Weekly Round Up w/e 9th April

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Club Championship Points can be found here

DONT FORGET TO BOOK YOUR TICKETS TO THE AWARDS NIGHT. CLICK HERE

Race Result

You will have seen that our Track will be unavailable to train on as it undergoes a full refurbishment from March 13th. Work has actually already started with the lighting in and around the athletics track. We expect the work to happen over a 12 week period so should be complete by the end of May, if not sooner!

New Tarmac has been overlaid at the track

The Training page on the website continues to be updated to reflect any temporary arrangements, but if you have any questions at all on the sessions below, please speak directly with your coach

You will have seen that the membership renewals have now gone out and Tom has communicated with you all about how to renew these. Our Track with new facilities should be complete by the end of May and we should all see the benefit of having a new track and structure of the complex moving forward. We are looking at the cost for track membership to ensure we remain competitive and still offer excellent value for money with new higher tariffs imposed on the club. These higher costs will also ensure that the track is maintained and cleaned to ensure we have the best track around for at least the next 20 years and with security fencing around the track and no football on the centre pitch we are confident that this will be great news for Darlington Harriers now and in the future. As a reminder OF THE KEY DATES from Tom;

• 1^st April – England Athletics will mark all memberships for renewal – COMPLETED
• 2^nd April – DHAC will email out a payment link from EA to renew. You have until 1^st May to complete payment (reminder emails may be sent during this time). Your payment amount will be based on your existing membership unless you advise otherwise.
• 30^th April – Final reminder sent to all members yet to make payment
• 2^nd May – Members that did not renew will be marked as such, and their accounts will be resigned from the club on both the EA portal and the club website

After the 2^nd May 2023, you are free to re-join at any time by reapplying via https://darlingtonharriers.com/join/

Thank you to everyone in advance for (hopefully) making this as seamless as possible, but if you have any questions at all, please drop a message to 07458 125 721 via WhatsApp/SMS.

DON’T FORGET THERE ARE SPACES AVAILABLE ON THE BUS FOR SUNDERLAND EVENTS, MICHAEL WATSON IS OUR CONTACT FOR THIS SO PLEASE REACH OUT TO HIM IF YOU ARE INTERESTED mikewatson0609@hotmail.com

Val Clarke was in trail action last week at the latest Esk Valley event, the Blakey Blitz, a 10.4 mile race with nearly 3000 ft of climbing over the course which takes place over the North Yorkshire moors, near Castleton. On the day Val finished 100th overall but 2nd in her race category. Here’s a photo of Val from the day having way too much fun!

Good Friday’s Mermaid 10km is no more after restrictions were placed on the estate which stopped the start of the race but has been replaced with a 5miler on the coast, an extended 5km coast run for those who have experienced one of the events there, flat fast but also open to the elements along the sea front. Some excellent performances from our club members on the day, Paul Allan the first over the line for the club in 6th place in 27:38, Michael Harcourt putting in an excellent performance in 11th. Louise Talman was first lady to finish in 29th place with husband Barry under 30 secs ahead with Graham Hindmarsh also back in action after a long lay off.

Good to see our Couch 2 group out in numbers and putting in some excellent performances!

Full results can be found here…. Thirsty work as Michael Harcourt tries to keep Paul Allan at bay.

On Easter Sunday, Chris Fothergill and Dave McKenna headed to South Park to take part in the Easter Egg 5km run to raise money for St Teresa’s Hospice. This cracking little run is an egg-cellent idea to raise awareness and much needed money for such a good cause. Not that this event was a race but Chris was first round the course in around 16mins 40…good to see Chris taking the foot off the gas for a change! Well done lads…..assume chocolate was involved on the day?

John Clifford was at the Easter Dalton park 10km a race which starts near the Shopping Outlet and takes runners off road onto trails paths, tarmac paths and footpaths….thats a lot of paths! John completed the course in 36.18 to finish 3rd overall but 1st in his age category (of course he was 1st V50!). Well done John, great running as always.

Full results can be found here

On a lighter note, was good to see Thomas Hill taking in some warm weather training in Nerja, near Malaga this week with the NEVPA (North East Pole Vault Association) . Now i’m not sure which of the two photos of Thomas is a true reflection of the hard graft….i’ll let you make your own mind up on that one! Enjoy Thomas, make sure you look after that Unicorn!

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