cleveland. This is a completely new venue for the summer series of Tees trail races and it attracted 190 runners. The clubs “King of the Mountains”, Dez Fielden was in his element and finished 4th in 17:24. Leading the ladies was Angela Barrett 135th 28:13, followed by Kat Aspey 144th 28:58, and Rachel Aspey 147th 29:16.
Saturday 28th June was the day of the Hamsterley Marathon, a new event organised by Sedgefield Harriers. Runners had the option of taking part in either the full marathon, 18.5m or 11m and three ladies from the club opted for the 11 miles and all gave a good account of themselves.
Clare Rose was first home, 26th out of 58 finishers in the time of 1h:39m, followed by Jayne Heron, 30th 1:45:59 and Melanie Rowland 44th 1h:55:03.
The following day, two members of the club competed in the Lambton Castle 10k
It was quite a warm day and the grassy sections of the undulating mixed terrain course made it hard going at times. Graham Atkins was first home in 42:15, followed by Trish Kay, 51:05.
On Wednesday 1st July nine members of the club competed in the Pitstop 10k at Croft. This was over three laps of the race course. It was a windy evening but this didn’t stop some members gaining PBs, with the help of the flat course.
Prolific racer Dez Fielden was first home for the club and 7th overall in the time of 35:25, followed by Richard Campbell, 18th 39:02, Tom Porter, 31st 40:41, Justin Hindmarch, 64th 44:41, Steve Smith, 71st 44:41, Dave Blewitt, 74th 44:52 PB, Trish Kay, 113th 50:38, Diane Savage, 160th 56:42 PB, and Susan Clark, 180th 60:59.
