By Steven Dawson
It has been another positive week for Aycliffe Running Club with some excellent performances and personal bests.
On Wednesday, 14 members took part in a special Darlington Trail Series West Park Night Run.
This saw runners run 5k in the dark, using head torches to light the way.
Representing the club were Jimmy Agnew (21:21), Richard Holland (22:29), Joe Dickinson (24:38), Lucy Postle (26:31), Sarah Gill (28:05), Keith Hatton (29:05), Salv McDonnell (29:20), Sue Podmore (29:36), Kelly Dickinson (29:40), Cath McDonnell (32:38), Peter Varley (34:30), Em Flynn (34:47), Nici Ingman (37:56) and Ian Stothard (42:21).
On Sunday, a number of members travelled to York to take part in the Run For All Yorkshire Series of Races.
In the marathon, five members took part and despite rain and wind throughout the race, Mikey Taylor (3:05:54), Kieron O’Connor (3:06:29), Gary O’Connor (3:07:03), Bernadette Cooper (3:55:17) and Daniel Tatham (3:59:59) all achieved new PB’s with this the first time Daniel had managed to get below the elusive four-hour mark, amazing.
At the same time, five members took part in the 10 mile race, with Mark Bainbridge (1:19:32), Beau-Louise Mason (1:23:50 and new PB), Heather Bainbridge (1:30:48), Kirsty Sykes (1:37:53 and new PB) and Sam Harding (1:47:05) all representing the club.
On the same day, one member took part in the Run Northumberland Castle Half Marathon, starting and finishing in Bamburgh.
Sandra Collins (2:14:47) was the sole representative for the club finishing second in the female over 60 category.
At the same time, four members made the trek to Scarborough to take part in the Yorkshire Coast 10k.
Dispute the testing conditions with wind and rain, John Surtees (37:17), Tracey Surtees (43:57), Trish Kay (56:13) and Eve Doe (1:05:05) all completed the race.
A special mention this week to Gareth Hamblin who took part in the Tough Mudder Infinity North West event which included 8 hours of running, obstacles & plenty of mud.
For the first two laps, Gareth was flying and held a respectable 3rd position and was running in top 10 of British OCR finalists.
Unfortunately, on lap 3 he got horrendous cramp, slipped on an obstacle and took a heavy fall on ribs forcing him to slow to a walk to complete the lap.
As cold set in he decided to make the correct decision to stop. This is still a fantastic achievement and Gareth showed he can compete against some of the best runners on a tough course and after a week off, will start training for his next goals including with the Tough Mudder Infinity.
On Saturday, October 12, 51 members started their weekend with a parkrun.
At Warrington, Judith Porter (33:55) completed the course for the first time whilst Jayne Rudd (31:45) completed the event at Gateshead for the first time.
At Redcar, Heather and Mark Bainbridge (27:02) completed the course for the first time.
At Hackworth and in the 500th ever parkrun at this course, Andy Sedgwick (20:43) finished third and Karl Hume (20:48) fourth with Bernadette Cooper (23:06) first female.
Jimmy Agnew (21:52),Trevor Agnew (23:07) and Peter Varley (31:38) set new course PB’s with Trevor Needham (24:43) completing the course for the first time.
At the picturesque Talkin Tarn, Carley Cooper (30:23), Jean-Pierre Hupin (30:37) and Em Flynn (36:13) all completed the course for the first time with Sandrine Hewitt (31:24) setting a new course PB. At Epworth Equestrian, Lou Mann (36:24) completed the course for the first time.
If you are feeling inspired and are interested in joining the club, you can turn up for one of our sessions, or visit ayclifferunningclub.org.uk.