Last Saturday, the Hardmoors 55 took place in fine spring weather, if anything, a tad too warm for long distance running. The race starts in Guisborough and follows the Cleveland Way to Helmsley. Apart from the daunting task of running 55 miles, the route incorporates nearly 8,000 feet of climb taking in such landmarks as Roseberry Topping, Captain Cook’s Monument and the Wainstones. To excel in a race like this takes a huge amount of training and Ryan Gaughan certainly excelled with his stupendous time of 7 hours 58 minutes placing him 2nd overall out of 270 finishers. He was justifiably pleased to be 21 minutes quicker than last year. Nick Outram also put in an excellent performance smashing his target of 12 hours by crossing the finish line in 11 hours 1 minute which placed him 50th overall. He appreciated the support from Erin Outram who ran the last 10 miles with him. To put these achievements into perspective, the last runner took over 16 hours and 30 runners didn’t make it to the finish line. Congratulations to Ryan and Nick.

Tom Pilley took part in The Star Backyard, near Guildford in Surrey. This was a lapped challenge. Tom did brilliantly to complete 6 laps, totalling 18.8 miles and 2,300 feet of climb, in 2 hours 48 minutes.

The annual Thirsk 10 mile race took place on Sunday. First back for Pickering was Simon Jones in 1 hour 5 minutes, which placed him 91st out of 836 finishers and he was followed by Richard Robinson in 1 hour 7 minutes. Paul Simpson’s time of 1 hour 9 minutes was a course personal best by 3 minutes. Next to cross the finish line was Paul Hickman in 1 hour 17 minutes followed by Serena Partridge in 1 hour 22 minutes.
In her first outing for PRC, Mandy Hepton finished in 1 hour 32 minutes and also new to PRC, Julie Heyes finished in 1 hour 36 minutes. They were followed by Heather Riley in 1 hour 57 minutes.