By Lewis Glover
The Derby Runner BDL summer season kicked off Tuesday evening, 16th of April at Teversal.
There was a great turnout of 379 runners from the combined clubs, including a couple of van loads comprising the 14 runners representing WRC.
The brief shower dampening proceedings an hour or so before the start had stopped, the sun was even threatening us now and again, and road shoes were dusted off to put to good use on the flat well surfaced trail.
As per the usual format at Teversal, the start was adjacent to the old railway platform, and finished beside the mine wheel in the visitor centre car park. The bit in between comprises a 4.65 mile loop along the trails mostly through woodland. Very few ‘pinch points’ and a lot of straight or nearly straight sections allow the pack to spread out well to fit with individuals own pace, and provide plenty of overtaking opportunities!
As expected from this particular route, times posted were fast. Peter Johnston had a great run leading the Wirksworth team home over the line, with Beth first of our ladies.
Results are posted on Webscorer and can be found here;
Wirksworth put in a really great performance including the following notable achievements;
Elaine and Helen came first and second in their age category respectively.
Beth finished in the top 12% of ladies overall and came seventh in her age category in the very competitive FS cat.
Peter Johnston was 64th man over the line, running the distance in under 30 minutes.
Eight of our team runners at Teversal this year also ran last year, and half of them beat their respective 2023 time!
So all in all a great first BDL outing this summer for Wirksworth, with events of the evening topped off with Kat’s delicious blueberry blondies!
The next event takes place at 7:30pm on Tuesday 7th May at Cromford (hosted by Matlock) and presentations will be made post run for the winter XC league.