Birtley Athletics Club. C2C+ Relay. June 25th/26th 2021

A relay is being organised for all Club members. The route will be from Whitehaven to Sunderland along the Sea to Sea (C2C) Cycle Path plus laps of the fields at Lord Lawson School, or if the school isn’t available we’ll detour to Chester le Street Riverside (C2C+). The idea of the relay is to encourage all Club members to participate in promoting the Club and to actively seek publicity for the event and therefore the Club.

The relay will start at 8:00pm on Friday 25th June and continue through the night until the finish at Roker Beach before (hopefully) 4:00pm Saturday 26th June.

There will be 24 legs on route, plus short legs at Lord Lawson or Chester le Street, with distances ranging from 2 miles to 11 miles and if you feel that 2 miles is too far then club members can still take part by completing a short leg, of 100m or above, at the school.

Hopefully a social night can held soon afterwards for all Club members/family and friends (venue to be confirmed). The event will require a large amount of organising and also help from as many people as possible i.e. cyclists to be with the runners, drivers for support vehicles, help at Lord Lawson School, and of course RUNNERS. We will need at least 2 mini buses and drivers, 6 cyclists to take it in turns from start to finish, 24 runners (although of course more than one runner can be on each leg).

Hopefully we can get local companies to sponsor towards the cost of the buses and also some event t shirts. We will also be asking members/parents/friends to raise sponsorship for Club funds and a local charity which will be confirmed. The Club has previously, successfully, done the event in 2008 and raised a large total for the Evening Chronicle Sunshine Fund. Everyone can take part in this unique event, (members/parents/guardians/friends) either as a runner on one of the relay legs or as a supporter. If you would like to take part please keep checking the face book page and/or web site, or if you need any further information send Tom a message or see him on Club training nights.

Further information.
For those who are considering taking part in the above event, I’ve detailed some further information below regarding the times that would have to be committed, i.e. pick up and drop off times.

Minibus A - Pick up from Birtley 5pm with 5 runners, 2 cyclists, 4 drivers/helpers
Minibus B - Pick up from Birtley 9:30pm with 4 runners, 2 cyclists, 2 drivers/helpers
Minibus A - Leaves Penrith approx 3:15am to return to Birtley approx 5:45am with runners, cyclists and helpers wishing to go home.
Minibus A - Pick up from Birtley 7:15am with 6 runners, 1 cyclist and driver to meet Minibus B at Rookhope
Minibus B - Leaves Rookhope approx 8:30am to return to Birtley and will then return to relay on route at approx Waskerley.
Buses will then follow runners and cyclists to Lord Lawson and Roker

So the first 5 runners on Minibus A have to commit to leaving Birtley at 5pm and returning 5:45am.
The next runners on Minibus B have to commit from 9:30pm to 9:30am.

As you can see, if the event is to go ahead then we need people who are willing to commit to the above times. At least 24 runners (although some are willing to do more than one leg), 6 cyclists, 4 drivers/helpers are needed for the whole of the relay.

There’s 6 weeks to go and to date there’s about 8 people who have offered to either run or help, although no one has committed to a particular leg or when they’re available to cycle or drive. There’s buses to book, hopefully t-shirts to organise and the route to be double checked, which need doing about 2 to 3 weeks before, therefore, unfortunately, if there’s not enough commitment in the next 3 weeks then to C2C+ relay will not be happening. The list of legs with times and distance is shown below, please message Tom (or email and it'll be passed on) if you’re available for any (especially Whitehaven to Rookhope). See this link for the route.