Blue Runnings

Race Reviews, GPX files and more from North-East England

Nov 30

by Sarah J.

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Hello! Welcome to Blue Runnings.

I have run races between 5k and half marathon, predominantly around the North-East of England and over a mix of terrains. I prefer trail and coastal runs, but you’ll also spot me at a few road runs if the setting’s right! If you’re looking for reviews of a particular race, please check the link below (or on the right) for a full list of races I have participated in and reviewed since 2015.

Race Reviews

I think it’s really important to publicise that while it can be helpful for motivation to have a race or two booked into the calendar, it does not need to cost a fortune to attend them and nor do they have to be large busy events involving road closures and tens of thousands of people. If you want to see the non-exhaustive list of North-East races I’ve found with an entry fee of £10 or below, check out the latest Races Under a Tenner link in the menu.

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If you want to keep in the loop regarding my day to day health adventures, you’ll find all my updates with my non-race mishaps, adventures and observations under the blog page on the menu.

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Please get in touch either through the comments or the contact form if you’ve got any questions or feedback, I’d love to hear from you.

Sarah

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Apr 30

And It All Went Downhill From There… Washington Trail 5k

by Sarah J.

I would like to start by saying the described series of poor decisions and unfortunate events to follow are in no way representative of the race organisers, the race marshalls, the hosting facilities, or anyone other than myself and my own foolishness, with the inevitable consequences of such.

My sister and I have been working through a Garmin Couch to 5k plan with Jeff Galloway since December last year. The end delayed somewhat by various infections and viruses. We booked the Washington Trail 5k as our culminating event, as I’ve done the 10k several times and enjoyed it. Fen and I have gone somewhat off Jeff as his belief in you to complete the event seems to decrease with time even if you weren’t due and therefore haven’t missed a workout in between. This is not exactly good for morale, but I will cover the plan separately to this. It is mentioned here only as a stage-setter (and a grumble).

Jeff’s confidence 2 days before the race – which dropped to yellow again the day before!

I have also, after a history of bursitis in the knees and more recently athlete’s foot (despite not being an athlete – you don’t come here for clean and shiny do you?!), been working on improving my very flat arches and general foot strength by going around barefoot in the house and also recently purchasing some minimal trainers. I’ve only worn these once or twice on short drill sessions and know I haven’t quite got my gait right yet for faster than walking around: hello heel impact!

Decision 1 – Race Day Footwear:

With my prolonged time off work (more here if you’re interested), I seem to be ahead of the barefoot curve and have found wearing my normal trainers – for walking or running – has been giving me knee and calf pain. Ditto for my trail shoes with a blister on the heel from too-short socks. Going in for 5k in my new shoes seemed like a recipe for posture problems, but I have done 5k before (Chopwell parkrun) in my hiking sandals previously without any issues. My memory of the Washington 10k (last run in 2018), was of gravel tracks, fields and woodland stretches – but not all that different to Chopwell. So. Sandals it is.

Decision 2 – Further Race Day Footwear, or Not:

We arrived at St. Robert’s in Washington (as a hosting venue, this was excellent!) for race number collection, and outside was a demo station for Scott trail shoes. Fen had only brought one pair of trainers with her – she has road-runners – so borrowing a pair would allow her to a) try out some fancypants trail shoes and b) have dry trainers for the drive home. The first niggle: should I also get some trail shoes? It’s wet out and my feet might freeze…but I haven’t bought any socks with me, so I’ll probably get blisters again, and no-one will want to wear them again after I’ve had bare feet in them. No, we’ll stick with the sandals.

Mile 1:

We headed off to the starting area for the launching of the 5k runners, starting at the back because we knew we were going to be walking stretches of it and some areas can be narrow. Initially, all went to plan: we headed off down the road to the aid station and the bridge across the river without hiccup. We made it up the first incline along the road and took the stile into the first of the woodland stages. All well so far, a little muddy but passable, we’re keeping tucked into the left as the faster 10k runners come past us. Everyone obviously having a wonderful day out in the mizzle.

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Mar 24

In My Head and On My Toes

by Sarah J.

I’ve spent an unnecessary amount of time this week thinking about my feet. I guess it’s not really surprising as I’m increasing my time spent on them, but for various reasons I have spent quite a lot of time considering them.

I’ve been back on my drill sessions this week, with a few foot twinges afterwards. I used to have high arches to my feet, but over the last few years for reasons likely relating to inactivity and weight gain I am now almost completely flat footed. My shoe size has also increased by about half a size so my feet are clearly now more like splayed frog flippers, except that unlike a frog I am a poor swimmer.

This does not bode well for someone who wants to up their time on their feet again: I read somewhere the army does not take people with flat feet as they’re unable to do long marches without injury due to the reduced springing of the foot (this is an unaccredited snippet of info and I will not vouch for its accuracy!). Medical websites suggest it improves in children, but is normally permanent in adults, other sites suggest you buy the seller’s shoes or insoles which ‘may give some improvement’.

I’m not sure about the reversibility of flat feet – whether its just that without work they won’t reverse and few people put the work in, or if it genuinely is something you can’t get back, but by deciding not to research further and therefore be proven wrong I have decided the arch is formed by a muscle and therefore I should be able to train something back. I haven’t yet figured out a good way to take feet-prints to chart my progress but I shall continue to give this some thought.

I’m making a conscious but unstructured effort to wiggle things – stand on tiptoes and heels (good for improving balance if nothing else), lift alternating big toe then other toes, smoosh feet against the floor into the shape I feel they should be and hope they magically remember. We’ll see if it does anything over the next few months. If nothing else, stronger flat feet should be less prone to pain and injury than floppy flat feet right?!

The splaying of my feet has become particularly obvious to me this week with the discovery that despite being about as far from athletic as one can be at the moment, I also have athlete’s foot which has resulted in a lovely split between my middle and ‘ring’ toes on one foot. So as well as spending a lot of time thinking about feet this week, I also get to spend extra time washing them and smearing anti-fungals about. This is a very sad time for a long-term sock lover.

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Mar 18

Couch to 5k: Picking Back Up After Break #2

by Sarah J.

I have been off work since about the start of November 2023 with long COVID/post-viral fatigue. There are two elements to this for me: physical fatigue, and mental/social fatigue. The enforced rest period has allowed me to make improvements in the physical element and begin to slowly, slowly improve my fitness again and start to feel like I’m regaining my personal identity.

I started with very short and slow walks (10 mins) on flat areas only around my house, and when feeling better began looking at doing a couch to 5k program. I’ve had no luck with these previously as I usually stuck it out until about week two if lucky and then got distracted by something else.

One of the things I’ve found helps with the long COVID and my mental well-being while off work (it’s not actually fun being in the house unable to do much for weeks or months on end, great though it sounds when you’re healthy!) is having a routine of small things. I get up at 6am to see my husband Peter off to work, and go back to bed with the cat until about 8am. For the first few months I needed to sleep for this period, but later I’ve found reading to be enough: it makes me feel like I’ve had a rest and risen when I want to rather than need to for other obligations and sets me up well for the day.

I determine in the morning what I want or need to achieve that day, limiting this to ideally 1-2 things with anything else being an optional bonus, and usually do them in the morning as this is when I feel most active. Naps frequently featured in my afternoons for quite a while until my fatigue improved enough to no longer need them.

I don’t like taking lots of equipment out with me when I’m exercising, so the prospect of a couch to 5k program I could have on my watch and not being required to take my phone with me was appealing. It turns out Garmin have at least three options for beginner to 5k programs on their Connect site, and one of them was by Jeff Galloway and features quite a lot of walking: perfect for someone who’s just about starting to walk at a normal human speed!

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Mar 11

That’s Life!

by Sarah J.

I haven’t posted anything since 2020 (until yesterday’s updated Races Under a Tenner 2024) – what gives? Did I suddenly fall out of love with running?

No. I was still running in 2020, but working on site through COVID lockdown and an assortment of other perfect storm scenarios meant I had time off work for stress in the summer of 2021, left my job with burnout after more than ten years in December of that year, and moved to a new type of work, a new industry and all that goes with that.

In 2022 I had COVID twice, and the second time I was soon after diagnosed with a vitamin D deficiency and post-viral fatigue – essentially, Long COVID (Post-COVID if you’re medical but I shall continue with the colloquialism from here!). I spent 18 months trying to manage my work to allow me to rest – working from home a lot, having short naps on the sofa with the cat as needed, and limiting my activity when I felt tired (which was a lot).

The work juggling wasn’t working for sustaining improvements, and in many ways my fatigue became more sensitive because I was losing fitness too. It felt like a perpetuating cycle where all my energy went into work as that’s what I felt a personal responsibility to attend to, and I compromised my own needs on a daily basis. The rest I was getting was enough only to allow me to work again.

I’d known a few people who’d had Long COVID more in the midst of the pandemic. They’d had a few months off work, completed gentle phased returns and duty modifications as needed and were, to an external perspective at least, back to enjoying their lives. I have now been off work since November 2023 in the hopes of the same outcome.

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Oct 6

The Reading Nook: Finding Ultra

by Sarah J.

Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World’s Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself – Rich Roll

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In a nutshell:

Rich Roll has had something of a rollercoaster of a life. High school misfit becomes dedicated competition swimmer, goes to college, learns to fit in and gain popularity with alcohol as a coping mechanism and ends up an alcoholic through college and into work as a lawyer. Failed marriage leads to rehab, where he finally feels ready to tackle his addiction and comes clean. Meets lovely lady, starts family, builds home, launches own law firm, life is dandy and comfortable. Too comfortable. Unfit and overweight – mid-life crisis moment hits knowing early cardiac death is on the cards. Cleans up eating, dons trainers and mounts bicycle, starts swimming again. Ironman ambitions; finds coach – trains for Ultraman and finishes with massively unexpected times. Finds eating plan and exercise lifestyle that works for him. The world of ultra-distance triathlons follows…

The structure of the book itself is written in an autobiographical sense for the first half, and then has appendices addressing what I guess are a regular barrage of frequent questions mostly relating to how the ‘PlantPowered’ athlete has used his diet to get to where he is now.

From my brain:

There is very clearly a huge amount of dedication involved in RR’s journey to his current self. Unsurprisingly many pro athletes have a real drive for improved performance and a strong commitment over huge periods of time to rigid and I suspect not always enjoyable training programs. I often find myself incredibly jealous of their passion. Many are able to fit training for top-level sport alongside a full time job and a family life in a way the rest of us cannot imagine juggling. Clearly, it’s possible with enough commitment, and possibly an occasional blind eye to a full night’s sleep and the chocolate in the fridge but I confess I personally lack the drive and the willpower! Might be a contributing factor in my not being a competition level runner…

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May 9

Best Laid Plans

by Sarah J.

“Hello! Can you come and pick me up from the Burnopfield parking and bring two carrier bags please?”

“What type of carrier bags?”

“Plastic – I found a new bog and I’m very muddy and smell bad.”

“Ok, see you in five.”

My hubby is a blessedly tolerant man – especially when his wife insists on tracking half the countryside through the car and house on a not infrequent basis, and he doesn’t run himself!

Last week was the Greener Miles Team Virtual Hill Climb Challenge – 10 runners, 5M + 5F, 30 mins, how much cumulative elevation can you get. I chose Ebchester bank, hilled my little heart out, waved the Bounders flag and died for the rest of the week. We came 8th out of 37 teams – very respectable I feel and I’m proud to have been part of it. 🙂

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This weekend, it’s the ‘Hutchy’s Full Tilt 30 Mins’ – same team set up, how far can you go, highest cumulative distance wins – so terrain friendly routes on the list! This time the Bounders have a whopping five teams entered. Some people are heading to the local track, down the Derwent walk, anywhere that’s flat or downhill! In my wisdom, I decided I would do a new route I’d worked out from an Ordnance Survey map of the area. I honestly don’t know why I didn’t run down the Dene (where I always get my fastest mile) and down the Derwent Walk towards Rowlands Gill, but in all honesty it didn’t occur to me! Brain must still be fuddled from last week – I know it wiped my knees out!

My new route is not complicated. On paper. And I’m not usually bad with maps. Today is going a long way to discrediting that statement. I went off piste three times from my intended route – in all cases knowing where I was, how to get home – not technically ‘lost’ but definitely not where I’d intended to be!

The first long downhill stretch of my run is one I have done several times before as part of routes in both directions – so off we go. Someone has shut all the gates so I’m handicapped by six stiles needing to be crossed by the time I reach the bottom. Looking at my decided outfit it may also have been a style handicap as I don’t think I could have picked more clashing colours if I tried! Think I’m only missing purple!

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I know I have to turn right at the bottom before the farm and then the path will turn left. Turns out there’s two right turns. I want the second one. Who knew right? So, I end up continuing on familiar paths thinking maybe there’s a left turn I’ve just not noticed before (there’s not) and get to the bottom where the stream is and turn left on a path I’ve been meaning to explore for a while, even though I know from the maps that it heads to Dipton – uphill – and not the way I want to go today.

I end up stepping-stone jumping across the stream (we’re about halfway through our 30 mins by this point) and the track starts to creep up again. It’s turning into a Trail Outlaws type route – I’m dodging collapsed tree roots and jumping several other downed trunks. There is for some reason several more of those weird lettered headstones I’ve seen over Ebchester Woods in the middle of this little wood (with a ‘P’ on this time!). I end up looking out at this and know exactly where I’ve come out from the Red Kite Trail Race two years ago. That path goes to Dipton – not, as mentioned before, where I want to be going today.

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I turn left, maybe there’s a path that turns off towards Burnopfield round that bend? There’s not – and being at the bottom of a valley is not the best place to be trying to do a speed challenge as it’s all uphill from here. I turn round thinking I’ll just start my 30 mins again when I get back to the farm and find the right downwards path – I have confirmed my error as I’ve photos of the map on my phone. I head back in a more leisurely manner, taking photos as I go of the path I’ve already covered but leaving the clock running figuring I might as well enjoy the scenery and get a breather for now.

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Mar 15

Brough Law Fell Race

by Sarah J.

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P and I are not from the North-East, and we often like to try to guess how North-Easterners would pronounce place names. We come up with several alternatives from what we would class as fairly normal to bizarre. We’re usually still wrong and a complete curveball gets thrown our way. I have only seen ‘Brough Law’ written down, and only in the context of this fell race. I would say ‘Brow’, but could also see it pronounced as ‘Bruff’ or even possibly ‘Brogue’. I am still in the dark as to what the locals would call it. ‘Braaaaaarrr’?!?! If anyone would like to enlighten me, answers on a postcard please!

I’ve been looking forward to doing this run since it went on my calendar in January (discovered as part of my hunting for Races Under a Tenner) – and that should have been enough time for me to build up enough fitness to be comfortable with doing it. As it happens, it’s fallen at the end of about a month of me being crazy-tired mostly with work and therefore doing very little regular or intensive exercise. I’m also REALLY tired – like falling flat out asleep by 8:30 every night. Not exactly the jumping bean fit I’d like to be for my first fell race.

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My confidence was not improved by seeing the route elevation profile – some massive hills, and a 400m elevation profile. I packed the night before but checking the weather forecast in the morning and seeing the wind I decided to chuck in an extra thermal layer just incase it was really cold when I was walking, and my windproof jacket on top of the already shoved in full set of waterproofs…kitchen sink may also be in there somewhere. I didn’t actually need any of it in the end…better safe than sorry though 😉

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I picked up another runner (CL) from the Metrocentre on my way up – he’s done many fell races including this one before, and off we went on our adventures to Ingram.

The wind at the starting area was ridiculous – even doing a short warm-up trot was a struggle and I heard people who’ve braved the starting bank say it was even worse at the top. I thought the first little kick you could see from the carpark looked bad enough for the opening few hundred meters, but it just kept going up and up and up for the first mile!

(sound on if you want a gale in your headphones/speakers!)

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Nov 30

The Shoestring Challenge

by Sarah J.

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November 2019 – I’ve no further races booked in for the year as I’m not doing cross-country this time around. I’ve spent a lot of the last few weeks analysing my spending for much of the year while we get quotes in for a house extension and I try to work out where we’re going to afford it from. It’s time for the cost of my race entries for 2019 to come under scrutiny – something I normally avoid looking at too closely! As many of my races are booked months in advance, it’s easy to forget how much I’m spending sometimes.

I’ve entered 21 races this year ranging from 1 mile (Liverpool Rock ‘n’ Roll) to 14 miles (Trail Outlaws RAF Spadeadam Half). I’ve spent a whopping £454.50 on race entries – average cost per race £21.64. Not including getting to and from them, and in two cases accomodation. To make matters worse, due to injury I haven’t been able to make a lot of the longer or hillier ones. I’ve countered this by booking more shorter ones that were on at similar times. I haven’t been able to defer, transfer entries or get refunds for any I’ve missed. £251 of those races I didn’t even get to which makes the average cost of the events I did get to a massive £41.31- a lot for a 10k. I’m not willing to do this again for 2020.

I’ve set myself a limit of £10 maximum per race entry if I’m wanting to go to races. Race + travel shouldn’t come to more than £15. Generally, £5 will take me a return trip to a race 18 miles from home. I can travel further if the race entry is less than £10.

I’ll be doing a lot of free events like parkrun and Great Run Local, I’m wanting to explore several of the local longer walking routes like the Tyne & Wear Heritage Way in sections, I can marshall events to gain ‘credits’ I can use for others, and I can support my local running clubs at their club-organised races – as long as they’re under £10!

Already, just in looking for races under £10, I’ve come across several particularly trail races I’ve not seen before so I’m really looking forward to trying some new ones I’ve not done! We are so, so lucky in the North-East with the huge amount of organised events right on our doorstep if that’s what keeps your trainers heading out the door.

I’m also going to be keeping a look-out for interesting non-race events like the recently hosted Dusk Run at Wallington Hall which I really enjoyed, and I’ve also run with Anna McNuff this year and 401’s Ben Smith previously. I’ll share them as I come across them on my Facebook page if anyone wants to join 🙂 I’ll likely also be doing a lot of local exploring on my own. I’ve been stalking hiking sites looking for loop routes which I’ve been able to download to my GPS, even if I haven’t figured out how to get them to show on it yet! It’s good to learn new things right?!

I’m going to be over-hauling my website over the next few days to make it easy to find the ‘races for the frugal’ available which I’ve found so far, I may also do something with local loop and ‘official’ walking routes I’ve found, and I’m looking forward to trying some new things over the next 12 months – hopefully for rather less dosh!

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Nov 3

Trail Outlaws – Castle Eden Fun Run

by Sarah J.

It has been a while since I’ve broken out the fancy dress box for a run – I think it’s probably a parkrun over a year ago at Blackhill when I last had a rumage for an outfit! It’s like choosing your own handicap. Unless you’ve carefully selected your costume to involve as little material as possible, you’re likely to be slower in costume than in normal running gear, or we’d all be dressing up like Christmas Puddings whenever we want to go for a p.b.. When you combine ‘Trail Outlaws’ with ‘Fancy Dress’ you know you’re in for a tough time – and at least 25% of it will be self-inflicted.

Not being particularly big on Hallowe’en, my costume box doesn’t include much in the way of horror film set special effects, but it does contain a pirate costume gathered over many years. Sadly, many of the belts involved in said costume have been retired from when I was in my late teens and are a restrictive reminder of how much less-trim I am round the waist than many years ago!

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I met C at Castle Eden in Peterlee; somewhere I’ve never had occasion to go before, and we were treated to a feast of different outfits in very short order. There were some absolutely fabulous costumes on show! I honestly can’t do justice to it so I’m just going to direct you to Hippie’s hard work and send you over to the race album here to have a look for yourselves. We saw G2 at the start-line – not in costume incase he needed to pull out his Serious Face as Official Race Bossyman, which to be fair is rather difficult to do if you’ve got kid’s facepaint on – he was kind enough to be our start-zone photographer 🙂

The race didn’t start too badly terrain-wise – a good gravel path winding off with gentle undulations. And it all went downhill from there. Very downhill. And we all know what that means. In this case, it means people jumping out at you from inside holly bushes and behind rocks when you least expect them (though it must be said Hippie was much easier to spot than normal at the bridge!). There’ll be more than one person’s heart-rate data with a sudden unexplained spike in the middle of various sections!

Wikipedia has the following to say about ‘denes’:

This one is very true to the ‘steep-sided wooded valley’ part (and I recommend following the link in the caption and checking out the Castle Eden Dene link to read a bit more about this particular one). Looking at the map at the bottom, you could think we had run nicely around this nature reserve, but I can assure you this was not the case…we went down, down, dooooown to the bottom of the valley by the river, and of course then had to climb alllllll the way back up again. By the time we finished my GPS said I’d done 71 flights of stairs. No wonder my legs were knackered!

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I did very much enjoy full on jumping in some of the puddles – C possibly enjoyed my doing this slightly less but she was a good egg about it 😉 We had a good natter, and died quite a bit on the way round – it was tough going! C had also done parkrun that morning for some reason! Nutter! We did make it to the finish – very, slowly! – and were rewarded with weighty gongs (that’s a ‘g’!) for our efforts. There was even a cake and coffee stall if your post-run tummy was so inclined raising money for mental health.

When I got my muddy self through the door, I weighed myself with and without all my waist accoutrements; 3.25lb I’d been lugging around as corsetry up and down those hills – it’s a good thing the rum bottle wasn’t full – though I suspect it would have been lighter by the finish anyway if it had been!

One quick shower for this grotbag and then straight out the door again to Hexham fireworks – more standing for the ol’ legs to do. I slept like the corpse some of the costumes were depicting after all that 😮

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