C

Dave Norman says "We were talking at the club last night about Frampton, it appears that a handful of people, possibly about a dozen have entered on the basis that there would be a coach laid on but Gary has now said there isn’t enough interest to justify a coach and people will have to make their own way there.

Is there any chance you can get in touch with the organisers and get a list of DK entries so we can twist Gary’s arm and at least get a mini bus or something sorted? It seems unfair that people have entered on the basis that it said on the website that there would be a coach, now he’s decided there won’t be one but hasn’t said anything official and is just leaving people to fend for themselves.

If you can let me have a list of entries using your contacts me and Kevin will speak to Gary."

I have sent an email to Stroud AC for an answer. You can understand Gary's view. Why waste £200 on a coach to take a handful of people. Just get a mini-bus if enough people use it, and charge it to the club. Very few members seem to enter races these days, which reflects the way the club is heading.......... ANSWER 12 PEOPLE ARE RUNNING

GREAT NORTH RUN - ACTION HEART PLACES

Just looking at your website and thinking about this year’s Great North Run. Action Heart still has 4 running places remaining – which have to be filled by 10 July.

These charity places are based on runners raising sponsorship of around £350 (entry fee covered by charity)

ALSO we still have transport and accommodation available in Newcastle for the weekend of 19/20 September

Joy

SUNDAY 28th JUNE 2009 - WOMBOURNE SPRING CLASSIC

Give me the choice of a race 5 minutes down the road in Wombourne or a race on a 5 hour round trip in darkest Leicestershire and I know which one I’d chose. Some may have gone chasing prizes in the Midland Masters 10k Championship but a trip of over an hour in a hot car made an unappealing journey even less attractive. With the morning promising blazing sun and baking temperatures the last place you want to be is cooped up in a car for over an hour before a race. That advert from the 1970’s stating that “Dogs Die in Hot Cars” has always had an effect on me.

For those with other commitments looking for convenience Wombourne was the obvious choice, even so the turn out from DK was sparse. With five en route to Loughborough and a couple accounted for elsewhere it was disappointing for a club of our size to just make up two dozen of the field in the main race, particularly a race organised by a club member. But people do have different priorities and one man’s convenience is another man’s row at home and Sunday dinner in the bin.

For those that did make it to the start line their main priority was to make it to the finish line in a reasonable shape in the heat. With the mercury rising to somewhere approaching gas mark 4 and the water in the nearby swimming pool on a slow simmer the race started with the sun only an hour from its zenith and local children making their own entertainment frying eggs on car bonnets. After a brief announcement from Tony Price it was around the field and out onto the railway line, still muddy from yesterday’s heavy rain, past the drinks station and towards the oncoming finishers from the shorter 5k Wiggle. If we thought it was hot on the railway line that was nothing compared to the temperature when we turned off and took to the lanes where the furnace was turned up even higher. The course continued over a stile, downhill through a tussocky field with the threat of broken ankles before more lanes. Under the railway bridge where the road was still flooded, back to the minimal shade of the railway line and back towards the finish and a welcome drink.

Ian Mansell brought the hoops home in 8^th in 37.51 coming back from an injury, Dave Norman was 13^th in 39.46, Tony Price came home in 23^rd in 41.41, Neil Edwards finished in 43.17 in 30^th place, Helen Tromans picked up another prize, 3^rd lady, in 34^th in 44.05, Brian Quinney came home in 44.53, Steve Burke just missed his sub 45 target finishing in 45.31, Katherine McEwan was just behind in 45.39, Richard Bate finished in 48.18, Liz Hadley having lost time in some brambles finished in 49.10, Yvonne Talbot finished in 1.00.34 and Linda Harper was 115^th in 1.04.13. Special mention also needs to be made of Donna Turner who finished 6^th overall and picked up a prize for 2^nd lady in the Wiggle in 33.00 for a low key return from the double blow of injury and a bout of glandular fever. Enid Brazier was 29^th in 54.41.

This is really a race that deserves better support, a reasonably quick, well marked and marshalled course, a quality field at the top end with runners from Stourbridge, Tipton, Telford, Halesowen and West Brom filling the top five places and a no-nonsense, friendly atmosphere. The sort of race that’s a throw back to the less risk assessment, box ticking of the early 1980’s. The only criticism was the lack of water at the drinks station second time round and the title of the race, maybe next year the Spring Classic will be the Summer Sizzler, it’ll probably rain then."

Malcom Pillar writes "I have to take issue with the comments in the Wombourne report about five members of DK going prize hunting in Leicestershire on Sunday. I think I speak on behalf of the Over 60s' Team when I say that of course we went to defend our title, won at the same venue last year, but we also went to support the Midlands Masters A.C, in effect our second claim club, and also Masters Athletics in general. The MMAC is run by a small group of very dedicated people, most of whom turn up to the various events and help with the organisation, even though they are no longer athletes themselves. The Prestwold Hall 10k was not their event, the Masters champs was simply incorporated within it, but they still played their part in making it a successful and enjoyable race. It is also important, from time to time, to look beyond this corner of the West Midlands and compete at 'county level', whether in Junior, Senior or Masters' events.

Although the Over 60s had a team, the Over 40s were two members short, so going for a team prize was never a possibility, but the remaining team members decided to go and compete anyway.

Which brings me to the second point. As Mark Homer noted, it is refreshing to run against different clubs in a different part of the country on a new course. There is also the matter of cultivating a good team spirit at events like this and acting as ambassadors for the club. It was unfortunate that the event clashed with Wombourne and, yes, of course we should try to support our local events; which I have done in the past at Wombourne and also at Wolverhampton and elsewhere. However one of the things which keeps me going and training from week to week- apart from the good companionship at DK- is competing and doing as well as I can at Masters level. I am not going to make any excuses for that.

Incidentally, the round trip (from the last pick up at Gornal) took less than 3 hours. Nice one Mark!"

SUNDAY 28th JUNE 2009 - MIDLAND MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Malcolm Pillar reports "Despite some very enticing offers from Tony Price, 5 DK runners set off for Loughborough on Sunday to compete in the Midland Masters' Champs. All contact was not lost with Wombourne however, as Stuart Tromans was busy keeping in touch with Helen and revising the size of her new (soon to be made) trophy cabinet, while the ghost of Dave Norman was on his shoulder throughout the race.

Early morning fog gave way to a heat haze and high humidity, with nowhere to hide on a vast airfield without shade. After what seemed like an eternity we completed the circuit of the airstrip and headed out into the country lanes before returning for another slog around the airfield to the finish. It's certainly a PB course, but not in these conditions.

In a large, high quality field of 652 finishers, Stuart Tromans had a season's best of 38.21 in 82nd place (8th V40 in the Masters' Champs); Mark Homer was pleased with his 43.10 in 208th (and he did all the driving, thanks Mark!); while the supervets had mixed fortunes in the heat. Brian Russell in particular suffered from the high humidity (and the after-effects of his holiday), but managed to anchor the team of three home by collapsing across the line in a state of some distress. The medics attended to him, but to everyone's relief they make 'em tough up in Gornal and he gradually came to. In addition he ran with a knee injury, so his time of

50.30 was remarkable in the circumstances and probably helped the team to victory in the Over 60s' Champs (We await confirmation from MMAC). Brian's quotable quote was simply 'The wheels came off.' We know the feeling Bri. The remainder of the team score was made up by Tommy Williams in 49.30 ( also suffering in the heat and from a bout of illness) and myself in 41.43, 2nd Vet Over 60.

We journeyed home with Stuart looking forward to sharing some of Helen's Wombourne wine and, no doubt later, offering some sympathy to Dave Norman for opting for the wrong race on the day. Talking of which, maybe some more DK runners will give it a try next year. The range of times was from 31.00 to 1hr 33mins, with plenty in between; so there's a big enough pack to get stuck into."

WEDNESDAY 24th JUNE 2009 - PONTESBURY FELL RACE

SUNDAY 21st JUNE 2009 - STONE ST MICHAEL'S 10k

Only one person represented the club in the St Michael's 10k at Stone, Staffs. Farah Hunter-Colley ran 58.31.

SUNDAY 21st JUNE 2009 - TORBAY HALF MARATHON

Steve Corns reports "Just returned from Torbay having took part in the Half Marathon yesterday. It is a run to recommend to anybody wishing to take in a run, take in the sun and share a few decent pints of the local brew after. The race starts at a good early time of 9:30am with road closures making it a decent and safe run. The course starts off on the Esplanade at Paignton, with two laps taking off two of the thirteen miles required. This easily sorts the field out fairly quickly, with excellent marshalling ensuring the elite lads and lasses can get out onto the road and on their way to Torquay on the other side of the bay. The route is an out and back sort but with another out and back added on, if you know what i mean!!!!The course is very undulating with a monster of a hill around Preston Sands, this means you run up the sod twice going out to Torquay and twice coming back to Paignton, but as they say what goes up enables a great chance to take in some fine views of the Bay on your way down. Still trying to find some sort of form after London (and the Stumble) it was a run to see how I was regaining my fitness....and when I finished I realised I am some some way away from it. A hot day did not help me but certainly didn't stop the winner, his sixth consecutive Torbay Half, posting an excellent time of 1:08,one hour ahead of yours truly. You would have thought then he would have got into the Sponsors Beer Tent and got 'them in'!!!!!! still the wait was well worth it."

SUNDAY 14th JUNE 2009 - POTTERS ARF

It is very rare to publish club photo's of members competing without their D.K. vests, especially when it is so easy to miss them as they go by. Stephen Alexander and Dave Wilkes pictures at the Potters Arf.

SATURDAY 13th JUNE 2009 - WELSH CASTLES RELAY.

Tony Price reports from his second home, Wales "This year, I was again fortunate enough to run as a guest for South Wales Police in the Welsh Castles Relay, a 200 mile, 20 stage road relay, held over 2 days from Caernarfon to Cardiff.
As usual, I ran leg 5 on day one, the 9.4 miles from Harlech to Barmouth. The leg starts with a steep climb for 1/2 mile, before leveling out along the coast road and undulating through the villages of Llanbedr, Dyffryn Ardudwy, Tal y Bont and Llanber and then descending down steep path to the finish at the extreme northerly end of Barmouth seafront.
As usual, it was hot and sunny, with a slight head wind this year. I finished 14th out of 58 in 64' 47", over a minute quicker than last year, but 6 minutes slower than my 2005 PB, when I think there must have been a strong tail wind."

SATURDAY 13th JUNE 2009 - STOURBRIDGE STUMBLE

Dave Norman reports "Saturday evening, the sun’s shining, the ice cream van has got a decent queue. Teenagers are sitting on the grass illicitly smoking and trying to pretend that the massive bottle of Lambrsuco on the grass beside them isn’t theirs. The peace is shattered by a large group of people in vests, most of them queuing for the toilet. As usual “the Stumble”, starting in Mary Stevens Park, had a Saturday evening start time, a far more civilised time than your usual Sunday morning escapades, a bit of a novelty, but it throws your plans out completely. On a Sunday you know what to do, you know the timing, you know the plan. You have a start time and count back for your pre-race meal, you’ve (hopefully) had a decent nights sleep and you’re raring to go. On a Saturday you count back from the start time and find yourself smack in the middle of a trip to Homebase or Morrisons or for the more leisurely in the middle Channel 4 Racing. You just don’t have a plan for Saturday evening races so you get there early and sit on the steps of the bandstand, feeling lost and bewildered until someone gestures that it’s time to think about running then everything becomes a bit more familiar.

On a beautiful Summer evening a sizable field of near 200 lined up for this off road 10k race, with a field of this size I hope the ice cream man doubled up on his Cornetto order. Taking in part of the Stagger course from February the route took us out into the country up the imaginatively titled “Slop Gully” and the clawing sand of “Dinosaur Beach” and back to the park for a tough, undulating 10k in warm conditions so times were never a major concern.

With a few Tipton vests visible at the start it was disappointing that the blue hoops could only just muster double figures for a race that was effectively just down the road. Last years defending champion, our own Ian Mansell “gutted” that he was unable to defend his title due to injury, his winning time of last year would have put him well clear of the field again. It was up to Dave Norman to bring the hoops home in 7^th in a time of 41.14, closely followed by Stuart Tromans in 41.42 in 8^th, after racing shoulder to shoulder in Telford on Wednesday it was another close finish between the pair. Richard Smith was 19^th in 45.26 well in front of Brian Russell a place behind in 45.47, not far behind was Michael Quane who ran well and finished strongly in 46.12 for 22^nd. Helen Tromans claimed a first lady prize in 26^th overall in 46.24. Catherine Quane finished in 55.01, Andy Page in 55.38 for a hard fought p.b. on this course, Steph Andrews came in in 55.56, Colin Downey in 56.10 and Ian Corns in 58.03 still trying to get his legs to cooperate after London.

Within half an hour of the finish the park was back to normal, dogs and Frisbees, young kids and footballs and all the sweat and pain was forgotten again until next year. The teenagers could get back to their usual Saturday evening pursuits of fags and cheap wine, the park keeper could lock the toilets up and the ice cream man could go home to count his takings, up on last week I would have thought."

WEDNESDAY 10th JUNE 2009 - SHROPSHIRE 4

Dave Norman again reports "Golfers are a strange breed, I suppose you could say the same about runners but walking through the club house at The Shropshire Golf Club at Granville Country Park, seeing Nike branded black waistcoats and three quarter length white tailored white trousers you couldn’t help thinking …weird. If we wore those we’d look like speed waiters. American author Mark Twain said that “golf is a good walk spoilt”, I wonder what his views on running would be, he also said “denial isn’t just a river in Egypt” so he’s probably not the best man to ask.

In view of the unseasonable weather, all the golfers were in the bar, no waistcoats and silly trousers on show, when the near 200 field lined up just past the golf course for the start of the Shropshire 4. Similar to golf this race became a chase around a predetermined course, chasing something that disappears into the distance at high velocity, fruitlessly pursuing something that you appear to have no control over. With Tipton Harrier and Great Britain international, Phil Nicholls in the field it was always going to be fast near the front and like a solitary golf ball bouncing away down the fairway he raced off, skipping over the ground to be followed by those with less skill and ability. Those with a higher handicap, those that just aren’t as good as he is.

With the start some distance from the finish, down the approach road to the club, there was the opportunity for a decent warm up and the opportunity to get our trainers dirty before the event. We knew the conditions underfoot would be wet but we could have anticipated that with one look upwards at the sky. Typically for these Sexarathon events there was a decent contingent of blue hoops in attendance. Dave Norman was first home in 26^th in 24.10 (someway behind Phil Nichols blistering 19.07) with Stuart Tromans breathing down his neck in 27^th with only a 6 second gap separating the two. A gap that had stayed roughly the same throughout the whole 4 miles, as both pushed each other hard right to the finish. Richard Jones was 39^th in 25.09 followed by Ian Hopkins in 26.59 for 65^th place, Brian Russell in 27.06 for 68^th and first in his age group, Helen Tromans only 10 seconds behind in 73^rd claiming another age group prize, Phil Smith was next home in 27.29 for 77^thfollowed by Rob Sannwald in 27.37 for 82^nd. These 5 covered by less than a minute proving that the blue hoops hunt in packs.

Another well, organised and hassle free event in the series, helped mainly when somebody was able to un-padlock a barrier halfway round the course. As we stood at the finish quietly steaming in the warm drizzle I wonder what Mark Twain would have made of it. If golf is a good walk spoilt then running must be a good walk just faster. A gentle stroll for those with time management issues, I bet Phil Nicholls gets loads done."

MONDAY 8th JUNE 2009 - WESTONBURT ARBORETUM 10K

Colin Downey says "A big increase in numbers to over 700 meant it took nearly 40 seconds to get over the start line. I have run it every year since it started about 5 years ago. Originally Tetbury Royals organised it but Cirencester took it over with the growing popularity. A bit of a trek but worth it for the run through the arboretum. All competitors get a tree sapling to take home so if it grows in my garden then the trip should be carbon neutral. "

See Alastair was out in his tent today. He has a photo of me but it doesn’t show how wet & cold it was .

WEDNESDAY 20th MAY 2009 - PHOENIX FLYER

Dave Norman's report "There’s something about the Phoenix Flyer. In recent years it always seems to be threatened by rain, if it’s not actually pouring down then there’s a more than even chance that it will. It just seems unlucky weather-wise. Maybe they should drop the Phoenix bit and rename it the Albatross Flyer instead. Again under bruised skies and the threat of another soaking over 200 assembled for this years event. There was no dispute over footwear, no deliberation over road or off road footwear, it was a firm swing in favour of Walshes or similar purely for ease of cornering if nothing more. Although there were puddles a plenty and a couple of muddy patches generally it was decent underfoot. It was more of a confidence thing, cornering at 90 degrees on wet grass, it was nice to know that your feet were still going to be underneath you when you came out of the corner.

Again the blue hoops were in attendance, nearly making it into double figures. With Karl absent it was up to Dale Quinney to uphold the family name, finishing first for the club and 28^th overall in 18.10. Dave Norman was 39^th in 18.41 in his fourth race in five days, with shoulders rolling clearly showing it was time for a rest, Stuart Tromans was next back in 18.56 for 46^th place. Ten seconds covered the next group of DK runners, Brian Russell bringing them home in 20.19 for 82^nd, Ian Hopkins, 20.21 in 85^th, fighting off Rob Sannwald by a mere second, Brian Quinney finished in 20.29 for 90^th place. Helen Tromans came second in her age group and 99^th overall in 20.47 and Phil Smith, making a comeback from injury finished in a respectable 21.23 for 113rd place. Although “unattached” mention must also be made of a third Quinney, Heather, finishing in 29.01, the encouragement of husband Brian and son Dale bringing her home. Or maybe they just wanted their tea?

So from the Phoenix to The Unicorn, the pub, for the presentation to complete a night seemingly themed around mythical creatures. Not surprisingly when we came out it was raining.

SUNDAY 17th MAY 2009 - BODDINGTON 50k

Andy Richards and Andy Moorhouse tackled the Boddington 50k (that's 31 miles in old money) down in Gloucestershire. 14 laps of the 2+ mile circuit awaited them. Their next race is the Dartmoor Discovery 32 mile race in Devon next month.

Andy Moorhouse reports "Andy Richards, myself, Jean, Rae and not forgetting Ruby (his dog) travelled to Boddington on a wet Sunday morning.

It was our intention to use this race as part of a training run in preparation for the Dartmoor Ultra in June.

Andy Richards and Chris Flavell have taken me under their wing to train towards the Dartmoor since January, whilst I have enjoyed every minute it hasn't been easy, but I've progressed over time. I now know what these guys put themselves through every week, all credit to them.

The course is 14 laps, which didn't faze me at all, a lot of people tend to find this boring, but I enjoyed it. The support from the marshalls was much appreciated and even the runners found time to encourage each other along the way.

Andy R achieved his entry for London next year in a great time of 3 hours and 13 mins, he then took his foot off the gas and finished in a great time of 4 hours 10, I finished in 4 hours 56 and achieved a marathon PB along the way.

Unfortunately I won't be able to run the Dartmoor, as I have to attend an awards evening, to say I'm gutted is an understatement but I'm already looking for my next Ultra.

Thanks again to Andy and Chris for their support. Much appreciated."

SUNDAY 17th MAY 2009 - SHERIFFHALES SHUFFLE

Ian Harris reports from Sheriffhales near Lilleshall. "I'm not sure if this was a one off or if it was going to be a regular on the race calendar. If that wasn't intended......then it should be !!. This was a cracking race organised by Newport and District running club to help raise a few quid for the village hall. Appauling wheather conditions threatened before the start, and true to form the heavens opened up within minutes of the race starting. The race set off from a short down hill section along a country lane before turning into the "hoss track". The hoss track was approximately a half mile stretch of ankle deep wood chippings that became more difficult to run on as the wind and lashing rain beat down on us. The trauma was over when reaching the que at the style, giving a welcome breather and time to ring some water out your clobber. The route continued along fields and farm tracks before reaching the Lilleshall estate. A bit of tarmac was a welcome running surface albeit waterlogged, as we passed along the golf course and onto a very familiar stretch of road. Only this time we didn't loop around a cone only do it all again, we turned off along a farm track and continued across muddy and puddle ridden fields. Not so sure if i'd chosed the right shoe at this stage, as conditions deteriated, so did confidence in where you placed you foot. 1.5 miles from the finish we were out of the bog and squelching along the tarmac. It was a short lived section before turning off road along a dirt track to the home straight. And guess what ?... by now the rain had stopped and the sun was out. Typical. Just over a hundred runners turned out, which wasn't too bad as only half that had been expected.. Newport and District did an excellent job of organising this from start to finish. I'd put this run on the same sort of par as the Bells of Pattingham. So DK runners, if you like your Bells then you will like this one. Look out for it next year. "

SUNDAY 17th MAY 2009 - SCHNEIDER 5

Dave Norman reports "You expect to have to run through streams at the cross country at Senneleys Park and in the Suicide 6 in Autumn, you don’t expect to have to run through streams going round Telford Town Park in the middle of May for the Schneider Five Miler. Just under an hour before the start the heavens opened and drowned most of Shropshire in a downpour of biblical proportions, with raindrops the size of tennis balls, all we were lacking was a plague of frogs or locusts. We’d have been drier if we jumped in the canal. There was so much surface water finding it’s own route downhill across paths, washing across the route and turning walkways to mush that runners would have been forgiven for just collecting their T shirt and going home to start work on an Ark. The rain itself had been bad enough, with small groups of huddled under the scant cover provided by the trees, but as the call came to line up for the start the weather took a turn for the worse, if that was possible, and stinging hail lashed into the already soaking runners, needles of ice flaying the skin off the shoulders. And we do this for fun?

Luckily there was no hanging about at the start, the starter couldn’t have kept the shivering field from running over him if he’d tried to hold them up unnecessarily with the usual half-heard instructions. Two laps of the arena, splashing through puddles and sodden grass before going out into the park itself with your vest plastered to your chest like an icy band squeezing the air from your frozen lungs. Five miles and just over half an hour of splashing through puddles followed then typically as soon as we’d finished the sun came out.

The blue hoops were a little sparse with only a trio of hard as nails runners in attendance. Dave Norman finished 11th in 30.46 having run two legs of the relay in Sutton Park less than 24 hours before, (18k in a little over an hour is not quite up to Andy Moorhouse’s standard in Boddington), Stuart Tromans, also with a relay leg under his belt from yesterday ran 31.38 in 14^th place and Helen Tromans picked up a 1st over 35s prize and 2nd female in 28^th overall in a time of 35.16. DK clearly going for quality rather than quantity. With the steam rising from the tarmac as the sun made an appearance there was certainly no hanging around after with runners just content to take themselves home and wring themselves out, with fears of an Old Testament style flood abated, at least for the moment, all we were concerned about was whether our trainers would ever dry out and what are the symptoms of trench foot."

SATURDAY 16th MAY 2009 - BRITISH MASTERS ROAD RELAYS

Brian Russell says "I would like you to put this brief note on the website. To all runners at DK both male and female.

A nasty evening greeted Colin Downey in Church Stretton as he tackled the Caradoc Classic which is the 2nd of the Summer Fell Race Series.

Three races in four days & a return to the hills for Colin. A really gloomy evening saw 131 brave souls run Caradoc. After a trek across a field & track a steep ascent of 880 feet to the summit covered in cloud. The descent is slightly different to the way up & despite the light rain footing was firm & enabled a great blast downhill.

MONDAY11th MAY 2009 - BERKELEY 10k

Following on from yesterday’s Muller 10k, Colin Downey rushed from work for a trip down the M5 for the Berkeley 10k (about 8 miles south of Frampton).

The course is largely flat and consists of an outward leg of about 1 km, two laps of 4 km each and a return to the finish. The race is run on quiet, pleasant country lanes. The course touches the outskirts of Berkeley Village and passes the rear of the famous castle. The course has been accurately measured and certified.

The start is outside the former Berkeley Power Station, and the finish is outside the Nuclear Sports and Social Club.

Berkeley is midway between Bristol and Gloucester on the banks of the river Severn. 46:51 finishing 107 of 184 the majority were local club runners.

SUNDAY 10th MAY 2009 - COBRA CLASSIC 10K

Dave Norman reports "Sometimes you get yourself into a situation where whatever you decide to do it will be the wrong thing. You’re stuck between a rock and a hard place and whichever side of the fence you favour it’ll be wrong. You’re damned if you and damned if you don’t. That was really the situation that presented itself to Cobra before their “Classic” on Sunday. There had been complaints about the 14k going “off road”, around the monument and down the hill back to the rugby club, the unevenness of the ground, the potential of turning the last 1000 metres into an ankle breaker. So they decided to reduce the race to a road 10k only to receive complaints that this wasn’t right for everyone either. If the Cobra was a classic it was a classic Catch 22 for the organisers.

With the new course measured and everything in place for the day the situation wasn’t helped by a fatality overnight closing the dual carriageway approaching the venue, no diversions in place and no sign of the road reopening. Runners approached by roundabout routes via Pedmore and Clent at least using the now redundant monument as a landmark to guide them in. With the start delayed 10 minutes Cobra must have been wondering why they bothered.

The route, despite missing out a massive hill and 4k from previous years, was still tough. Virtually identical to the old course, just shorter but with the organisers not afraid of putting a few hills in here and there certainly wasn’t one for the speedsters, one for the gritting battlers with no history of altitude sickness. With the first half of the race reasonably flat fast times were looking good but the steepness of the second 5k meant that all those good times slipped away and it was a dogged slog to the line.

There was a reasonable group of blue hoops in attendance and the majority all came away satisfied with their mornings work. None more so that Ian Mansell finishing first in 36.42, Dave Norman was 11^th in 40.52, Stuart Tromans was 13^th in 42.21, closely followed by Adrian Jones in 42.51 for 15^th place, Darren Marklew was 17^th in 43.39, Steven Morris 18^th in 43.50 and Ian Hopkins 22^nd in 44.29. With such successful clustering it was a surprise that the hoops didn’t claim a team prize. Helen Tromans was 2^nd female back in 45.11 to make a successful one – two across the genders for DK. Gary Cooper was 30^th in 46.15, Liz Hadley’s marathon training stood her in good stead for 50.37 and 58^th place. Andy Page and Steph Andrews just ducked under the hour followed by Yvonne Talbot and Linda Harper a fraction over.

Apart from a couple of potential marshalling errors due to lack of concentration where directions were unclear, it was a success despite the hurdles thrown at the organisers both prior to the event and on the day. A tough but ultimately satisfying event, although the amount of swearing on the hilly parts of the course suggested otherwise, good prizes, an excellent array of cakes for fell runners who like that sort of thing, but more than anything else friendly and welcoming and for that alone well worth the effort.

SUNDAY 10th MAY 2009 - MARKET DRAYTON MULLER 10K

The sixth running of this event saw it grow in size again, this year’s race attracted over 1200 entries. However the organisation gets better each year. Just before the race began the sun came out and made warm conditions for the race, which took runners from the start through the centre of Market Drayton out to the half way point at the Muller factory and then back. As has been the norm in the recent running of this race the people of the town came out to support the runners. Everyone received a quality Tee shirt, a good quality backpack and 24 Muller "Corners". Pity only two DK runners took part Colin Downey and Mark Homer.

WEDNESDAY 6th MAY 2009 - ASICS DK10K 2009

Dave Norman (who else) reports "You know that bit in the Disney cartoon “Dumbo” when the circus arrives in town? The bit where the train pulls up and everyone throws their weight into making sure the infrastructure is all in place for the event to happen? When everyone knows their job from raising the big top to hammering in the little pegs, performers all ensure the event goes off without a hitch and an empty field is transformed into a heaving mass of entertainment. The elephants muck in, the clowns do their bit. Well it was like that at DK Rugby Club but with less elephants and arguably less clowns.

Events of this scale don’t just happen. There is a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes, not just on the day but for weeks beforehand, to ensure it is enjoyable for all. We have all been to races and been very quick to criticise, very ready to crab the organisation but for an event to go off without a major hiccup year after year bears testament to the amount of hard work that produces such an affair. It helps that everyone knows their job, everyone is comfortable with their place and DK are always ready to amend, alter and abbreviate to improve. The one significant issue was the one thing the club had no control over, the weather.

How can it be so cold at the start and so warm at the finish? Starting under leaden skies, feeling the chill as the strong wind whipped across the open spaces whipping the red and white tape into a frenzy many thought a vest was not enough. May opted for two layers of clothing but as the cloud was blown away and the sun came out this proved to be a mistake as the course warmed up significantly and the water station did a roaring trade. But even the weather couldn’t dissuade, with a massive entry from almost every local club. A pre race entry touching 1000 just shows how popular this event is and in a way also demonstrates how rare. In these days of risk assessment and health and safety fears it’s rare to find a 10k road race of this scale, rare to find a club capable and committed enough to even attempt a mid week 1000 runner 10k road race and that is something every member of the club should be proud of.

As for the race itself everything follows pretty much the same annual pattern. The mass field start, the weaving run down to “The Navigation” as runners found their rhythm and position in the field, the early slog up the hill away from the road junction out on a big loop in the country and back past the pub for the never ending ordeal along the Mile Flat – never has a mile been flatter or longer – even the reassuring beacon of the traffic lights failed to help as the Police had turned them off. The support was tremendous, small clumps of people happy to applaud and shout abuse at runners as they steamed past, the crowd outside “The Navigation” seemed larger than ever with beery cheers and some choice comments greeting any identifiable runner. With a long list of DK runners in the field it seems pointless to list them as the results elsewhere will show their endeavours. Particularly as more credit should go to the DK runners who didn’t actually run but spent most of the day ensuring that everyone else could. Then in true Dumbo fashion everything was tidied and the field was empty except for the odd car, everything packed away until next time. At 10.00pm it was as if it had never happened and the whole circus had moved on."

SUNDAY 3rd MAY 2009 - UTTOXETER HALF MARATHON

Colin Downey pictured at the Uttoxeter Half. Thanks to Bryan Dale again for the photo's.

SUNDAY 26th APRIL 2009 - LONDON MARATHON

A three man team from Dudley Kingswinford won the over sixties title at the Edgbaston Resevoir.

First leg was Brian Russell in a time of 21:15 followed by Tom Williams in 22:21. The final leg was run by Malcolm Pillar who is just coming back from injury in a time of 21:33.

Richard Jones writes "Ever felt the need to justify the amount you eat over Easter? Me neither, I`m carbo loading.

Dave Morgan reports "It doesn’t seem like twelve months since we were here last year but it must be, nothing’s changed, the same set up, the same course, the same no nonsense, tried and tested organisation. You know Spring is here and the evenings are starting to lengthen when you see the Lilleshall 10k on the near horizon. The long, hard slog of winter is over and it’s time for evening races, the London Marathon is just around the corner so what better way to welcome the Spring, embrace the new season and put all those Winter miles to good use with a 10k blast. With the lighter nights not quite taking effect the early start of 7.00pm was a little too much of a rush for some but a necessity considering that this is the longest race of the series. This was required to prevent the tail enders finishing by the light of exiting runners headlights, so it was a rather rushed start for some. A mad dash from work to deepest Shropshire to line up for the start. Typical of these Sexarathon races, a no frills start, a brief instruction and away. Heading up the drive towards the gardens, a tortuous lap through the grounds, where deep gravel seems to pull you down to somewhere level with the rose bushes, before heading back the way you have come, past your starting point and down the main driveway towards the road, round a cone and back again.

Colin Downey was again out and about in Gloucestershire. It was a 14 mile off road but most did 15+ as runners went off route. Race goes over & around Cleeve Hill with views down to Cheltenham race course.

Winner of the Ironbridge Half, Ian Mansell says "Well don't ask me how I did it but I somehow won the Ironbridge Half Marathon today and set a new pb. I won it easy and convincingly. Its only my sixth half marathon in total which is not very many considering how long I have been running. I ran so well today, I even had time to take a wrong turning early on which moved me from 1st to 3rd place but still powered away and quickly caught up the others. There were other DK runners in the race including Adrian Jones who had a good run. Ironically I was unsure on my fitness today despite a few good weeks training I was still carrying more weight than usual as a result of all of the mini layoffs since Xmas. But it looks like the extra weight gave me energy. I won't be in any more races now until mid April as unfortunately I'm tied up most weekends."

Richard Jones say's "On a bright and breezy morning Kevin Duckworth, Phil Johnson, Brian Lane and Wheezy Jones turned out for the Milford 21. For those who have never tried this event it is a lovely, scenic trot around beautiful countryside, mostly downhill. If you have tried it then you know that there's a bit of poetic licence in the mostly downhill bit.

Dave Norman reports "Of all the things you expect to see on a Sunday morning in Stafford Scooby Doo isn’t one of them, you might get the odd peculiar vest that you don’t normally see knocking around in the Black Country – Cheadle, Stone, Congleton - but not a 6 foot tall bloke in a Great Dane costume but there he was, large as life lining up for a fun run. He’d have been quicker if the fairground owner had been lined up behind him.

The blue hoops were again very much in evidence, with Steve Wood even wearing an “away kit” of brown hoops before the start. Kevin Duckworth was first back in 17^th in a time of 1.17.45, Dave Norman was 80^th in 1.26.03, over a minute inside his PB, Gary Bonner was 97^th in 1.26.59, Stuart Tromans finished in 1.27.56 in 115^th place, Paul Richards ducked under the 90 minute barrier in 1.29.41 for 151^st for another PB, Mark Homer finished 257^th in 1.34.52, again a PB, Helen Tromans was 5^th in her category destroying her PB by over 2 minutes in 1.35.32, Steve Wood, now in the traditional blue hoops ran 1.42.13 for 485^th, Liz Hadley was 617^th in 1.45.35, Ian Harris finished in 1.48.49 in 739^th to bring the hoops home.

With a scattering of excellent times for the club, a bit of welcome sun and a decent event it was a good day for DK but for a high profile race the day left a lot of people disappointed. The start was a mess, trying to channel over 1700 runners through the side streets with bollards, litter bins and benches to negotiate along with quicker runners weaving in and out to make up lost time and slower runners adding to the congestion. With fewer numbers it would have been so much easier but you do wonder whether this race has just got too popular for its own good. But minor inconveniences mean nothing really, PBs or the failure to beat certain times by fractions of a second are really unimportant to anyone but yourself, as the DK contingent left the Market Square an ambulance was arriving with sirens blaring to attend to a competitor, regrettably not in time. Makes you think."

Colin Downey reports "Trip to run on the Riviera sounded good, but the Irish Riviera! I have chatted with John Oldroyd of Wye Valley Runners (Hereford) at several races & he sold the idea to me of joining the WVR’s for their club trip to Ballycotton for the 10 mile road race.

The race has a long downhill start, does a lollypop route inland with a return uphill back to the finish."

Colin Downey Travelled up to Congleton in Cheshire with his newly converted fell runner pal Stu Tromans to take part in Cloud 9. No kit requirement & well marshalled throughout. Amazing Feet & Telford Harriers runners also making the journey. The legend Ron Hill also took part.

Race starts a short distance from Race HQ at the leisure centre on a disused railway. This stretch enables the field to string out before a series of stiles negotiated to get us heading out across wet & muddy fields. A steep track through a wooded section took us onto the heather moorland with a narrow bouldery track, gaining height to Cloud summit. A quick look around to take in the Cheshire countryside & a sight of the big telescope at Jodrell Bank. A fast downhill section then a pleasant blast through woodland. A long down & up through mole riddled calf sapping fields leading next to a quarry with no way of avoiding the mud. A downhill road section leads back into woodland with a series of steps returning through fields & back onto the former railway track. Free soup & bread roll back at the Leisure centre.

Colin Downey reports "With the Fell Running Calendar showing within reasonable travelling distance, I decided in December to enter the Bourton on the Water 10k road race. YES road. Thought the Cotswold would be more picturesque than Russell's Hall & I was right.

The village has a small stream running through it with little bridges over it. Everyone goes there for a PB & i.e. 47:32 today was probably flattering to me given the lack of training since Mortimer Forest.

Two laps of the village both at the start & finish was a bit repetitive but sunshine with a bit of warmth more than made up for it.

Dave Norman says "You’ve got to congratulate Paul Davies-Hale and all at Action Heart. Year after year the former Chicago marathon winner and his team put on a well organised, well supported event, giving both decent standard club runners and everyone else a chance to run round a testing course. If you want to test yourself against gravity then this is the course to do it on. The hills are numerous, steep and relentless and the significant downhill of Himley Road is long enough to hurt, just too sheer to be comfortable, steep enough to make your eyes rattle in your head with the relentless gradient. With a lot of club runners focusing on miles, miles and more miles in their build up to the London marathon this was possibly too short for a lot of people but after months of hard slog round muddy fields in various cross country fixtures, after mainly off road events through the Winter it was a joy to feel the reassuring slap of tarmac beneath your feet. It was just a shame the weather wasn’t quite as Spring like as it had been 24 hours earlier.

For some reason it’s always cold in Dudley. Whether it’s the elevation or the wind that seems to blow uninterrupted direct from Scandinavia, or the general steely greyness of the clouds, there was enough incentive to get industrious early on to keep you warm at the start. After a brief countdown and a wave from Kevin Duckworth, although why he found himself the wrong side of the start line prior to the race was not entirely clear, we were off, a mad dash to get yourself through the bottleneck behind the hospital before reaching the road proper. Climbing up the hill to the main road and then climbing, climbing, climbing before the long descent towards Himley before more climbing. How can you seem to spend most of the race going uphill only to find yourself at the same point you were to begin with? It was like running the wrong way up a helter skelter only to find yourself back at the bottom. The course defies the laws of physics and all common sense.

Colin Downey Reports "A bit of surface water at the Cross Country at Coventry the day before but, the Muddy Woody 6.8 miles on Sunday was very much more challenging & interesting terrain.

Dave Norman reports "With the potential spectre of relegation hanging over the blue hoops DK travelled to Coventry for the final league fixture of the season. With roughly a hundred points in hand we should have done enough in the previous fixtures to guarantee our Second Division status for another year but with Ian Mansell missing, planning to run Wyre Forest on the following day, and Steve Holdcroft struggling with a groin injury there was certainly no room for complacency, if we weren’t careful this could still turn into a Valentines Day massacre. Everyone would need to run to form just to give ourselves a fighting chance of staying up. Rather than being treated like a potential relegation side we were treated like FA Cup Finalists, a luxury coach taking us to a country hotel, all we needed were our Cup Final Armani suits and a walk around the pitch. It was a shame we were just at the hotel to park the coach and had to cross the road to the changing facilities, although facilities may have been too strong a word.

The blue hoops were lead home by Kevin Duckworth in 41^st in a time of 40.53, Gary Bonner was 69^th in 43.01 with Mark Gallimore in 72^nd only a few seconds behind, Dave Norman was 4^th back in 88^th place in 44.12 with Carl Quinney breathing down his neck in 89^th and 2 seconds back, Stuart Tromans brought the A team home in 99^th in all the fours, 44.44. Phil Johnson was 106^th in 45.10, Dale Quinney 122^nd in 46.02, Richard “wheezy” (or is it squeaky now?) Jones was 131^st in 46.40, Paul Richards showed how well his marathon training was paying off in 46.49 for 135^th place, there was some good clustering as Steve Wood in 166^th, Rob Sannwald in 167^th and Adrian Morey in 169^th only had 10 seconds between them. Brian Russell was 184^th in 52.26, Mark Skidmore was 196^th in 54.11, Colin Downey finished in 57.11 for 203^rd and Brian Lane brought the tape in for 208^th place in 58.33. Unfortunately Mike Burrows had to pull out after only half a lap with knee problems, however he did get more muddy during the jog round warm up than some of us actually got during the race.

With some fantastic efforts by all concerned and relegation staved off all that was needed was a decent shower before getting back on the coach and heading to the pub, although a decent shower was impossible to have. The “facilities” being more than a little agricultural, a semi-converted cattle shed with abattoir style showers, the water was red hot but unfortunately only came out in a dribble, if only it had flowed as well as the beer when we got back to The Fountain in Gornal."

The Express & Star wanted a well known Black Country runner to front an advertisement for the upcoming Action Heart Race, and they chose no. 950 from the Action Heart Running Club. I don't know who the runner on the right is.

Dave Norman reports "With the country white over after heavy snow, with gritting supplies running low and with schools closed it’s been difficult to know what you could rely on this week. One thing you can rely on is that no matter how bad the weather, how icy the roads and how doom and gloom the news is every day, runners will still run. It may be cold, it may be icy, most of Britain may be under a complete white out but nothing will stop us putting one foot in front of the other at pace and if we can pin a number to our vests and do it in a competitive way all the better. So despite some slippery parts on the course, irrespective of the frozen ground, nearly 400 runners lined up in a freezing Mary Stevens Park for the 10 mile Stourbridge Stagger. It was certainly a day to go for a quick warm up, a nice sedate jog round the park to get the blood flowing and then sit in the car for ten minutes with the heater on full blast.

Where these 400 runners appeared from is anyone’s guess and what some of them were wearing was even more difficult to understand. With all manner of tights, leggings and support stockings on show the start line resembled a combination of a night out at The Rocky Horror Show and a convention of travellers with a DVT phobia. We thought there would be no chance of deep vein thrombosis as it was too cold to stay still for long but the sun came out just before the start to warm our backs comfortably before the wheeze of the air horn set us off. A lap of the park before leaving via the back gate, across the edge of the football pitches where the path was particularly icy, through the estate, across the golf course and out into the fields. The sun was warm, there was ice and snow underfoot in places and it was a joy to be out in the country after a week of trudging round in the dark, cold wet slush and with many running down or running back after the race to bulk up their mileage for London it was a good day.

With a lot of damp runners it was too cold to hang around at the finish cramping up and shivering certainly with too many long term targets at stake. It was time to wrap up, get home and get warm before it started to snow again. And it did later; it still won’t stop us running though. "

Phil Johnson and Stuart Tromans complete two fell races in two days, the Titterstone Clee Fell Race and the Long Mynd Valleys Race.

Colin Downey again travelled across the border to compete in the Welsh Fell Runners Association 2009 North Wales Series and second race in the Meirionnydd Winter Series. The weather was dry with sunny intervals but with mist on the summit.

Dave Norman admits "When you reach a certain dignified age you would expect to be able to have a lie in on a Sunday morning, not drag yourself around a field with people of a similar dignified age. When you reach vets status you should be considering pottering in the garden, listening to The Archers on the “wireless” or washing the car on a Sunday. At a push you would be forgiven for wondering whether you have enough Werthers Originals for the short journey to Perry Barr, certainly not getting all competitive in a muddy field, that’s not what old people are supposed to do.

Our roving reporter Dave Norman says "With a couple of their big guns missing it was important that the remainder of the team weren’t firing blanks as they travelled to Coventry for the third of four league fixtures. With their Division Two status far from secure a decent result was called for from the reduced squad of seventeen, hardly enough to justify a coach but at least we arrived in style if a little early. The atmosphere prior to the race was rather quiet, reminiscent of a relegation dressing room apparently, it could have been more to do with the fact that we had arrived early and didn’t quite know what to do with ourselves. Reluctant to get changed and go out into the cold but with too much time to kill before the start. At least there was plenty of time to internally focus before familiarising ourselves with the course.

Colin Downey was back on the hills again with a trip to Wales. There was an excellent turnout for the fourth race in the South Wales Winter Hill series, at the Kymin in Monmouth. Although the Kymin is only about 600ft in overall height, an inventive and challenging course comprises 1150 feet of ascent in just under 4 miles.

Dave Norman reports from a shivering Wheaton Aston. "There’s a lot to be said for flying south during the Winter, disappearing for 6 months to the Mediterranean to soak up some sun instead of suffering the perpetual twilight of the tail end of December. There’s a huge attraction in migrating to a warmer climate for a few months and waiting for the ravages of the cold snap to abate, to avoid standing around in a field shivering while the wind cuts you in half. Maybe birds have got the right idea, certainly there was a sizable flock of nearly four hundred people standing in a field at Wheaton Aston who would consider that given the choices they had made the wrong one. With their legs an exotic shade of blue like a wading bird what they were doing had to be considered more than a little bird brain.

With Newport taking over the organisation of this annual post Christmas race runners were looking for some changes but other than assembling in a field next to the lane for the start nothing had changed. The course was the same relatively flat route, the start on the road, the finish was a quick sprint across the car park and the bits in between exactly the same as Christmases past. To be fair why change things for the sake of it, don’t try to mend what’s not broken. The only change made, the assembly point for the start, was the only major cause for complaint. The amount of standing around required was the only significant problem, but it was not the organisation that was the issue but the Siberian wind that made this just the wrong side of unpleasant turning the legs of runners the colour and consistency of corned beef. The position meant that the majority of runners were unable to warm up adequately with only a few escapees making it onto the road for a quick jog up and down to keep their legs moving. Those with prior knowledge were at least able to get themselves into a reasonable position as runners filed out of the field onto the lane, cramming a near 400 entry onto a road a car and a half's width wide. Any decent runners to the rear of this field could see the possibility of a decent time flying south.

Dave Norman again reports "There were two choices on Sunday. Either the 10 miles around Sneyd, on tarmac or the near vertical 10 miles around Mortimer Forest, as one runner stated, the girls choice or the choice of real men.

Despite there being some real Mortimer veterans in the field nobody could remember it being quite as bad as this in previous years, the conditions underfoot were more than a little testing, in the same way that the Somme was a little testing. In some places on the flat the mud was ankle deep, with a lot of standing water, the up hills were slippery and the down hills treacherous. The initial climb through the forest in the first mile is steeper than you realise, as you go out in a large group you don’t appreciate the incline as such as you are trying to find a position in the field. It’s only when you return the same way after an hour and a half or more than you realise how much climbing you are doing. You leave the forest behind briefly for the steep descent before winding through more trees, over the stream to the foot of the first real unraceable hill. This is so long and steep that you resort to walking up with your hands on your knees, maybe the leaders run up but not mere mid pack mortals.

There was more of this to come, more up and down than a chronic depressive on a drinking binge. In some cases on the up hills gravity took a grip and despite our best efforts running was impossible, in some cases on the down hills gravity took a grip and stopping was impossible.

If you asked nearly two dozen people to travel from the heart of the Black Country to deepest Warwickshire to run around a muddy field on a December afternoon they’d look at you like you were mental. Call it a race and pin a number to your vest and there were plenty of volunteers to travel to Leamington for the second cross country fixture of the season. Not quite enough for a coach full but still a decent representation. The course itself involved three laps of mud and pain. From the start a gentle right hand sweep where the surface was relatively solid, through some trees where the mud deepened, through (or over) a stream, more mud, more mud, some more mud, to the bottom of an incline ingeniously called Beacon Hill, over this man killer of a mound and down the other side for more mud and back to the beginning. All this x2 for the women and x3 for the men.

This Saturday afternoon adventure appears to be gaining in popularity with the ladies of the club, participation increasing by 50% after the first race at Sennelleys Park. Ann Law bringing the blue hoops home in 108^th place in 40.10. There was some superb clustering as Carol Fisher in 111^th in 40.27, Liz Hadley in 112^th in 40.30 and Sandra Brain in 113^thin 40.39. There was a slight gap before Laura Cox came home in 42.23 for 122^nd following closely by Rae Moorehouse in 42.42 and 125^th place. A decent show and certainly not disgraced.

SATURDAY 6th DECEMBER 2008 - MIDLAND WOMEN'S XC LEAGUE RACE AT LEAMINGTON SPA

Ian Mansell continued his fine form with a 4th place in the very strong field at the Cheddleton 10k in Staffordshire.

This year's event organised by Action Heart for the first time was an outstanding success. The winner Martin Humphries ran ten miles before taking on the race in preparation for his first marathon race. Latest news on this is that Martin ran his first Marathon in a time of 2 hours 19mins and 40 seconds finishing 9th in the Florence Marathon. Well done Martin.

Dave Norman reports " The Suicide 6 is unique in the race calendar, some races are ideal for quick times, atmosphere, convenience etc but this is ideal for mud. If you ever wanted a study in mud then this is for you and this years event excelled itself. This was a Dulux colour chart of mud, not just your standard brown but every shade from light grey through to black, from eggshell to coal hole and numerous shades in between. Luckily, although wet, at least it was warm enough for most of the field to dispense with too many layers, for most it was vest and shorts weather, or as Martin Humphries colourfully phrased it, warm enough to “go commando”. At least this cut down on the washing.

In the past the start has been a bit of a shambles, this year the start was moved back, over the hill and down into the bowl. Whether this was by design (we assumed so) or whether this had more to do with Richard Sannwald running 50 yards down the hill with the flag before planting it again, like a one man assault on Iwo Jima, was not unclear. This year there was no on your marks, get set…it was just go, up the hill and down the other side, through the bottle neck gate, by this point the field was a little more thinned out. There was still the usual elbows out, mad dash to the lake before the first real hill, up to the trig point, sorted the field out. The descent was uncomfortable for some, slippery, very wet and treacherous. Those with “unsuitable shoes” found it almost impossible to keep upright and many went down far quicker but much more uncomfortably on their backs covered in black mud and blacker bruises. This was just the start of the slipping and sliding as the turn at the bottom took us back along the “glue road”, light grey clay which held the water like a sponge. After this the course seemed to be the usual selection of trials, tracks, mud, hills, tree roots and wet leaves down to Himley. A slight deviation from previous years took us up the front of the hill into the woods, possibly the hardest, steepest route available, before the steep descent to the water. The crowds here were tremendous, if only we could have taken our eyes from where we were putting our feet we could have really appreciated them. The water, deep from almost continuous rain, was icy cold and the amount of silt at the bottom meant that even when you thought you had hit the bottom you still had a couple of inches to go.

From here it was a hard slog back to Baggeridge, soaked, cold and filthy we battled our way past runners coming in the other direction, at least thankful that we were on our way back. A few twists and turns around the park took us to the bottom of the last real test, the numerous steps of Jacobs Ladder. Here it’s not the long stretch that kills you, it’s the six additional steps you encounter about 20 yards to the right at the top. Just when your thighs are ready to burst it’s a nightmarish climb that you could really do without. But by this point you are in sight of the finish. Time to get yourself together as you run round the rim of the bowl before the sprint, if you can still manage it, down the hill to the finish.

Typically this is never a race to hang about at afterwards, you’re too wet, too cold and too filthy to be polite. You get in the car and get home as quickly as possible and wonder what the weather will throw at us in 12 months time. Last year it was sub zero temperatures, this year it was mud (did I mention it was muddy), next year who knows but if Sweat Shop do an offer on flippers they might make a killing."

Another regular contributor Steve Bartley commented " Just three weeks after the horrendous conditions of the Snowdonia Marathon the Suicide Six actually felt more like 'A Stroll in the Park Six'!

It was an ideal morning for running with light rain and mild temperatures, warm enough to stand round chatting at the start in vests and shorts. However, the light rain proved to be just enough to ensure that most of the course was nice and muddy and slimy.

Standing on the start line, which seemed to change 3 times before the start, I could see that the DK vests were out in force (Brian - Before you shout out at the next race "where's your vest" how many times do I have to tell you that I'm too fat to get it on and too tight to buy another one!).

I have always stood at the stream to watch this race so I have never actually seen the start. I would have loved to have been a spectator as it must have looked like a scene from Braveheart when everyone charged up and over the hill, all that was lacking was blue face paint!

Seeing the narrowness of the gate just after the start I had considered making an early sprint, but the last time I sprinted was when I had a dog set on me while scrumping in 1969. I decided to take it steady and wait my turn (like I had a choice!).

By the time we reached the first pool the field had settled down into a nice long procession. By this stage I realised that I had timed my starting pace badly and that it was unlikely that I was going to catch the leader so I settled down into a nice steady pace. My steady pace is slow and that's the only pace I have at the moment.

The first 3rd of the course was mostly gloopy sticky mud. Some runners in front of me were doing great impressions of fairies on a gob of lard, especially on the downhill parts. It was a bit like a Wolverhampton Sunday League Division 8 footy game, waiting for someone to tackle you from behind. The surface got firmer as we headed for Whites Wood and down to the tarmaced road. This was my chance to pick up the speed, so I sent the message to my legs to go for it, which resulted in me running at exactly the same pace!

As I ran down to the park I passed the sadists (sorry that should say spectators) who were already being entertained by the front runners wading through the stream. The climbs up from the big lake resulted in most runners around me slowing to a walk, me included. The decent down to the stream was treacherous and there were some spectacular dives into the black slimy mud.

Then came the highlight of the course …. the stream. As I approached the stream I could hear the crowd through the trees cheering at various volumes that no doubt matched the depth of submersion for each runner. I don't know if it's just me being a bit weird but I'm sure that the water felt quite warm and to be honest it felt quite good on the old achy knees.

The run back up through Baggeridge was all the better for knowing that the worst was over. I trundled up the Stairway to Heaven and used my lack of blistering finishing pace to waddle over the line at exactly the same speed as I had ran all round the course.

If the race taught me anything it was that I need to do some speed work as the mind knows how to race but the legs aren't listening!

To sum up it's a great event and I really enjoyed it, even though as I sit here writing this I have a swollen right knee (again) and an equally sore left knee. Looks like having a week off and then fitting in one or two training runs before the Mortimer Forest run.

I should really go and see some medical boffin with my gammy knee but old runners never die, they just get more stupid!!!

Wait for the advert to finish, click bottom right hand button to see in full screen mode. Excellent

Dave Norman reports "It’s been a long time since Birmingham held a major city centre road race, those with long memories may recollect the Vax Marathon or the Diet Coke series but this is two decades ago and judging from the support from both competitors and spectators it’s been a long wait. It was an ambitious plan to come back after 20 years absence with a major half marathon, with a field reported to be in excess of 9000, closing down the city centre and all major arterial routes for a morning, transporting the paraphernalia runners attract from start to finish and then transporting runners in the opposite direction after the race. When you consider the logistics involved and the potential for disaster it makes you wonder why they bothered, I’m sure the majority of the field were glad they did.

As the clock ticked towards the start all bin bags were discarded and runners assembled in their colour coded starting pens. The biggest worry for some was the hold ups involved in getting 9000 runners over a start line but the combination of coloured numbers and the application of some strict rules, even physically ejecting a Tipton runner from a green area because he had an orange number, meant this wasn’t much of a problem for the serious runners. Chip timing also took away some of the stress. The 9.30 start came and went, a 15 minute delay left runners shivering and stiffening up on the start line with no way to stretch out and keep moving, it was a relief to start. Eventually we were off, following the dual carriageway through Perry Barr towards the city.

The first part of the course was straight if a little “undulating” and within 4 miles you were in the city centre running past the Town Hall where the crowds were excellent and out via The Mailbox towards Edgbaston along the Hagley Road before turning off. This was the character building part of the course, twisting and turning around side streets, support was sparse, mostly in dressing gowns with cups of tea, but every now and again you’d get a group of more vociferous supporters (particularly Helen Tromans Mom and Dad and Rae Moorhouse who were unsurprisingly very vocal). Once back on the Hagley Road for the last two miles the finish was almost in site. Down and the up the underpass at Five Ways and you could collect yourself to finish looking good in front of a massive crowd in Centenary Square. A few mustering sprint finishes and Kevin Duckworth milking the crowd for all he was worth, high five-ing the spectators as he ran in.

When the bin bags were discarded at the start the number of blue hoops was again sizable. Although some had the mud still on them from yesterdays cross country race and others were in the wash. Gary Bonner was first home in 103^rd place in a chip time of 1.27.36, 6 seconds then covered Dave Norman, Adrian Jones and Kevin Duckworth who finished in a group. Stuart Tromans was 168^th in 1.30.02, out sprinted by a girl apparently. Mark Homer finished in 1.35.43, Helen Tromans finished in a very respectable 1.38.11 for a half marathon debut, Darren Marklew in 1.39.15, Richard Froggatt in 1.46.01, Michael Quane in 1.44.26, Brian Lane in 1.45.51, Donna Turner in 1.50.22, Carol Fisher in 1.48. 23, Joy Follis in 1.54.17, Helen Hickman in 1.57.21, Julie Allen in 1.57.28, Su Fernandez in 1.59.20, Ian Harris, Catherine Quane, Julian Levitt, Ian Corns, Flora Bianco, Steve Wood, Cindy Froggatt, Linda Harper, Farrah Hunter-Coley, Lynne Thompson, Enid Brazier, Sandra Wollaston and Pat Pedley.

As a dress rehearsal for next years IAAF World Half Marathon Championships it wasn’t a bad warm up. There are certain aspects of the course that may need to be looked at, the twists and turns around Edgbaston and the part on the Hagley Road where you affectively ran round a cone to run back the way you had come but on an organisational level it couldn’t really be faulted at least from where most of us were. Others may think differently but as a first attempt it was a more than decent stab at it. As for coming back next year? I’m sure there’s a good chance but a change of date so it didn’t fall on the same weekend as the opening Birmingham League Cross Country fixture would be a good idea, particularly for those who had to walk downstairs backwards on Sunday morning but still managed run the half marathon a couple of hours later."

Congratulations to Mark Taylor on dipping under the magic 90 minutes mark for the half marathon for the first time in a time of 1 hour 27 minutes 20 seconds.

Steve Bartley reports from Snowdon "The day before many of my fellow club members were running around Yam Yam Central in the inaugural 2^nd City Half Marathon (I did the Birmingham City Half Marathon in the 80’s and I have the finish line photo’ to prove it!), I was in North Wales to take part in the Snowdonia Marathon.

When Deb and I woke at around 7.00am on the morning of the race the wind was already shaking the caravan off its stabilisers…..Things were only going to get worse!

Three weeks prior to the marathon, as a change from running, I travelled to Snowdonia and climbed three 3,000ft peaks in 8 hours, Y Garn 947m, Glyder Fach, 994m and Glyder Fawr, 999m.

On the decent from Glyder Fawr, probably due to fatigue and loss of concentration, I fell and banged into the rock resulting in two black big toes and more worryingly badly twisting my right knee.

For the next 8 days I tried to run but each attempt resulted in getting no further than 20 yards before the pain got too much to continue. I rested for a further 3 days and managed to run, very carefully, for 15 minutes.

I managed to build the length of the runs back up at a time when I should really have been easing off. On every run I had to pull up sharp at least two or three times due to stabbing pains in my knee. This was not great preparation either physically or mentally to take on one of the toughest marathon courses in Europe.

The course has several steep hills on it. It starts at 300 ft above sea level and in the first four miles it climbs over 1,000 ft. Then at the end of the race the last five miles involves another steep climb, this time again of over 1,000 ft. It goes through some of the most spectacular scenery in the UK and there is no shortage of up and downs around the rest of the course.

So on Saturday 25^th October I lined up on the starting line with no great expectations of beating my marathon PB of 2 hours 45 minutes.

The weather was horrendous, not quite as bad as in the Lake District, but winds at the nearby Capel Curig weather station in Snowdonia recorded gusts of up to 60mph (96kmph) for Saturday's race day, and 52mm (2in) of rain fell.

I had decided that I was going to give it my best shot, try to enjoy it as best as possible, and take in the fantastic scenery around the course in an area that I absolutely adore. Above all I just wanted to get to the finish.

After the four mile climb from the start it was all downhill to Bedgellert. This was a worrying time for me as the downhills tested my dodgy knee. By 8 miles my right knee felt like a bag of marbles but it settled down and by the half way stage I was too numb to care!!

At the 20-mile point the toughest part of the course continued off road over the final hill, Waunfawr. By now the weather was ridiculous. The wind tore my waterproof, non-rip race number clean off the safety pins holding it to my running top. Fir trees had blown down across the track, and the rain hit my face so hard that it felt like I was being blasted by small pebbles. The wind was literally blowing the runners off their feet.

A great effort by the ladies in fielding a team for the first time. Standards are set now, if we can get Helen and a few others for the next race, who knows what we could achieve.

Yvonne Talbot writes "I joined the club at the beginning of September after a friend suggested it may help with my training for my first BIG run - the Great North. Everyone at the club has been so supportive; especially John and Andy on Tuesday & Thursday nights.

Dave Norman reports "There are certain races that go on a list of “must do” events, races like Mortimer Forest, Wheaton Aston for a post Xmas blow out, even our own 10K. The Badger Bite is rapidly elbowing its way onto that list. Despite torrential rain through the night and for much of the morning leaving some of the approaching lanes awash the race went ahead with a few words of advice and warning to watch ourselves in some specific areas. And we needed to be sensible on this course with some steep descents made treacherous by the rain, some very uneven patches and deep water. Having said that surely if we were being sensible we’d have stayed at home, but we would have missed a treat.

With congratulations due to Robin and Sharon for a tremendous event the question now will be not whether we will be back in twelve months, but whether we will be able to get our socks clean in time for next years event. "

Brian Lane was presented with a tin of Celebration chocolates for the club with the highest entries.

Ian Corns reports from sleepy Somerset "Just thought i'd drop you a line regarding the run Garry Cooper and i did last Sunday 5th October 2008.

Seems it was a busy day for DK Runners, covering The Great North, Badger, Bournville and Somerset.

239 runners, including 2 from the Midlands!!! took part in the run organised by Burnham Harriers Running Club. The race was won by The Royal Navy's Mark Goodridge in a time of 1:12:57,which apparently was just short of the course record.

The course is an excellent route,best when leaving the island at Junction 22 of the M5 taking in the scenic Brent Knoll and villages Lympsham and East Knoll before returning to Burnham via Berrow. It is a course well suited for anyone trying for a PB, which was evident in Garry's 1:34:02 leaving him in 57th and even my 1:56:44 in 170th gave me my best Half Marathon time in over 16years....wow!!!! Garry's performance was even better considering he had to make a late dash into Bristol to buy new shoes on the way down because the person 'charged' with packing his bag forgot to put his 'pumps' in his 'pump bag' doh! I am even beginning to believe this nonsense of carbing up the night before is a waste of time, as we made our visit to the Burnham Shah Indian Restaurant for a few pints of Kingfisher and a very tasty 'Ruby'....well as long as you 'park' in good time in the morning- it shouldn't affect your run!!!!

Tag timing was used this year, something perhaps Wolverhampton need to look at for 2009...if the yokels of Zumerzet can do it, why can't Wolverhampton!!!

Sadly unlike 2007,there were no home made cakes available after the race, but once again we received a hologram running paperweight....very nice!

Steve Wood keeps out of the mud by turning up at Bournville for their leafy 10k.

"Jim Fixed It! – The Long Mynd Hike 4^th & 5^th October – 50 miles – 8,000 feet

Steve Bartley reports from Kinver "I woke Sunday morning with stomach cramps and feeling sick. I put this down to my traditional pre-race preparation on the previous evening.evening. Basking in the glory of another win for the boys in gold and black (Up by Christmas!) I treated myself to a supper of fish and chips and a pint or few of Belgium's best ale. I had to wait in the chippy for the fish to be cooked. Now I'm no Gordon Ramsey but I reckon that fish should be cooked for longer than a minute and half!

I can't say I really enjoyed the race but that's due more to my state of health than the event itself. The race is well organised and the course is excellent even with the steep climbs. The view over the Sheepwalks is stunning.

There was a very good turn out from the club and It was good to see a club member win in a record time.

Ian Harris reports from Macclesfield "For the first time ever I can clearly say that a race had destroyed me!! I'd chosen this race knowing it was going to be a difficult one to help with my marathon training for Amsterdam next month. Weather conditions were perfect for the 10:00 am start from the home of Macclesfield Harriers, where 1200 runners lined up on the track.
One loop around the track and out the gate towards the leisure centre, with no hold ups I wish to say,( are you reading W'ton Marathon
committee) then just a short distance before taking in the first of many hills. It wasn't long before the route went rural and the support crowds had faded, but its still a great feeling when someone shouts "come on Dudley" even if it was followed by "watch how yo goo ar kid". The route meandered around undulating country lanes with what seemed to be endless uphill sections. It wasn't so much the gradient of the hills, more so the length and frequency of them that drained you. It all went pear shape for me and many others just after the 10 mile marker when faced with yet another long drag to contend with. It was at this point I was beginning to feel it would be best to wait for the sweep car and hitch hike a lift back. However after the torturous 2 mile uphill struggle The last mile of the route was a welcome downhill section back to the stadium where the crowds gave you that last bit of encouragement.
I recorded my worst ever half marathon time, but would not be put off by doing it again. Over all a good scenic route, that was well marshalled , and plenty of drink stations available. The organisers had said they had all time record of 1200 entrants which shows just how popular this event has become.

Dave Norman reports "You know it’s almost the cross country season when you are standing in the car park before a race shivering and waiting for the mist to clear. You huddle together in a group and someone makes the most innocent of comments about wishing you were back in bed and someone takes it completely out of context, twists it round and makes you sound like some sort of deviant. While all you’re trying to do is consider the logic of dragging yourself out from under the duvet to stand in what’s left of the industrial part of Wolverhampton trying to remember what the first signs of hypothermia are. Ok, so it wasn’t that cold but it was a bit of a shock in September.

First of all I must say Congratulations to Ian Mansell in his first ever Marathon, finishing second in the race with a time below 2 hours 50 minutes. All this after a disastrous start by the Race Organisers. Due to traffic calming measures around the park roads, they decided to start the race on a very narrow path. From my photo's you will see that the Bike Ride started first, and with problems encountered by them as the backed up along the paths trying to get out onto the roads, you feared the worst for the runners.

The relay runners were next off, with no problems as there were only a few of them. The hooter sounded, and the main race got under way with fun runners at the forefront. As the last one past, I said to someone, "Bloody hell, there aren't many in it this year".

Approximately 90 seconds later, the next wave of runners appeared, trying to make up the lost time. Many good quality runners including Ian Mansell were in the second group. I saw them go past, only to be met by the slower runners in front of them from the first group.

As Ian Mansell said "What a mess the start of today's race was. I'm not sure if you knew what happened.

Basically we were told to assemble at a point for the start where we were to walk towards the start line. I was on the front row but noticed that there were only a few fast runners on that start line such as Paul Ward and Mark Farnell.

We started to walk towards the start line then all of a sudden we were told to start as the race had started nearly 2 minutes ago. In the distance we could see hundreds of runners who had already started the race.
For the first 3 miles I was passing a lot of fun runners. You have to hand it to Paul Ward winning the half after being so far behind the majority of runners.

My actual time I logged on my watch at the end of the race was 2hrs 41.40 seconds. I was hoping to break 2 hrs 40 and was on target up until mile 24 when I got hit down by bad stitch which wouldn't shift.

So my first marathon was an excellent debut but full of drama. Don't expect to see me running 26 miles again for a long time.

Paul Ward's watch time was 72.24 but because he started late his official time is 73.40"

Dave Norman added "If you are organising a race we would recommend that you use some recognised method to start everyone off, some sort of loud noise usually suffices, a gun, a hooter, some sort of klaxon, rather than rely on word of mouth. It appeared from further back in the field that the starter whispered to one runner “go, pass it on!!!” Eventually those nearer the back assumed that if people in the distance ahead are running then maybe we should too. The fact that slower runners and relay competitors were able to start in front of an elite field caused havoc (see Ian Mansell's comments of his own experiences) and the first mile or possibly more in some cases were spent weaving through slower runners around the park, up on the grass and through the tress. At least one runner was demanding his money back at the finish because of the chaos – good luck to him. Once out of the park the route meandered around the town and the field thinned out as runners found their own rhythm and position. The start aside the rest of the race was hassle free, the drink stations were numerous and well manned (and womanned), the support even in the most desolate of areas was vociferous and for most part at least during the race the weather was favourable and conducive to fast times.

Streve Bartley added "The Wolverhampton Half Marathon was the latest part of my cunning training plan to be ready for the Snowdonia Marathon at the end of October. Oh what joy!!

Dave Norman continues his excellent reports, this time from the last race in the Sexarathon Series in Telford. "After confusion last week over the length of the 5k course this week we were more concerned about the depth. Torrential rain during the two hours prior to the race following a particularly wet few days left parts of the course waterlogged and some parts even submerged. It wasn’t particularly muddy, more surface water than mud; it was just that whenever you ran through a puddle you were never quite sure how far away the bottom was.

At least the rain eased up to allow the race to start in dry conditions if only from the ankles up, the organisers announced that they were very apologetic about last weeks long course and promised that next year they would make it short to compensate, and, that said, we were off helter skelter down the steep slope towards the park. At least we were going downstream as the surface water helped our progress here, round the first corner and into the first batch of puddles. The sensible ones who had warmed up by running part of the course knew what to expect, others were shocked by the width and in some cases depth of the standing water. This more or less set the tone for the park section of the race, more water, more deep puddles, more gritting your teeth and splashing through, this was no course for tip toeing delicately round them, no course for soft girls.

The route meandered through the park until around half way with much of the same before joining the road, a steep climb towards a main road and back towards the finish. By this point your socks were sodden, your trainers were full of water but at least you had reached drier ground. A brief section under an underpass, a steep grassy decent followed by a tortuous but thankfully brief ascent up some of those irregular steps that are often seen in country parks, just enough to break your rhythm. Back onto the road again before the final sprint of 200 yards to the finish, just when you thought there was no more water they could throw at you the finish itself, on the fringes on the football pitch, proved a further trial, sloppy and yielding just when you needed something a little more solid to sprint on.

Although this was traditionally advertised at the Vic Musgrave Fast Five this race could easily be referred under the trades descriptions act as it certainly wasn’t fast and clearly wasn’t five. Nevertheless it proved a successful event if a little confusing for those looking to clock a fast 5k time over a course that has produced some quick runs in the past. Rather than starting at the tradition point for Town Park races, the grass bowl, this race started just outside the rugby club car park on the road, which failed to explain why the distance couldn’t be absolutely spot on, a slight adjustment forwards or backwards would have given us an accurate 5k route, however as it was always advertised as “approx” we shouldn’t really complain.

The start, as always was a bit of a bottleneck, forcing nearly 230 runners along a narrow lane and up a slight hill to the park itself meant that unless you got your elbows out early or were prepared to brave the muddy verges you were stuck behind a wall of runners. It was surprising to see one or two physically shoving their way through the field with no thought for others, if it gained them a few seconds then that was all it achieved. Why can’t people just accept that they have judged their start position wrong and learn from it for next time rather than potentially ruin someone else’s performance for their own selfish ends, a bit of courtesy never hurt anyone.

Following the first 200 yards the race turned right at the top of the slope before dropping down into the park itself allowing the field to relax into its collective stride. The course followed a two lap, figure of eight course, more up and down, and in some cases sideways where the footing was a little lose because of recent rain, rather than flat. The weather didn’t help, hot, humid, muggy, certainly not conducive to fast times and getting rather dark towards the finish along the path through the trees. It was only the flash of Brian Smith's camera that helped you realise where the finish was, it certainly wasn’t the tell tale flash of a speed camera.

Again there were a handful of blue hoops in attendance, some to maintain decent positions in the overall standings, others to just try to run off holiday excesses. Ian Mansell was first home in 17^th place in a time of 18.18, Dave Norman was 42^nd in 20.35, Graham Dews maintained a good overall 3^rd in his age category with 21.32 for 66^th place, Stuart Tromans nursed his healing metatarsal round in 21.56 on limited training and with everything crossed that it wouldn’t hurt in the morning. Brian Russell kept in touch in his age category with 22.37, Helen Tromans was back in 23.03 for 102^nd place and 2^nd FV35 and Lindsay Pulley kept up his age category placing with one race to go with 29.56 for 199^th. Slow times, in winning GB International Chris Davies ran 15.41 so using this as a yardstick the performances weren’t as bad as the times would suggest.

With the final race of the series next week we have three runners handily placed in their categories and hopeful of a prize in what has been a very competitive competition. This time next week their may be three more bottles of wine in the DK cellars.

Don't know how Tom and Steve got on, but a special mention should go to Clive Middleton, formally of Black Country Tri. He ran the 10K and then, with only minutes notice, ran the 14 mile event on a free number from Sneyd Stryders. Don't know how he got on, but he was fearing the worst when I spoke to him after about a mile."

Steve Bartley reports "After a lay off from running for nearly a year I chose a nice little easy race to make the latest of my many comebacks!

I love Race the Train, it’s a great event, and over the years I have tried to run it despite greatly varying levels of fitness. It was watching this event around three years ago that made me want to start running again after a gap of around 8 years. I have had the pleasure of beating the train on many occasions but over the last few years it’s been more about survival than any real ambition to cross the line before the train.

This year I chose to do the full 14 mile event as part of my build up to a Marathon in October. I started training again around 6 weeks ago after my best buddy bet me £20 that I could never run a marathon again. Just to make it easy on myself I picked one of the toughest courses in Europe, the Snowdonia Marathon. Being 3 Stone overweight and with no training in my legs it fair to say it’s been emotional!!!

For those who are not familiar with the event you have the challenge of not only racing your fellow competitors but also the train.

The route follows that taken by the Talyllyn Railway on its journey to Abergynolwyn and back. The runners use a mixture of public roads, lanes, un-metalled roads, tracks, agricultural land, and rough grazing pastures. The terrain varies all the time and can be very wet & muddy in places; the route also ascends and descends quite steep terrain and runs on narrow footpaths with little chance of overtaking.

The main race is approximately 14 miles long. The start is adjacent to the Talyllyn Railway Station. The first half of the race is the relatively easiest part; the second half is much tougher on uncultivated sloping hillside, through a stream, lots of climbs and on very steep hillsides using narrow sheep tracks. Eventually the course rejoins the road back to Tywyn and the Finish.
The train takes approximately 1 Hour 47 minutes to do the course.

The weather for this year’s event followed the same pattern as the last 3 years, heavy prolonged rain. This made the course very slippery and in muddy.

Having entered the afternoon 14 miler Deb and I were free to watch the morning 10k race. DK was represented by Cathy Quane and my fellow camper Tom Williams. The organisers have changed the course due to health and safety reasons and all the races now finish in the town. This seemed an odd health and safety improvement as the runners approaching the finish had to share the road with a constant stream of traffic. This also made it difficult, if not almost impossible to get any photographs of the finishers. The finish is now quite a way from the train station so it was difficult to know who had actually beaten the train.

The weather held off for the morning race but the runners reported that the course was very muddy. This cheered me up no end as the return half of the afternoon race is over the same course!

Tom finished in a time of 50minutes 12 seconds. As I write I have no idea if this beat the train but it had to be close. Tom finished 3^rd in the Vet’s 60 category.

Cathy finished in 1 hour, I minute, 59 seconds. She looked like it had been a stroll in the park as she was smiling all the way to the finish, or was it relief that it was over?

The afternoon event started in dry but windy weather. The first half of the course was slippery underfoot but worse was to come. As we reached the half way turn the heavens opened and with several hundred runners already having churned up the course in the morning some parts of the course had become a muddy swamp!

Long stretches off the return route are on steep cambers. I fell twice and I witnessed many runners sliding off down the slopes. One runner completely disappeared into the bracken. At times the mud was a good foot deep.

The last mile or so is back on lanes and then the road into the town. I managed to pick the pace up a bit but then disaster struck!

In 30 years of running I have never had cramp, but around a quarter of a mile from the finish my right leg turned into a steel rod. For ten minutes I could not move, every attempt to stretch it out failed as soon as I tried to move forward, much to the amusement of the large crowd outside the famous ice cream shop! Eventually it eased off enough for me to walk, and then jog to the finish in 2.23.18. I guess that the gloopy mud was to blame for the cramp.

Fellow DK runner Tony Price finished in 1 hour, 48 minutes, 55 seconds, I would estimate that he failed to beat the train by around 3 or 4 minutes.

As I mentioned at the start, I love this event, but I have to say that moving the finish away from the field adjacent to the train station into the town did nothing for the runners or the spectators. Having said that I will back next year for more of the same!

At least Deb was waiting at the finish with a big slice of carrot and almond cake from Dolly’s Café (can’t understand why this two stone is so slow to come off!!).

Official SB cake rating 8 out of 10."

FRIDAY 15th AUGUST 2008 - ST LEVAN 10k

Whilst holidaying in Cornwall, Mark Homer sent in this report on the St Levan 10k "St. Levan is a couple of miles from Lands End and is mainland Britain's most Westerly Road Race. It attracts mainly local club runners with a few hardy runners joining in whilst on holiday. The course is on country lanes, and is undulating without being too hilly. The field of 200 felt crowded at the start but it soon spread out.

I would recommend this to anyone who fancies a race if they happen to be in Cornwall during August, it was easy to enter on the night, but suggest they wait until after the run before hitting the Pasties."

G O L D E N O L D I E S - I didn't realise how good a runner Brian Russell was until he told me.

Tony Price reports from Llanberis "Now in its 33rd year, the Snowdon race is known as one of the toughest mountain races in Europe and attracts several international teams. The 10 mile race starts in Llanberis and follows the main Llanberis path to the summit of Snowdon and returns on the same route.

This year the challenge of Snowdon was answered by three DK runners, Tony Price, Tom Williams and Nick Wright at Wales's premier mountain race with Colin Downey and Steve Bartley adding vocal support from the side lines.

This is surely one of the events to say that you have done, with the entry limit being reached in April and crowds on the mountain giving a superb atmosphere (imagine and Alpine stage of the Tour de France with runners instead of cyclists)

The race started at 2pm with slightly overcast skies, but these soon cleared to give brilliant sunshine apart for the top 500m of the course, which was still shrouded in mist. The route starts with a 1/2 mile section of road before begining a steep ascent up the mountain. The climb levels out after a mile or so, but there is another steep section before the final approach to the summit. It's then a straight run back down the route to the finish

The finish line is part of the Village Carnival and there’s great support from the crowds to keep you pushing for the final few hundred meters on the road.

The race was won by Andy Jones of Salford Harriers in 66' 02" (by which time our three intrepid heroes had not even reached the summit). The DK runners finished: Tony Price 249th (1 hr 48' 05") Tom Williams 315th (1hr 53' 23") Nick Wright 360th (1hr 59' 05").

Fell running is an art in itself and not for the feint hearted. A number of competitors were found in the first aid tent after the race nursing some impressive wounds from falling on the rocky descent. One 'international' athlete was also airlifted by the RAF after suffering heat exhaustion.

The finish line is part of the Village Carnival and there’s great support from the crowds to keep you pushing for the final few hundred meters on the road.

A one hour highlights program from the race was broadcast on C4 Cymru the day after the event. Please contact Tony Price, who has a video of the program, if you wish to view it."

There are certain benchmarks in running that set the standard between the good and the great, the sub 40 10k, the sub 1.30 half marathon, the sub 3 hour marathon. Anyone that can achieve these benchmarks is someone to admire. Then occasionally someone will do something that goes way beyond admiration and touches on awe. Whilst we can all understand the concept of a sub 40 10k how can we even begin the comprehend the effort, both physical and mental, that goes into running up and down the five highest mountain in the UK and Republic of Ireland in 48 hours?

It makes me tired just to think about it but Graham Dews did just that and incidentally turned out at Ironbridge on the following Wednesday for a swift 4 miles in a respectable time. Ironbridge, more like Iron Man.

The feat started on the evening of Friday 27^th June at 7.30pm at the base of Snowdon, 47 runners from the Shropshire area set off for the summit 3,560 ft (1085 metres) up in the clouds for the first stage. A stage Graham completed in 1.53 before travelling overnight to Cumbria for stage 2, arriving at Scafell Pike at 3am. The route was fairly straightforward, at least on paper, one mile along the road, then up Scafell to the summit at 3,210 ft (977 metres), a descent to Seathwaite Farm for a further two miles on the road to the coach and a finishing time of 3.30. However what seems straightforward on paper is never straightforward in the mountains and one group lost their way on the Pike delaying the coach departure by nearly three hours. It was now a race against time as well as against altitude.

Stage three, Ben Nevis, was going to be a mad dash now, arriving at 3.00pm giving runners just two and a half hours to reach the snow covered summit at 4,409 ft (1344 metres). Graham was one of a small group of only 6 to manage this and keep the challenge on track returning to the coach by 5.30 for the five and a half hour road journey to Stranraer for the ferry to Belfast.

After a two hour crossing Graham arrived in Northern Ireland and by 3.00am they were attempting the highest mountain in the province Slieve Donard at 2,795 ft (850 metres). Being the shortest this should have been the easiest but with so many miles in his legs, unsurprisingly very tired and with no energy Graham in an understated way claims he “suffered a bit”, getting slightly lost in the dark this was one to forget. A respectable running time of 2.10 doesn’t suggest tiredness and lack of energy though. Then with stage 4 out of the way it was onto the final leg the 3,415 ft (1039 metre) high Carrauntuohill in the Republic.

A very long coach journey to Kilkenny allowed some much needed rest but also the dubious opportunity to stiffen up. Then they were off, two and a half miles on road to the foot of the mountain, a good opportunity to get some proper running done before climbing again. The climbing started at the foot of the 1500 feet high Devils Ladder, a near vertical climb of loose rocks, gushing water and then a final push to the last summit and then back down to the coach for 6.20pm and a long journey home.

The cold hard facts don’t really tell the full story. A total running time of thirteen and a half hours, 18,300 metres, that’s over 60,000 feet or the equivalent up running up the Worcestershire Beacon 43 times. Covering an actual running distance of an impressive 45 miles. This coupled with the travelling and 1,400 road miles on the coach between peaks shows what an impressive feat this was and in addition the total raised for Hope House Children's Hospice is in excess of £20,000.

Now he has moved to Nuneaton, you can expect to find Ian Mansell taking part in "never heard of" races. The Wedgnock 10k being such a race. Ian again showed his form coming second in this race at Warwick.

Dave Norman's long awaited report "It’s a novel approach to organise a coach trip without a coach but that was what we were faced with for our annual trip to Frampton. Not that the situation was of our making as a confirmed booking went astray resulting in a handful of runners standing in the car park waiting for a coach was never going to arrive. After a few phone calls which determined we were better off without a coach it was a case of jumping in cars and heading south under our own steam. (Thanks to Paul Waby of Dudley and Stourbridge Harriers who had the dubious pleasure of driving Brian Smith there…although he did get a tour of the village in return, not that he really wanted one).

In hindsight the lack of a coach worked in our favour, at least it meant we didn’t have to go via Oldbury and weren’t pulling our vests on as we came down the coach steps as in previous years. Most of us arrived with time to spare for a relaxed preparation and a decent warm up. A maximum field of nearly 500 lined up, briefly behind a tractor, for the start and charged off down the long straight past the village, over the swing bridge and out into the country.

A free glass of cider, a quick warm down run to the car and a mad scramble for the showers followed by a pint or two outside the pub in the company of like minded people is surely what Frampton is all about. It’s not about the race, it’s about the experience, it’s about mutual respect and reciprocated encouragement. It’s about the stories, it’s about Rob taking a pint back to the bar and complaining even though he’s not old enough to get served, it’s about discussing the role of the Vice Chairman (i.e. chairman in charge of vice), it’s about drink fuelled ideas of riding a stage of the Tour de France. All in an ideal, relaxed, picturesque setting, what more could you ask for? Maybe a coach that turns up when it’s meant to but in the end that didn’t really make any difference. "

Ian Mansell who won the race last year recorded a faster time this year, but had to be satisfied with second place behind a Bristol University runner.

Dave Norman reports from Himley Park "You don’t normally expect to have the usual winter dilemma regarding footwear in early July but that’s what faced the field before they lined up at the start of this annual and well supported event. The torrential rain had left certain areas of the course waterlogged, in places damp in others just on the wrong side of boggy. It was particularly bad under the trees, coincidently the finishing straight which is just what you need after three miles of flat out racing, however I’m sure 90% of us have seen a lot worse but not normally at this time of year.

At least the men had the luxury of watching the women go round first to determine the solidity of the course underfoot, not that some of the leaders seemed to be touching the ground towards the front of the field. The first two, a couple of girls from Halesowen A & CC, seemed to be floating over the damp turf with all the grace and surefootedness of youth. Right behind Helen Tromans picked up another prize in 3^rd in a time of 19.42, followed by Liz Hadley in 15^th in 22.06, followed by Carol Fisher in 22.28, Rae Moorhouse on her comeback from injury just ducking inside 23 minutes in 22.57, Frankie Warrington and Steph Andrews only a second apart in 23.56 and 23.47. Sue Payton, Helen Love, Donna Proffitt, Louise Brookes, Linda Harper, Carol Yates, Karen Oldnall, Sue Ruston and Jacqui Duckworth completing the DK compliment.

There were significant numbers of blue hoops toeing the line in the mens race. With such uncertainly over the weather there was a significant contrast with Dave Norman in his muddy Walshes and Karl Quinney in his shades. At some points it was difficult to see who made the right decision, it was so uncertain that at one point during the race it was raining over half the course while the sun was shining over the remainder, bizarre but typically English. Ian Mansell ran well yet again to finish 3^rd in 15.25, Dale Quinney ran well for 17^th in 17.19 just in front of Gary Bonner in 17.32, despite his claims of no training. Dave Norman was 22^nd in 17.46, Graham Dews recovering from his 5 peaks challenges with a 5k in 17.52, Karl Quinney in 18.05 followed by Team Duckworth, George just beating Kevin in 18.57 and 18.59. Kevin Payton, Brian Russell, Andy Moorhouse, Steve Morris, Nigel Warrington and finally Andy Page still with a half marathon from the weekend in his legs.

As expected with a race on the doorstep there was a good turn out, a superb showing, blue hoops everywhere you looked, a total of 28 runners over two races with 3^rd places in both mens and womens events and some high positions throughout. Great to have support all round the route. It was very encouraging but it did mean there were no hiding places anywhere on this two lap course. Maybe we needed a little bit more mud or a little more rain to put the spectators off but it was July after all."

Colin Downey returns with this report "Turned up at Shifnal on Sunday in with my fell shoes all ready for a long off-road event the Shifnal Steepchase.

Dave Norman reports "A near maximum field of 500 running down the canal towpath from Wolverhampton to Birmingham would cause logistical headaches for even the most experienced of organisers. How do you stop one runner from sprinting to the front within 100 yards of the start and just sticking his arms out so nobody can get past? You give groups separate start times based on their predicted finish to ensure the bottlenecks are minimised but it does lead to bizarre scenes at the start. Runners assembled in a cobbled courtyard where their luggage was piled up for transportation to the finish, they were “chipped” and numbered and then waited for their number to the called before disappearing though an iron door which clanged shut with such finality that you wondered if you would ever see these people again. One of the organisers with a loud hailer would shout a list of numbers; tick them off on her start list before bundling you through the iron door. Forget her start list it was more like Schindlers List. Luckily the concentration camp imagery was blown away when the gallant blue hoops were called forward as she took one look at us in our matching vests and exclaimed with such delight “oooh, don’t you look fab”, it was like the Third Reich meets Trinny and Susannah.

The race started some 100 down the towpath, the DK group and a couple of Stourbridge runners setting off through the puddles into the sun towards the bright lights of Birmingham. The course was straightforward, just follow the arrows along the canal until someone tells you to stop, in some places it was awkward, in some places it was a bit dull and monotonous but you have to marvel at the engineering that produced such a waterway. By four miles the split times had been forgotten, it’s hard to judge split times when your mile markers are drifting face down in the water, and it’s a case of just keeping up the rhythm, concentrating on your breathing. The quarter mile long Coseley tunnel provided a gloomy and very slippery distraction from the steady towpath running interspersed with the odd bridge here and there. You could switch off, tick the miles off and wait for the pain to set in, and for most of us it did at some point. It may have been a regular half marathon distance but Birmingham seems a very long way away when you have to go on foot. Particularly when every other form of transport seems to be rubbing your nose in it, you are never too far away from a major road, you pass under the motorway, you get overtaken regularly by trains, it’s a joy to overtake a barge and realise that maybe, just maybe, you aren’t the slowest thing on the canal.

Dave Norman (pictured above) wrote "Two hundred years ago the area was the heartbeat of Shropshire industry, where the hills around Ironbridge would resonate to the sound of pounding hammers. A couple of centuries later all we could hear was our own heartbeat in our ears and the pounding of our own feet as the fourth race in the sixth race series took place on a warm July evening. Shame about the earlier rain.

Despite rain for 85% of the day, I completed the Cross Wales Challenge. Starting at Glandyfi on the coast just below Machynlleth, the route crossed rough country and minor roads via the villages of Staylitle, Llandinam to check point at the Devils Elbow and part of the Kerry Ridgeway to end at the small village of Anchor in Shropshire.

The Challenge was incredibly well organised with a coach at 3am from Newtown to the mass start at 4am. Friendly marshals & helpers & well marked route. The breakfast at Staylittle restored energy & heat although difficult to eat as the rain, despite gloves had turned my hands to cold blocks. Shelter & lunch at Llandinam, before the 900 feet of climb to the plateau where you could hear the 40+ wind turbines but, only see them until almost underneath them due to the low cloud & mist.

Just recieved this from Farrah Hunter-Coley. Just shows, send info in to get it on the web.

"I am a runner with DK and have recently returned back to running after a few months off to have my little boy, who is now 12 weeks old. A few Sunday's ago (8th June) I did a race in Warwickshire called 'The Two Casltes' (twocastlesrun.org.uk), I dont know if you are familiar with it ? Anyway, as I was saying to John there was a significant lack of Midland club runners, so we were thinking of maybe putting something on the DK website to highlight the race OR infact me doing it. And maybe drum up a bit of interest for next year, just incase people havent heard of it, as its a fantastic 10K. With the view of maybe organising a coach trip in 2009 ????? Hope you dont mind me getting in touch. Just wanted people to know about the race, as I feel there would be a lot more interest in it from local clubs if they knew what a great 10k it is. I have attached a picture and will leave it up to your discretion."

After running the Potteries Marathon years ago, I cannot understand why anyone want to run around Stoke on Trent. Dave Wilkes being the exception returning again this year to compete the half marathon. (Photo by Bryan Dale)

Andy Richards travelled down to Devon to compete in one of his favourite ultra races, the Dartmoor Challenge. Just think of it, running a Marathon, and then setting off to do a 10k immediately after it. Andy finished 17th overall and 3rd in his age category with a time of 4 hours 28 minutes 21 seconds. Whilst we were basking in the sunshine, Andy endured terrible weather - hot then rain, sleet and lightening. Andy is pictured at the 28 mile mark.

Posn	Competitor	Time
14269	Su Fernandez	02:02:16
20487	Amanda Massey	02:12:49
20488	John Massey	02:12:49
22502	Flora Bianco	02:16:29
24525	Yvonne Talbot	02:20:33
28665	John Glover	02:30:03
28673	Beryl Glover	02:30:04
28675	Vicki Wilkes	02:30:04
28674	Rae Moorhouse	02:30:04
28682	Stephanie Andrews	02:30:05
28681	Julie Allen	02:30:05
28680	Helen Hickman	02:30:05
28679	Martin Humphries	02:30:05
28693	Andrew Moorhouse	02:30:06
28691	Sara Humphries	02:30:06
30456	Lucy Cambridge	02:35:26
32799	Seema Bhandari	02:45:58
35248	Mandy Tipper	03:04:41