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!