Chris Wright

Summertime means mid-week races - on top of weekend events!! What this means in practice is that I don't train much in the Summer, I just go to races! Following the Darlington 10k on the Wednesday, there was the CLOK evening event at Silton Woods on the Thursday (6 July), a 3 hour Bike-O from Lordstones between Carlton Bank and Cringle Moor on the Saturday, then the CLOK Team Score event at Catterick on the Sunday, and the Gribdale Gallop on the following Tuesday (11 July)! The Silton event went OK, apart from a giant banana route early on, where I crossed an overgrown ride, and did a big loop back when the map didn't fit!! My Bike-O route was partly determined by the strong winds, but also by the possibilities of some big climbs! I took a westerly loop, finishing by climbing over the length of Cold Moor and traversing the face of Cringle Moor. Given that I was 3rd Vet, it must have been a reasoonable route, and made it back with 1 1/2 minutes to spare. The team score at Catter...

Always keen to try something different, I opted for the Darlington Harriers Pitstop 10km rather than the New Marske Harriers Coast Road 5km on Wednesday 5 July 2006. Rather than 2 times round a loop on the Stray at Redcar, the Pitstop 1okm was 3 (and a bit) times round the Croft Motor Racing circuit near Darlington. Flat, fast, no sharp bends - no breeze - high temperatures! I got there early, as my number had failed to arrive in the post. I was allocated '129' and looked forward to a good field. Unfortunately, I later learned that the organisers had started at '100', and the total field ended up about 50! I managed to get a decent warm up, and had a reasonable fast start. The first few shot off into the distance, and I settled into a good rhythm alongside a young lad from Newton Aycliffe. After about 4km, he started to struggle a little, and would drop 5m behind, only to battle his way alongside again - and again - and again - and again!! Was I ever going to break him...

I think somebody at the Nunnington Hall National Trust property must have very good contacts! In the attic of the main house are a corridor and a couple of rooms which they use for art exhibitions. And what good stuff they get! In the last 2 or 3 years they have had the wildlife artist Andrew Hutchinson (who was at school with my sister in Guisborough), Gerald Scarf and Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood. After trouble with the Sunday traffic on 2 July, we ran out of time to get to our planned destination, so stopped off at Nunnington Hall instead. Being National Trust members means it doesn't cost to get in, so we don't feel we need to get 'value for money' from a visit. Instead, we visit 3 or 4 times a year for relatively short visits (usually including the tea room!!) The exhibition on that day was photographs of His Bobness (Bob Dylan) from the 1960's - the first time it had been shown outside London! Some good shots, but some of the price tags were, well, expensive! I m...