Preston Park was the venue for the first race in the Tees Trail series of races over 5K. Fine spring weather attracted a field of over 200 runners.
John Surtees was first home for the in the brilliant time of 17:53 and 7th overall, followed by Lee Wren, 15th in 19:21 and 2nd M/40 and Dave Blewitt, 32nd in 20:31.
Tracy Surtees was first female home for the club, 36th in 20:54 and John Burnside, 42nd in 21:17, and Alan Wilks, 60th in 22:18 were both first in their respective M/55 and M/65 age groups.
Next to cross the line was Paul Stretton, 87th in 23:50 followed by Anne Kellett, 177th in 28:33 and Yvonne Williams, 208th in 30:10. Finally, Eve Doe who is fairly new to this sort of event got round the course in 34:03 in 240th position.
Several of our members took part in the Virgin London Marathon. Conditions were ideal for running. Cool at the start but the record crowd of over 37,000 runners soon got warmed up.
It was the first marathon outing for Jason and Michelle Dixon, but it looks like all the training and preparation has paid off. Jason recorded 4:11:52 and Michelle was one second slower in 4:11:53, but I think they are still friends.
Penny Johnson is certainly not new to marathons, but she is doing a lot more cycling these days as well as her marathon training. It is hard to believe this had nothing to do with the fact she achieved her best performance in 4 years with a time of 4:26:15.
Susan Clark reached her 60th birthday this year, but this doesn’t mean she has slowed down in any way and celebrated with superb time of 4:49:47 which is also a personal best. Susan is now the first O/60 female in the history of the club to have run a marathon. Well done Susan.
Richard Johnson recently competed in the Blyth Valley 10K. In wet and windy conditions Richard finished 185th out of 558 runners in 41:42. For more information about Aycliffe Running Club and their training sessions visit ayclifferunningclub.org.uk
