Lights! Camera! Action!

Welcome back to another edition from your local Easingwold Running Club (ERC). For those of you with a sharp memory (and the patience to have read to the end of my article in July), I

shamelessly advertised Millfields. In light of that and pardon the pun, the lights are now up and fully working. Got to be honest, I never look forward to when the clocks go back. An extra hour of rest and recuperation is never going to make up for additional hours of darkness. However, timed to perfection, the lights around the track in the park are in place for us all to use.

A long time in the making, consulting with the local community, raising funds and gaining

support, the lights are in. To mark the occasion, on Thursday 23 rd October, ERC gathered for the usual Thursday club night, with everyone heading to the park and the start line to witness the grand switch on! In all, 81 club members turned out to support, which is an incredible number, especially considering the pretty awful weather earlier in the day.

Colin Fletcher (ERC Chair) started proceedings and thanked everyone for their support. One of the main driving forces behind the project, this was a brilliant moment for Colin to see this to completion. Pete Nottage (Easingwold Town Council Chair) then took over and thanked all those who had played a part in the project. There was a special mention to Chris “Jacko” Jackson and his tireless efforts working in the park over the years. Whenever there was a job to be done, Jacko was always there. He sadly passed away last year and we all know he’d have been delighted to see everyone, marking the end of another chapter in the history of the park.

The night was marked in special memory of Karen Newton. Karen died earlier this year from

cancer. She was a wonderful part of our club and will be sadly missed. With her husband John and daughters Amy and Lucy for the event, everyone there to participate set off to run, jog or walk as many laps of the track as possible in 60 minutes. Hazarding a guess (or a very badly calculated total in my case), people donated £5 a pop to predict the amount of laps that would be run by the club that night. All money raised that night will be donated to MacMillan Cancer Support in memory of Karen. 1,322 laps later and over £640 raised, we were done. A great night, a super amount raised for charity and now, a wonderful new addition to your local park!

If you’re reading this and fancy coming to see what’s on offer at the club, visit our website at

www.easingwoldrunningclub.co.uk/ - it would be great to see you!

Rich Freeman, Publicity Secretary