It has been a very busy week for Aycliffe Running Club which started on Wednesday 28 June with the third race in the Darlington 5k trail series. An amazing 17 members took part in the Baydale Beck 5k. Representing the club were Richard Holland (21:03), Dave Blewitt (24:00), Sarah Gill (25:30), Daniel Tatham (25:33), Tamara Kirk (26:01), John Burnside (26:17), Sue Podmore (29:11), Melanie Rowland (29:56), Samantha Harding (30:49), Yvonne Blewitt (31:10), Viv Williams (31:59), Eve Doe (32:19), Nicola Ingman (33:48), Tracey Pickering (33:50), Rob Nicolson (34:25), Ian Stothard (36:54) and Susan Clark (37:49).
On Friday 30 June, five members took part in the Ali Brownlee 5k in Middlesbrough. A special mention for Tracey Surtees (18:35) who continued her amazing form, finishing as first female and smashing not only her personal best but her own club record at the same time. Also representing the club were John Surtees (16:25), Richard Trowles (18:29), David Stothard (25:17) and Ian Stothard (33:43).
On Sunday 2 July, eight members took part in the AJ Bell Great North 10k with Richard Trowles (39:20), Richard Holland (43:11), Gary O’Connor (43:46), Kevin Tatham (50:04), John Burnside (50:48), Evelina Dogley (54:41) Steve Williams (57:58) and Viv Williams (59:59), all representing the club. This also saw Evelina Dogley and Viv Williams achieve new personal bests for a 10k race.
On 3 July, one member took part in the NEMAA 3,000 metres at Monkton Stadium with Alan Wilks finishing in a time of 13:51, despite a strong head wind in the home straight.
On Saturday, 30 members started their weekend with a parkrun, taking in the Market Harborough, Sedgefield, Darlington South Park, Hackworth, Severn Bridge, Hamsterley Forest and Denton Dene events.
At Harborough, Alan Kellett (27:10) and Anne Kellett (29:21) completed the course for the first time. At Sedgefield, Melanie Rowland (29:06) hit her first big milestone by completing her 50th ever parkrun. At Hackworth, Bernadette Cooper finished as second lady in a time of 23:04.
Two members made the trip to Severn Bridge which, as you might be able to guess, includes running 5k along the famous Severn Bridge. Carly Gibson (29:00) and Emma Flynn (34:16) both completed this course for the first time. At Denton Dene, Keith Hatton (27:55) continued with his parkrun tourism completing the event for the first time.
If you are feeling inspired and are interested in joining the club or want to take your running to the next level, you can turn up for one of our sessions. Maybe, you’ve just completed the Race For Life and want to keep going or maybe you have been running on your own but feel ready to run with like-minded people.
One of our newer members had this to say recently after joining “I‘ve been really down on running for about a year now but, after six weeks with Aycliffe, I can feel my pace, strength, but more than anything, my enthusiasm returning. Thanks so much everyone, I feel like I’m at the beginning of a great journey.” This is exactly what we are about as a club and we want more people to feel like this and continue their journey through running, which in turn has many other physical and mental health benefits.
Our sessions cater for people of all abilities and we would be delighted if you wanted to join us to mark that next chapter in your life with running.
You can find out more by visiting or website www.ayclifferunningclub.org.uk or our Facebook page. If you would like to chat with someone, then you can email ayclifferunningclub@gmail.com. Make this the time you get into running and join us to keep it going for many years to come.
