After a gruelling 17 mile Durham Dales Challenge, which featured blood, sweat and tears from many Quakers the Championship table looked all set to change with a number of runners taking massive point totals. However, the Durham Dales was followed by the Burn Valley Half Marathon! The undulation of England’s toughest half marathon put off many Quakers runners so points were also up for grabs!

At Durham Dales, the Quakers had the first four finishers with Nick Watson winning the race for a second year in a row with Steve Snook, Barry Mahaffey and Michael Joyeux following him! The same four finished in the top four last year! However, this year terrain specialists Stuart Hardcastle, Abbie Hull and Andrew Lamb looked for maximum points across the heather and trail! Daniel Crane, Mark Robinson, Leigh Ainsworth  and Steve Padgett all made their debut at the event looking to enjoy the heat and dales!

Following their debuts last year, Julie Whinn, Bev Snook, Wendy Colling, Mark Colling and Diane Adkins sought for a good finish after, hopefully, knowing the course slightly better than last year. As did Sarah Beadle, Alex Simpson and Ian Hammond.

Quaker Veterans Alan Prest and Danny Gordon both looked to capitalise on the benefits of their racing wisdom, running the race in an attempt to keep up with whippersnappers like Julie Cole and Julie Crocher.

Whilst a week later at the Burn Valley, the heat didn’t turn up. But the hills did! With Nick Mason making his debut and Danny Gordon looking to extend his lead on top it was always going to be a tight race! The ever improving Billy Harris kept the race up at the front and Ian Hammond bested Mark Robinson over the hilly course.

Disappointingly, team Jefferies  only managed one entry in the race with Paul putting in a good performance .

Across the rest of the field; Diane Vaughn, David Curtis, Leigh Ainsworth, Jackie Nicholls and Daniel Crane all were near to or just over a two hour finish. Whilst Richard Hughes, following a silver man triatherlon did well on weary legs.  With Diane Adkins and Gillian Harris rounding out the field for the Quakers.

So who took the points and where did you end up on the table? With the recent spate of events, some early leaders have dropped off and the table is shaping up. Battles right across the entire field, whether you’ve scored 50, 45 or 30 points. With Croft 10k and Kilburn to come before the popular James Herriott it’s still all to play for!

Click here to download the Quakers Running Club Championship Update Events 13 & 14: Durham Dales Challenge and Burn Valley Half Marathon

The PDF file has now be been fixed! Thanks to everyone who let me know about it!

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.