Chairman’s Chat
Hi all,
There’s been a huge amount going on in the world of DCH in terms of running/racing/competing and it’s impossible to catch it all here. Just a few things that have caught my eye though:
- A fantastic NEYDL triple jump record by Eve Hollowbread.
- All of our training groups well represented at the Great North 10k.
- Loads of our juniors winning their respective events at the School District Championships.
- Parkrun PBs from our Junior Hawks and Eagles (Will H, Freddie H, Freddie G).
- George McKay and Joanne Slane completing an incredible feat of staying power in the Endure 24 hour race (55 miles and 75 miles respectively).
- An awesome turnout at Durham parkrun from those DCH athletes competing for our internal Grand Prix Championship led by the wonderful Femke!
These highlights are just the tip of the iceberg of what’s going on. They epitomise what we are striving for in this club: mass participation, being our best selves, pushing hard to improve our own performance and putting DCH on the map, all while enjoying the social and fitness aspects of our sport.
In other news:
Presentation Nights Yes, that’s right, “nights”! This year we’re going to have 2 separate presentation events – one for juniors, another for seniors. Specific details to follow soon but, as a heads up, we’ll be reverting to the usual time of year for awards following the overwhelming majority of votes in favour. So it’ll be (roughly) September for juniors and (roughly) October for seniors.
Communications Hopefully you’re noticing a good level of communication of club messages and achievements. That’s largely due to Steph Hall-Barron’s work over the last few months. Unfortunately, Steph needs to take a step back from this role but the foundations she has established mean that going forward we will still be on a good footing. If you’d like to let us know about anything that you would like to be promoted via our social media channels and across the wider club, please contact me with your stories and pics and I’ll progress them. If I don’t hear about it I can’t share the news and I don’t always have time to trawl through results – so don’t be shy!
Cross Country It’s a little way off yet but September will soon be upon us! This year I want to see an army of orange on the start line for these races! There’s such a high energy about the club at the minute which we can channel into the Harrier League to achieve great success. I’ll say more about this in the coming weeks. Cross Country Captain Phil Tickner will be driving the ship forward once again! Early plans to build momentum and confidence include:
- A Spond sub group set up specifically for all communications so that everything is in one place and you know what’s on offer at a glance
- Additional weekend training sessions at Aykley Heads for anyone wanting specific training or simply to get a sense of what cross-country’s all about.
Unfilled Club Roles We are still hoping for one or two people to step forward to be Run Leaders and we are still short of a Road Race Captain. It will really limit our ability to grow and compete as a club if we don’t have a solid enough infrastructure to support everybody who wants to run, so please do consider it if you can. Those who are already doing a lot can’t do any more!
Seaside Social Run I’ll pop an invite out soon to all club members, but we are hoping to arrange a seaside Saturday or Sunday social run soon. It will be from Roker, up the coast a bit, then back. The best bit though? Cafe stop afterwards! Purely a slow social run, catering for all paces. Will send some details once arrangements are finalised
All the best
Matt
