THE club presentation evening was held last Saturday evening, but that did not deter many who attended, rising early to prepare and run in the popular Muddy Boots 10K in Ripon.

This was the club's first Championship race of the season and conditions were good considering the amount of rainfall the previous two days. Eleven Bedale runners were in the sold out event, enthusiastically cheered on by their supporters.

Leading the Bedale contingent home was Chris Lees in 35th overall out of the 421 finishers, in a time of 44-19. This after collecting the runner-up prize for the 2018 male championship, and so taking an early lead in the 2019 competition. Less than a minute later Paul Simpson finished in 44th in a time of 45-10, followed closely by Ben Smith in 51st and 46-01. These three were placed 6th out of 26 in the team results.

Nicola Simpson, 66th overall in 47-04, and 3rd out of 75 in her age category, led the women home continuing her winning form from the 2018 championship into this year. Rebecca Smith finished 98th overall in 49-21, and 3rd in her age category. This was an incredible run smashing Rebecca's personal best time by over 3 minutes, even on this challenging course. The women's team was completed by Jennifer Wilkin placed 355th in 68-01. This gave the team 9th place out of 25.

Kev Gaskill in his first run for the club finished 105th in 49-28, Raymond Lightle was 147th in 53-36, Alex McNairn 153rd in 53-48 and Chris Appleton 358th in 68-15.

Paul Bainbridge was running his first 10K after an 8 month lay off with an Achilles injury. He was pleased to finish feeling strong in 137th in 52-56, and to his great surprise and delight that was good enough to take 1st place prize in the M70 age category.

Meanwhile two members had travelled to the North East coast, to compete in the Hardmoors Saltburn Marathon. This ended up as 28.2 miles of mixed terrain, with very muddy coastal and woodland paths, wet and boggy moorland, and dry hard trails and roads. The views were stunning on the clear day, taking in the cliff paths of the Cleveland Way, local villages and Guisborough Woods, with over 4000ft of elevation. Stuart Black had won the club's Outstanding Achievement Award the evening before, but he and training pal Lena Conlin ran together to finish in a very respectable time of 6 hours 12 minutes.

The Parkrun at Catterick last Saturday morning attracted 14 Bedale and Aiskew Runners in very windy conditions, with the highlights being all time personal bests from Beth Grayson (28-00) and Alison Barron (28-10) for the 5K distance.

Presentation evening report next week.