On Sunday 28th February Kevin Conchar ran in the Great North West half marathon at Blackpool but he had tough conditions with strong gusts of wind on the figure of eight loop that meant he had only 5 miles with the wind at his back with the remainder impeding the runners which made the inclines seem steeper. Despite these difficulties Kevin was delighted to open his season with a time of 82.14 to come 22nd in a field of 1180 and despite it not being an ideal race it was a decent training run for his marathon debut next month in Paris.

Stephen Smith and Les Hill were at Maryport on Sunday, 28th February, for the Malcolm McDougall Netherhall 10 miles road race.
Conditions were perfect for running but the course is a tough hilly route so not conducive to fast times. Despite this Stephen had a very credible time of 58.46 and was 4th. Only 4 out of 104 entrants broke 60 minutes. Stephen's time at Brampton in November was 58.09 but with this race being on a hilly route and for most of the race he was unable to see those in front of him and with nobody close behind to push him on it makes his time very impressive. Les was 15th overall and first V50 in 66.45 and almost 2 minutes ahead of 2nd V50. The race was won in a record time by Ricky Lightfoot of Blackburn AC in 53.38. Second and third runners were both 54 minutes so you can understand why Stephen would have been running a time trial and not a race.

On 27th February Susan travelled down to Hampshire for her 3rd running of the Meon Valley Plod, a 20 mile cross country race with 2592 ft of ascent, organised by the Portsmouth Joggers, as part of her training plan for The Highland Fling.

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As some of you may know, a few of us have been doing some track sessions resulting in marked improvements in our results at various distances. It was discussed by the committee that it may benefit many more club members if there were some more formal track and hill sessions on a Thursday night at the David Keswick centre.

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On Saturday 19th February Marcus Scotney got his season off to an excellent start when he entered the Standish Hall trail 10k race close to Wigan. Despite missing several days of training after suffering from a chest infection that required antibiotics, Marcus was looking forward to testing himself on a popular race with a reputation for producing fast times. With underfoot conditions the worst they have been for several years with ankle and shin deep puddles in places, the two lap figure of eight course included a mixture of farm tracks, woodland trails and a quagmire field. At the end of the first lap Marcus was in third place in the field of 200 and he moved into the lead with 2 kilometres to go and maintained this fast pace to win in 37.06, seventeen seconds ahead of second place.

Sue Jeffrey has now received the Monday Night Trophy for the season 2010 announced at the annual dinner dance. This is awarded by the Monday night organisers to the runner who most epitomises the spirit of the Monday night group. Sue started running from scratch going out on a Monday night for short runs with the Monday group and it wasn't long before she asked Margaret and Susan to take her out on a Wednesday night for a few sessions, from there she progressed to longer runs on a Monday night. During the course of 2010 she has completed more that a few running firsts, 5 miles at Holywood Stroll, 10K at The Womens Run in Glasgow, then in September she took part in her very first ever trail race - the Blackwood 10k which even for regular trail runners was a toughie. A couple of weeks after that she made her way with Margaret Gray for company, round the Dumfries Half Marathon. Congratulations Sue.

This week marked the end of a significant chapter in the history of Dumfries Running Club as David McNaught retired after 31 years as a member of the club, most of which have been spent as treasurer. David has been a regular presence at Dumfries Sports Club at Nunholm and has worked tirelessly behind the scenes supporting and taking a great interest in the progress of individual and team performances. As one of the founder members of DRC he helped nurture the Dumfries Half marathon in its infancy through to its present prominence in the local race calendar and he has kept a careful eye on the finances of the race and of Dumfries Running Club. In order to mark his long association with the club he was presented with the Shiela Howat trophy for his hard work and dedication to running in Dumfries over the years.

On Sunday 13th February 17 DRC club members gathered at Frank Skachill’s house at Glenmidge to mark Valentines Day in the most obvious way- to go for off road training in the beautiful scenery of Nithsdale. With a choice of routes from 3 up to 11 miles over boggy ground saturated from hours of rain, this was the first chance for many to do longer off road runs in the past few months. It was agreed afterwards over hot drinks and refreshments that the day had been a real success and would help club members build up their stamina in preparation for races later in the season.

On Sunday 13th February Jo Zakrzewski produced a stunning performance in the New Orleans marathon. Jo translated her recent excellent form over shorter distances to the marathon distance when she won the race in a brilliant time of 2:47:24 (chip time). This knocks an amazing 14 minutes off her previous marathon PB and is the fastest marathon by a British woman in 2011.

The second of the new format 5K handicap races was held on Thursday 3rd February at the Crichton in very windy and wet conditions.

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While other club members recovered after their dance, 5 Dumfries Running Club members travelled to the Masters Cross country which was in Kirkcaldy last Saturday 5th February. The conditions were quite pleasant to start with, but the recent heavy rain had left the ground very muddy. The experienced cross country runners in the group did not find it too bad, but those less used to the terrain struggled with lack of grip and uneven ground. In the womens race Lisa Finlay felt quite strong during the run, but couldn't quite catch the runners in front, and finished 5th vet 40 in 25.44mins over the 6k course. She then stood in the cold and cheered on her club mates Les Hill, Sebastian Pflanz, Craig Malcolmson and Graeme Cross on their 8k run, which meant they went twice up the hill that Lisa only had to do once. The rain came on hard by the last mile, and in a close finish Sebastian nearly caught Graeme on the home strait, before Graeme spotted him and raced away to win by three seconds and finish in 74th place in 38.24. Les Hill got boxed in at the start and overtook runners all the way to finish in 101st place in 40.01 and Craig ran well to finish in 124th place in 41.22.

Dumfries Running Club awards for 2010 were made at the annual dinner dance on Friday 4th February. A full list of the award winners can be found here. Last Friday evening the running shoes were left at home as 103 family, friends and members of Dumfries Running Club squeezed into Dumfries Rugby club for the annual prize giving dinner dance. After an excellent three course dinner from the Green Tea House of Moniaive the prizes were given out and public recognition given to those who have excelled over the year.

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It was a gloomy Sunday morning when 4 teams from Dumfries running club headed up to Strathclyde Park to take part in the Scottish Veterans Relay race, which consisted of 3.66 mile laps around the loch.

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