On Sunday, September 28, which was a beautiful sunny day, four local runners took part in the annual Dale 10k and Half-Marathon races.
Lana Brace, Tracy Scotcher and Richard Graham all took part in the 10k race, with Nicky Rees taking part in the half-marathon race.
Dale is notorious for being one of the hardest 10k/half-marathon runs that a runner can participate in and all four were a little nervous before the race, especially when they saw the gradient of the very first hill that they had to tackle; in all fairness to the four runners, it looked like the south face of Everest.
The half-marathon started first at 11 am, with the 10k at 11.15 am, and a very large crowd had gathered to watch the start. First to go was Nicky, then 15 minutes later off went Lana, Tracy and Richard. All four set off amid very loud cheers from the massive support crew that had travelled to Dale with them.
All ran beautifully and the support crew and large crowd were on hand to give them a very loud warm welcome as they crossed the finishing line. All finished in excellent times and it was soon noticed that Richard had actually finished 10th overall in the 10k race, with Lana coming third overall in the female category and first in the over 35 female category, which everyone agreed was a great achievement.
A presentation was made later that afternoon, which gave the support crew enough time for a pint to wet their whistle so that they could give Lana a very large cheer as she went up to collect her prize.
Well done to all four runners and to the organisers of the Dale runs for holding such a professional event.