The Mile is a nice distance, whether you treat it as a long sprint or a short Parkrun. It is something that can benefit most and does not take up too much time to complete. With many of us traveling to South Shields for Monthly Miles (and some to London for Ealing Miles) we really needed something more local to practice on.

The very first 'trial' took place on Tuesday 25th February 2020 at 6pm. Following this trial, it was decided to run these sessions on an adhoc basis, on days and times to suit as many as possible, being mindful of seasonal changes and work patterns.

Dave Kitching then re-measured the course (3 times) with his wheel, to establish an accurate 1 Mile (1,609.344m) and we found the first trial had been 5.5m too long. Adjustments were made and the Blyth Mile was born.

The first Blyth Mile with Dave’s markings took place on Sunday 8th March 2020 at 10am and the previous trial night results were altered by 1 second to account for the extra 5.5m. The Mile sessions were now set to full steam ahead, but then the Pandemic hit and the entire Country went into lock down(s)

The beauty of this project was the flexibility and how we were able to navigate round and work with many of the safety aspects of lock downs by implementing social distance and Covid safe heats 30 minutes apart with a maximum of 3 runners per heat. We ran these with several heats over the weekends using early Saturday and Sunday mornings and Saturday evenings to avoid busy times on what was now a very popular destination for crucial lockdown exercise for many.

Sadly, Dave did not make it through 2020 and after attending every session up to his passing, showing absolute dedication and enthusiasm for this project and leaving his start and finish markings with us, it was given the official name of 'DK MILE'