THE weekend’s competitive running kicked off for Dursley Running Club at the ARC South West Chilly Relays at Castle Coombe.

A team of four Dursley RC athletes included team captain Nigel Sankey along with Garry Strickland, Jadie Cotterell and James Price and lined up on damp cold grey Saturday morning.

Sankey described the conditions as ideal for running but not for waiting for a baton exchange.

On the first leg, Price exploded off the start line and then had to work hard to maintain his pace.

However, Price had put DRC in the hunt for a good place.

Price’s effort was followed by two well-paced runs by Strickland and Cotterell, sandwiched between these was a super smooth baton exchange. A slightly more rustic handover saw Sankey take the baton from Cotterell to lead the team home 45 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor in the mixed category, winning the event in a time of one hour 36:03mins, a fine morning’s work for the team.

Slightly different conditions greeted the twelve Dursley RC participants in the Doynton Hard Half Marathon.

It is a tough race in good conditions, with a leg sapping climb up the Cotswold escarpment to start, mud and more hills to finish.

Add on torrential rain overnight, a strong bitingly cold easterly wind and more rain during the event and the event became a significant challenge.

The mud was leg sapping Shona Darley reported: “The mud was over a foot deep and claggy for most of the race.”

A number of streams had turned into rivers some waist deep.

Mathew Read came a cropper crossing one ford and went in for an impromptu swim, fortunately this was towards the final section, and he was revelling in the conditions.

DRC were led home by Mike Crompton placing a creditable eighth overall out of three.

He was disappointed with his performance but as with all the runners who completed the event, once recovered, will benefit from the effort put in to overcome the challenging conditions and course.

As ever DRC were well represented in the age categories with Jim Moss fifth M60-69 and Crompton and Alice Lewis both seventh in their categories, all the DRC runners put in great efforts in very tough conditions.

Results: Mike Compton 8th (7th SenM) 01:42:39; Matthew Read 41st (23rd SenM) 01:59:16; Andy Probert 144th (15th M50-59) 02:21:07; Alice Lewis 158th (7th F50-59) 02:25:14; Shona Darley 179th (12th F40-49) 02:28:49; ; Caroline Jones 185th (13th F40-49) 02:30:45; Rachel Brown 190th (15th F40-49) 02:32:01; Imogen Testa 209th (16th F40-49) 02:36:01; Jim Moss 254th (5thM60-69) 02:46:28; Julie Froggatt 310th (16th F50-59) 02:55:16; Kevin Brockway 311th (40th M50-59) 02:55:16.

Another DRC runner facing a stiff challenge over the last week was Kate Browning.

A frequent ultra runner and well on her way to running one hundred marathons, Browning is no stranger to the gruelling mental and physical challenges of distance running.

Last weekend, she started the Spine, the ultra-race along the Pennine Way.

Weather conditions deteriorated soon after the start and by January 11, Browning posted that “everyone has been pulled off the course due to unprecedented adverse weather conditions”.

Browning developed a leg infection and battled on until January 15, retiring at Middleton having completed 150.32 miles in 79 hours one minute 55 seconds.

An awesome achievement in its own right.

The women’s race was won by Carol Morgan of Ireland, in 130 hours 37mins 22secs with Czech Pavel Paloncy winning the men’s race in 109 hours 50mins 22secs.

At parkrun, Ian Cole was first home at Kingsway and fastest for the club in 22:30mins over the weekends parkruns. Kris Rymer was first home for Dursley RC at Wotton parkrun in 23:24mins.

Veronica Higgins was first DRC Woman home at Kingsway and topped the DRC Age grading’s for the weekend, whilst Sam Martin , returning to some form after a long injury layoff, was first DRC woman home at Wotton. Running at Kingsway Carly Heath achieved a parkrun PB.