According to the BBC: When people think of cross country running, they often picture a group of skinny people sweating profusely as they compete for first place. Although this image is for the most part correct (until those people fly over the horizon leaving us mere mortals to enjoy ourselves), it is also sadly lacking in an understanding of the sport. Cross country is not a sport concerned with mindless running. It is, in fact, full of strategy and thought. It's also excellent training for all range of races, it's great for fitness and building up strength and it gives you a chance to get horrdenously muddy!

The Quaker's compete in the NYSD League in events held around the North East. We encourage all club members to take part in what can be excellent training; working towards conditioning both mentally and physically. All ranges of abilities are welcome to join the team! Just ask any of the regular runners about the fun you can have whilst wet and muddy!

Steve Snook	Diane Adkins

The club championship moved onto the fells and roads this month in both Billingham and Gusibrough with many Quakers getting out and scoring points! How many points did you get?

Click here to download the Quakers Running Club Championship Update Events 19 & 20: Ray Harrison Memorial 10k and The Guisbrough Grunt

To view the championship update, you'll need a PDF reader. If you don't have one installed you can download a free version of FOXIT reader. 

Click here for the results of the Late Summer Invitational Race!

The Quaker Running Club proudly returned to hosting races on Wednesday with the Late Summer Invitational Race. Originally titled the Sean Connery 80th Birthday Invitational, it was a fun and fast paced event which served as excellent practice for future events.

The race started at the Baydale Beck Pub, with the pub kindly allowing us the use of its car park and facilities, with ample overflow parking at Broken Scar and along the road. With the race being an invitational run, runners registered only for administration purposes.

It was refreshingly different having Quakers involved in the registration process, with Diane and April taking charge of form filling and handing out numbers.

The race swelled up with lots of regular faces from training, some of whom don’t often race (well done them for coming down!), and some regular faces from other local running clubs. As the clock got nearer to seven o clock, the runners amassed at the start and exchanged banter.

The race formalities began with a very comprehensive guide to the course and a brief speech from club chairman Mike Horan. And then...

...we were off...

The course was along public walkways so we had to be wary of other users of the footpaths, so getting a good running position was important. The front runners steadily all kept together, seemingly unsure of the pace we were going to be taking and who was going to lead. Thankfully, a non Quaker took the lead and sailed off into the distance leaving us all content to spread ourselves out accordingly.
The course was the definition of multi terrain with grass, pavement, silted walkways, mud trails and everything in between! The terrain had a slight undulation to keep us on our toes.The course was extremely well marshalled with marshals spread across the course to offer support and cheers, there was almost a marshal for every runner who took part! Johneven made the effort by wearing a shirt and tie for the occassion, although he did try to point me down Staindrop Road!

The finish of the race was all downhill, passing Ian and Jackie, with a sprint into the layby, with plenty of water and isotonic drinks to replace the sweat outpoured!

After the race, better than a goody bag, there were chip butties – proper chips too; a pint of beer and banter in the Baydale Beck Pub.

Overall, this was a fun race, regardless that I’ve ran the course hundreds of times, it adds a little something extra to run it competitively. It was well worth the trip out and all Quakers should be encouraged to do the race next time. Thank you to the Race Organisational Committee for organising the event; thank you to the marshals for looking after us and cheering us on; and thank you to the Baydale Beck for some brilliant chip butties (and having Summer Lightening on tap).

Roll on the next one!

Thanks to Michelle for the Photos!

Quakers' Heroes Help the Heroes With less than 3 weeks to go to this year’s Parachute Regiment ‘P’ Company Challenge at Catterick Garrison, a team from Darlington Quakers Running Club are training rigorously, complete with military style boots and 35lb Bergen. The 10 mile multi terrain event is certainly not one for the faint hearted and is a sobering reminder of the expectations placed on today’s soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Quakers members: Ian Scott, Suzanne Todd, Michelle Boshier, Mark and Wendy Colling, Diane Adkins, Annette Clarke and Charlie Bogg will be taking up the challenge in aid of the Help for Heroes service charity. Donations to the charity can be made online at: www.justgiving.com/GnrIAScott.  Darlington Quakers’ endurance crew, always looking to push themselves to the limits, have been engaged in individual events over the past weeks.

Charlie Bogg completed the hard-climb Hanging Stone Leap in a time of 4hrs:34mins. The 24 mile circular route, starting at Guisborough Rugby Club trailing up to Highcliffe Nab before heading towards Baysdale Abbey via Percy Rigg, Hob Hole and returning through Kildale, takes in Captain Cook Monument, Hanging Stone and Roseberry Topping on the way back. In South Yorkshire, Dave Thompson took on the Long Distance Walking Association’s Elsecar Skelter Challenge Event, with Dave electing to run the 27 mile course. Dave completed the race through fields, tracks and woods between Barnsley and Rotherham in a time of 5hrs:39mins and in 10th position.  

Quakers continue to put up a good show at Esk Valley’s Summer Fell Series with 12 Quakers on the start line of the aptly named ‘Guisbrough Grunt’. 6.1 miles and 980 feet of climbing in the North Yorkshire Moors was never going to be a doddle, but a blend of running camaraderie and some gritting of teeth helped the Quakers to make the best of the gruelling terrain. Stuart Hardcastle was the first Quaker home in a very respectable 64:49 followed by Lucy Jefferies in 67:55 and Danny Gordon in 70:28. Mark Colling, continuing his good form this season, finished in 76:22 followed by wife Wendy in 85mins alongside Richard Payne. Sarah Beadle and Diane Adkins put up a plucky performance to finish in 118mins and despite receiving penalty time points for a slight detour, Sandra Park and Michelle Boshier registered 121 mins on the results sheet for what was a very challenging course.

Over in Cumbria, Nick Watson ran the awesome 6.5 miles Lakeland Country Fair Fell Race, setting off from the village of Torver to summit Coniston Old Man and returning the same way  in a time of in 1hr 19mins. 

Back on the roads and looking for points towards the club championship, 19 Quakers made their way to a very warm Billingham to take part in this year’s Ray Harrison Memorial Race. Despite the relatively flat and fast 10k course, personal bests were hard to find as temperatures topped 24 degrees. Still, the Quakers put up a good performance with Nick Mason finishing first for the club in 39:34 followed by Brian Martin in 40:50 and David Todd in 41:13. First woman home for the Quakers was Diane Vaughan in 46:01 followed by Louise Trainor in 46:43 and Michelle Boshier in 53:54. Other Quakers completing the course were: Dave McLachlan 44:22, Scott Green 44:27, Darren Stockdale 44:28, Ian Scott 44:44, Mark Robinson 45:46, Danny Gordon 47:07, Peter Rowley 47:13, Richard Hughes 47:50, Paul Jefferies 48:06, Jeff Marriott 53:04, Derek Clulow 56:18, Alan Prest 60:42 and Janette Croft in 67:16. 

Only two days to go now and it looks like enough people have volunteered to marshal the run, so a big thank you and it looks like it will definitely take place !

As you may be aware, we are organising this as a very low-key event, just to check out our organisational skills before we really promote an event in the future assuming all goes well.

So, those of you that haven't volunteered to marshal, why not come along and run it ! It's only about 5 miles and totally free - what more could you want !?  (If you have volunteered to marshal and would like to run instead, let us know and provided we still have enough marshals that should be fine.)

See you there !   (Full run details are in an article further down this page).