Welcome to Darlington Harriers Weekly Round-up Report, keep reading to see what has occurred this week and what is coming up for club members.
How do I?…
- I have a question or want to tell you something
- I want to sign up for an event
- I want to attend a training session
- I want to purchase kit
- I want to claim a club record
- I want to read about our clubs history
- I want to tell our members about our business or see what business they support
- I want to see what discounts are available to me
- I want to read our clubs processes or policies
Club Championship rules and competitions can be found here and points will be populated here
Our club was formed in 1891, but how did the club become Darlington Harriers? Who were the people that founded the club? Read about some of the great athletes that have graced our club, Olympians George Butterfield, Robert Hawkey and Joy Grieveson. Read about Fred Wyers who competed in the 1958 Commonwealth Games and other notable athletes such as Bob Stockdale, William Wylie, Ian Barnes, Paul Harker, Lewis Moses, Kieran Maxwell who have graced our club over the years and let’s not forget all the current members. The club is steeped in the town’s history from basic beginnings to current day and these pages will be updated daily as I trawl through the British Newspaper Archives.
Get Involved
We want to see the club colours at all of our events, especially team events such as relays, National, Northern or North-Eastern where we can get together as a group, support each other and make these events a social occasion. So let me introduce you to our Senior Club Captains.
In addition to athletes, we are always looking for volunteers to support club and local events so please reach out to Sarah Johnson as your first point of contact if you can support in any way shape or form. Thank you! #UTH
Race Result
Sunday saw the Richmond Castle 10km take place with the course now starting and finishing in the same location down by the riverside instead of up through the market and into the castle. Our 6 athletes all finished inside the top 31 positions, Mackem, Shaun Marshall finishing first for the club in 3rd place ahead of other Sunderland fan Paul Allan in 8th position. Louise Talman was first lady across the line in 15th with husband Barry 18th. Hollywood Wilkinson finished 27th, four places ahead of David McKenna. All excellent results from the half dozen. Full results can be found here
The first of the two marathons took place at Kielder, Northumberland. The marathon takes place in one of the most scenic parts of the country as runners are taking an almost entirely off-road course around the man-made lake. Of our two competitors taking on the challenge it was Chris Fothergill who was first home, 3rd place overall and 1st in his age group crossing the line in 3:02:47 while Mark Haymer broke his course best finishing in 26th place in 3:26:14. Terrific results by both of our athletes, well done boys! Full results can be found here
I was fortunate enough to qualify for the Chicago marathon on the weekend, one of the 6 majors around the world. On a day when Kelvin Kiptum became the first man to ever break 2:01 in the distance (officially at least anyway) breaking the record achieving new heights with a World Record of 2:00:35. Let me give you a run down of the event from a runners perspective. I was starting in Wave A (somehow just behind the elite athletes) which meant a 07:30 start to the race for me with instructions of getting to the park for 05:30…yes you read the correctly. So with a 4am alarm and a light breakfast it was time to walk to the nearest train line for the 30min journey downtown towards Millenium park. As you can imagine there was no seats on the train so along with hundreds of other runners we headed to a nearby station for a short walk in the darkness of the morning into Grant Park where a full bag search was taken before allowing entry to drop my bag to be picked up post race.
By around 7am I was in my pen surrounded by clearly much faster athletes than myself (and much fitter) all taking about paces they were hoping to run while I wondered if Domino’s would deliver en route…sadly they did not! Helicopters hovered overhead as the 47000 field gathered while the City’s Mayor gave a speech around the marathon and a singer belted out lyrics to the star spangled banner. After a short wait we were underway. The race takes a route under one of the bridges so GPS signal for the first 2-3 miles was pretty much non existent as my watched beeped various ridiculous splits (so I ignored my watch). The course is pretty flat and the streets are wide so can’t imagine there was many issues of congestion on the course as you weaved your way around the city streets with the huge skyscrapers on either side. The weather was cold which not pleasant initially was probably a good thing as the miles ticked over and the sun eventually appeared.
Despite picking up a bit of hamstring and achillies issue in the later stages of the race I think the event as a whole was great, very well organised and one i’d recommend to do if you get chance, the city is fantastic and the people very friendly. Kind of New York City without the edge!
Full results can be found here
Useful Info
