GLOUCESTERSHIRE'S newest and most demanding off-road race, the Five Peaks Challenge took place last Wednesday.

It started from the Peak Academy on Drake Lane and is the brainchild of Race Director Graeme Hawkins.

Tthe course takes in some of Dursley’s most testing climbs, including Cam Peak, Cam Long Down, Uley Bury and Downham Hill, otherwise known as 'Smallpox Hill', rewarding runners with dramatic and expansive views of the surrounding countryside.

The race route is around 10.31 km long, but with 318 m of climb it is the equivalent of a category B fell race.  

The small field of 40 runners where fortunate to be greeted with an overcast evening and a brisk wind to ensure they remained cool over the demanding climbs.

However the slight drizzle served to make the descents slippery. With only a few of the runners being familiar with the hills many resorted to walking the hills to ensure they did not get any nasty surprises.

This did not stop the winner Gareth Green of Portobello Running Club finishing in a time of 44:54 to set the inaugural course record. Tom Sutherland who has been running with Dursley RC for a couple of weeks placed second. Hayden Smith was first DRC runner in and fifth overall. Simon Holdsworth was next in a first MV45, an impressive performance as he had run four of the Five Peak on club’s Tuesday night evening run. Margaret Johnson and Jan Short also won their respective age categories.  Kevin Proctor was the club’s Lanterne Rouge with an impressive run for a runner still in the early days of his running life.

Results: Haydn Smith, 5th (M) 51:17.6; Simon Holdsworth, 12th (1st  MV 45)55:20.0; Mouse Clutterbuck, 15th (MV 50) 57:57.7; Margaret Johnson, 19th (1stFV 45); 1:00:00.6; Jan Short, 24th (1st FV 55) 1:02:49.7; Kevin Proctor, 35th (MV 40) 1:11:19.9.

Hawkins thanked the Peak Academy saying: "They provided a great venue and an extremely warm welcome to all and helped make the first running of this event a real success.”

A number of Dursley athletes were also in action last Saturday where Richard Pitts competed in the Nottingham Triathlon Sprint qualifier for Worlds and European Triathlon Championships at the National Watersports Centre Nottingham.

Pitts described it as a 'a great venue' but complained that the weather was blowy. This did not stop him averaging over 23mph on the bike, having started with an impressive one minute per 100m pace in the swim, he then finished with a strong run.  

He was 18th out of 66 in 50-54 age group but is on tenterhooks as he missed automatic qualification by one place and four seconds He has another chance to qualify in his age category at  the Standard distance race in two weeks time.

Ten Dursley athletes were on the start line of the Chipping Sodbury Park Run on the same day, with the majority being from the 2015 Walk2Run intake, showing their new found enthusiasm. Dave Halford led the Dursley runners in finishing in 33rd in 23:52 at his first attempt.

On his 17th appearance, Paul Lewington was placed second for the club, just 11 seconds off his PB. 

Liz Halford made it a family one two in the senior category placing first Dursley woman. There was then a rush of personal bests with Claire Searle, Moira Woodward, Sally Williams, Emma Richards, Louise Beck and Sarah Kiddle all improving their times.

Again Dursley did well in the age categories with Woodward 1st FV60, Sarah Kiddle 2nd FV 45, Dave Halford 3rd MV40, and Beck 4th FV35. Three of Dursley’s Junior Athletics programme also ran with Luke Davis leading the way in 23:52, Jack Bevan some way off his PB in second and Thomas Woodman making his debut with a steady run of 29:49

Results: Dave Halford, 33rd, 23:52, (3rd, VM40-44); Paul Lewington, 54th, 25:36:00, (8th VM55-59);Liz Halford, 79th, 27:03:00, 12th , VW40-44; Claire Searle, 82nd, 27:09:00 (PB), (7th VW50-54); Moira Woodward, 86th, 27:20:00 (PB), (1st VW55-59); Caroline Whitlock, 114th, 29:38:00, (14th VW40-44); Sally Williams, 132, 30:36:00 (PB), (18th VW40-44); Emma Richards, 147th, 32:00:00 (PB), (9th, VW35-39); Louise Beck, 153rd, 32:34:00 (PB),(4th VW35-39); Sarah Kiddle, 158, 33:34:00 (PB), (2nd, VW45-49).

On the same day in Round two of the 2015 Might Contain Nuts Mountain Marathon Series  Kate Browning blew away her previous best over the Brecon Beacons course of just over 27 miles. Browning was 2nd lady in 5:00 hours, in 2014 it had taken almost 7 hours, the absence of snow storms and gale force winds clearly assisted. Dave Wood completed the 41 mile Ultra in 9 hours 32 minutes.

The weekend was then completed with the Bristol 10K with a host of Dursley Runners representing all levels of the club, from Rich Shirley, the European Duathlon athlete, through to the lesser known athletes, with Amanda Willey only having started running this year and putting a great effort to finish comfortably inside the hour.

Nicola Cowle was the club’s Lanterne Rouge, but improved her personal best by an awesome three minutes and raised over £1,000 for the Charity CLIC Sargent in the process.

Shirley was first in for the club but was a little off his early season form. Jonathan Kerry produced a good run to come in second in a time of just over forty eight minutes.

Nicola Evered worked hard to improve on her Berkeley 10K time by around two minutes, with Louise Biddle improving on her 2014 time by seven seconds, and Karen Eden another achieving a PB on the day.

Annette Heylings produced a good run of just over 58 minutes but did not get an official time and place as she forgot to wear her chip timing device.

Results: Richard Shirley, 262nd , 00:38:47; Jonathan Kerry, 1969th, 00:48:25; Antony Ball, 4189th, 00:54:49; Amanda Willey, 5876th, 00:59:10; Louise Biddell, 6064th, 00:59:39; Nicola Evered, 6153rd, 00:59:56; Karen Eadon, 7352nd, 01:04:27; Nicola Cowle, 7354th, 01:04:28 PB;

Previously Alice Lewis had spent her Bank Holiday Monday on the 25th May at the White Horse 5 mile race finishing in 37minutes and 38secs placing second woman and first FV55.