A DALE running club is offering women a safe way to exercise each week in Staindrop.
Membership of the 261 Club Teesdale is exclusively female and was formed two years ago by Jo Ferguson and Liz Sturley.
It is inspired by Katherine Switzer who defied the odds by being the first woman to complete the Boston Marathon on April 19, 1967. Her bib number was 261.
Dr Ferguson said: “We all start off with a proper warm-up. We do cardio-vascular work to get our heart rate up, some dynamic stretching to prepare our muscles, joints and tendons and then we do a run, we might do some games, some strength work, and then we do a cool down at the end as well.”
Currently the club has six active members and their ages range from 30 through to 70, but it is open to any woman over the age of 18.
A key part of the club’s success is the comaraderie that has grown among the women, with each going at their own pace.
Member Margaret Eastwood said: “That is the wonderful thing about it, obviously I am an older person and I don’t run as fast as some of the fitter ladies, so they will go off and loop round and then come back. Everybody is really considerate and kind.”
The weekly activities always start and finish at the Scarth Hall.
Dr Ferguson said: “We decide the route depending on what the weather is doing, how wet it has been, how we are feeling on the day and which way the wind is blowing because no one wants to run up a hill into the wind.
“It is wonderful because we have got all these footpaths and the roads as well. It is amazing how many different routes we put together.”
Member Zoe Gardiner added: “We don’t just run either – we do different exercises and we chat all the way through.”
To make events more entertaining, the club sometimes organise a themed run, with the most recent being a mini Easter egg run.
The club also held a Secret 3k event.
Dr Ferguson said: “Secret 3k is a charity where women can’t run because they don’t feel safe to or just not allowed to.
“But it is also celebrating how fortunate we are to be able to go out and run – there are women and men, even in this country, who for whatever reason cannot go out and run because they don’t feel safe or their culture doesn’t permit it. They are denied the freedom to go running.”
The comaraderie of the group was shown earlier this month when several members took part in Hamsterely Park Run.
Mrs Eastwood said: “I always wanted to do a Park Run and for whatever reason I wasn’t brave enough to do it on my own so these lovely ladies suggested we do Hamsterley and I loved it.”
Any women who is interested in joining the group can email 261club
The group sets off from Scarth Hall, Staindrop, every Friday at 5.30pm.
