Chairman’s Chat
Hi All,
My run-down for this week starts with Steve Hamil who raced the Swansea Half Marathon in the MV50 England vest on Sunday. Its an incredible feat to be asked to represent your country ever, but this honour has been bestowed on Steve more than once now. It isn’t a fluke either – Steve’s incredibly consistent commitment to training and his thirst for racing is second to none – its really paying off for him. Well done Steve, the club is very proud of you.
I won’t dwell too much on the huge success of our Parkrun Takeover at the weekend, given that I’ve already mentioned this at length in a previous post. So its just a quick one to congratulate and thank all those who took part once more. There were a lot of impressive performances that haven’t gone unnoticed, we are in a very healthy place in racing and competition terms.
A few formal issues that I’d like to bring to your attention:
- Kit – Its clear from the previous poll that there is enough appetite for us to put in a bulk order of race vests. I’ll therefore put on a new poll with vests/sizes. Just put your name against whatever you want. The poll will be open for one week until Wednesday 17th. We will then request a Spond payment from anyone who has put their name down. You will have a week to make the payment and the order will be placed on 24th June. This is a one time offer, so if you want a vest get in there quickly! You can also take a look at all the great kit on offer next week (16th) at the Kit & Bake sale (remember your pennies for a cake, we’ve got loads of kind people baking!).
- Female club records – A few people have mentioned that the website is currently lacking any mention of female club records. This is because neither Scott nor I had any records! You are absolutely right to point it out though and it needs addressing. John Nash is doing a great job at pulling these together with the help of a few others, so we hope to have these updated soon, please bear with us!
- New Member Document – This is now complete, and I’ll share this separately so that it doesn’t get lost. Essentially its a very useful guide for any new members to tell them about what is on offer at the club. Thanks a lot to Steph Hall-Barron for creating this
A special mention and congratulations to club stalwarts Cian and Lizzie who hosted what I hear was a fantastic party on Friday night, celebrating their engagement. Cian did really well to run the 8K Durham parkrun on Saturday, on the new zig-zag route – sponsored by Morretti! On a serious note, we’re all very happy for you – you make a great couple guys – The Posh n’ Becks of DCH!
A final note to say a huge well done to Christine Woods (senior) and Elsa Bassett (junior) who, this week, were awarded this year’s brand new “Coaches Bursary Award”. The club have essentially offered to pay for Christine and Elsa’s entry into the Durham City 5K for showing an excellent community spirit, sense of personal improvement and a commitment to their running. These qualities were picked as the criteria for the awards as it is in memory of Gill Goss, who had these things in abundance.
It is testament to both Christine and Elsa’s character, that when the offer was put to them, they instead elected to donate their money to the Breast Cancer Now charity, who the club are supporting this year in memory of Gill. This reinforces the fact that they deserve the award, and that they are true “club people”. What a spirit we have in this club, its excellent to see!
That’s all from me for now. Good luck to everyone competing/running this week
Best wishes
Matt
