I did the George Ogle Memorial Race for the first time last night, it’s organised by PB Fitness in memory of a local runner who died in 2010, and goes around the Derwenthaugh park between Rowlands Gill and Winlaton Mill. It had been raining all afternoon – hurray for not hot, not so hurray for soggy running! Fortunately it had decided to blow over about an hour before the start and was getting quite sunny but still cool by race time. I had a surprise waiting for me at the start line – J had come to hold all my safety pins and cheer me on which was quite absolutely lovely of her (AND it’s now 1pm and she’s not hassling me for a blog entry yet! Unheard of!). She found a Bounders puppy to spoil while she was waiting for me to pootle my way round.
Photo by LD of the Blackhill Bounders
As this was my first race event since the Pier to Pier, I wanted to try the race number clips I’d recieved in the finisher’s pack – but I’d brought some safety pins just incase for some reason I couldn’t get them to work! It’s a good thing I did as the race number wasn’t pre-punched as some of them are, and with the numbers being made of that weird waxy stuff so they don’t dissolve if it’s raining, I had to make holes in them with a safety pin before I could get the clips through them. I was impressed with how well the clips kept the number on, and once I’d got the front clips attached to the number (which took a while…), it was probably the least faffing I’ve had to do to get my number vaguely straight! I normally spend about 10 mins faffing around adjusting different corners. I think in future, I’ll definitely use these for numbers that have been posted to me – as I can hole punch the corners myself at home if they don’t have them, but I’ll still be taking safety pins for collect-on-the-day events as it was a bit of a faff on trying to put holes in them with a pin!
I started off near the back as is my habit, and as is also my habit, basically stayed there the whole way round 🙂 I was doing ok until we hit the first hill, I’d ooo’d and aaaa’d at the new Derwenthaugh fish tunnel thing, a heron that had gone overhead at mile 1, and a kite that had flown overhead at mile 2 (I love seeing Red Kites 🙂 ) and was wondering what the 3 mile marker might hold. Mile 3 held a very long incline straight up the side of a hill…thanks so much for that – there goes all hope of me doing a steady pootle all round. I got about halfway up before I bailed and dropped down to a walk, and not long after this was caught up by two other Bounders who were kind enough to take me under wing and drag me round with them. This was my first event in a Bounders vest and it was nice hearing the marshalls shouting ‘come on Blackhill!’, rather than just the generic ‘well done’ and ‘keep it up’, which is definitely appreciated but it felt a little more personal feeling I was a little tiny bit more than a random person passing them. After I’d joined the other two Bounders, who have been running for years and are well known locally it was more along the tone of ‘are you Bounders still yacking?!’ and other such things!
Photo by LD of the Blackhill Bounders
We went down and round the green by the big viaduct that crosses the Gibside estate – no real problems here, except that we’d dropped down well below the level of the road we’d orginally left to go up the hill…and had to get back to it somehow. Bring on the steps…I hate steps 😦 We dragged ourselves up to the top and set off on the last 2 miles along the Derwent Walk – good grippy surface and flat leading to the last downhill at the finish. The path seemed to go on forever but was not particularly strenuous, and with company I managed a much quicker pace than I probably would have done on my own. I didn’t have quite as much puff as my companions for chatter through! It was a lovely shaded route and we even saw a deer cross the path in front of us at one point!
It was definitely a relief to hit the finish line – out of 195 runners (and that was all spaces filled!), I came in position 185 – maybe I’ll get a rearguard badge if I keep this up, and finished in 1hr 24secs according to my watch for 9.1km. Considering the hills near the middle, I think this is a pretty ok time, and it’s much quicker than it would have been without some Bounders banter to keep me going!
After race goodies included the almost compulsory bottle of water (from Northumbrian Water – who are based in Durham and bottle their water in Sunderland…I guess we don’t ask on that one?!), a nice technical tee and a goodie bag containing…a bag! And a blackcurrant gel and crispy snack bar thingie 🙂
I enjoyed this race, but was most tired afterwards! I’d worn my Cascadia trail shoes with the lace lock tie technique, and it was the most comfortable they’ve been – they feel lower slung around the ankle than my other trainers which can make them feel quite loose unless I completely strangle my feet in them. I had plenty of grip, no blisters and no rubbing insoles!
In the interest of not risking my knee locking up, J and I took a walk along to the fish tunnel I’d seen on the way out – finished in 2012 it lets fish and eels access the upper parts of the river, which they haven’t been able to do since the weirs were built zonkles of years ago! Pretty cool 🙂 Then it was home, for a nice hot bath and some extra stretches 🙂
You can download the GPX data for this race from my Dropbox page below:
Blue Runnings 
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