Blue Runnings

Gannin’ Along the Scotswood Road To See the Blaydon Races!

by Sarah J.

I went to Blaydon races,
Twas on the 9th of June,
Twenty Hundred and Fifteen,
On a summer’s afternoon!

Now that we’ve got that out of our system (and if you haven’t, you can listen to ‘The Blaydon Races’ on audioBoom).

The Blaydon Races is probably second only to the Great North Run for notoriety in the North-East, outside of the running club calendars at least – probably because of the inconvenience to the general public for road closures! The race is held on the 9th of June every year, regardless of what day of the week this falls on – and runs along one of the biggest roads into Newcastle, usually about the same time many commuters are wanting to use it to get home…tradition comes first right?! The race has been organised since its inaugration in its current form, by the Blaydon Harriers since 1981 – and has very strict intake numbers, which are always exceeded by the number of applicants!

Not being ‘in’ the running club scene quite yet when the original applications openend up, I was oblivious to the places opening up – but there was an issue with the system and it ended up crashing – meaning the last 300 places were available on a different date after everything had been sorted again. This small doorway in, I had picked up on – and was sitting at the computer waiting from about 08:30 that morning – entry opened at 9am. I hit refresh exactly as the computer clock clicked over – and was straight into the waiting list, already at place 40 something or something like that so they must have gone lightning fast!

Bottoms Up Cup – Washington

by Sarah J.

This was the first race organised by the newly reformed Washington Running Club – who disbanded in the early 1990’s. They’ve been trotting round Washington since September last year and now wanted to take the next step and get some training courses for some of their members. How does a running club fundraise? They organise a run and get all the local runners to pour money into their coiffers 😉 Much like the George Ogle run I did this week, this was also a memorial event – for Stephen Bottoms of the original Washington Running Club, and could run a half marathon in an insane 80 minutes :O This is mindboggling for someone who would be over the moon with 150 minutes!

£5 entry for UA affiliated members and helping another club get further off the ground? What’s not to go for? I can squeeze another race into May…which had a grand total of 1 weekend out of the 5 without at least one race event! I’d posted on the Bounders facebook page that morning asking if anyone else was going – knowing many people were at the Edinburgh Marathon Festival for the weekend and kicking butt doing half and full marathons today while I was doing my measley 3 miles! 4 takers including myself – 2 guys doing photography (I think on behalf of the Trail Outlaws who were also helping with the run organisation?!) and one other runner – a dedicated run england, parkrun and great run local attendee, but this was to be her first race event!

http://www.blackhillbounders.com/

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George Ogle Memorial Race – 9.1km

by Sarah J.

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

http://www.sunderlandstrollers.co.uk

Pier 2 Pier Run 2015 – 11km

by Sarah J.

The weekend just gone was a very active one – not only did I have Gelt Gladiator on the Saturday, I’d booked myself in for the Pier to Pier Run on the Sunday. P has officially declared me mad, but it seems to be such a big feature in the local running calendar that when I saw it was coming up I had to give it a go! I see that many P2P 2014 bandanas around it looks like everyone had a go last year!

The run goes from South Shields pier, along the clifftops and beaches right down to Sunderland pier for the finish line and is organised by the Sunderland Strollers. Don’t let the name fool you! I’ve seen the Sunderland Strollers at several races before and they have some very fast members! I’d booked a seat on the Bounders coach a few weeks ago, but as the time drew near, decided that I didn’t want to lose the whole day to the race – the coach was leaving Consett at 08:15 (fine, I left about the same time myself!), but not coming back until 15:30 from Sunderland as the guys were hitting a pub afterwards. The Bounders have been described on the radio before as ‘a drinking club with a running problem’! They’re a lovely bunch anyway 🙂 So, I decided as I needed food and the shops shut at 4pm, that I would take my own car as I should then be home for 2pm. I’d set the satnav for a carpark near the pier, but to be honest could have found it myself if someone said ‘drive towards South Shields and then at every single roundabout ever, go straight over it’, seriously, there are so many roundabouts in South Shields and it felt like I was constantly hearing “At the roundabout, take the second exit”! Say something else Eddie!

http://www.sunderlandcity10k.com/

Sunderland 10k 2015

by Sarah J.

Well, today was a stark contrast to the last 10km road race I did! Tyneside only a few weeks ago was blue skies and blazing sunshine, and today at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland it was bucketing it down with rain and I prefer not to think it could have been wetter or windier! Of course, now I’m sitting inside typing away at the computer the clouds have mostly cleared and the skies are blue with a gusty breeze…nice running weather – not too hot.

J and I donned that runner’s bad weather favourite, the Bin Bag for our pre-race loitering and getting to the start line. We both obviously looked ridiculous – a little like a pair of bugs poking out of cocoons, or in my case possibly someone in a straight jacket heading for the loony bin…but we had a good giggle anyway 😉 Probably if I hadn’t had it on, it would have been worse, but we were both still cold and wet before we’d even got to the stadium let alone the start line! Getting out of bed this morning was madness let alone trying to leave the house for an outdoor event!

No Ego Trail Challenge: Otterburn – 10km

by Sarah J.

Today was J’s first ever 10km race event – and typically for her she threw herself right in at the deep end with a nice tough one! Getting lost in the dark around Wallington just wasn’t enough of a challenge it would seem! We headed up to Redesdale Forest near Otterburn for the event, starting at the airstrip near the army basecamp. J had butterflies on the way up, so had to be content with a handful of chocolate raisins while I filled my face with orange juice and chocolate chip brioche things (I was so hungry this morning for some reason – I ate four!!!), and then tucked into the chocolate raisins! Obviously, today I was destined to be a huge pig.

There were only 34 runners for the 10km route, with the 10 mile runners having left 30 mins before, so quite a small group compared to some runs we’ve done. I think the Sand Dancers may have pulled quite a few of the club runners away as I believe that one was part of some sort of league thing. Still getting up on the club lingo :S We were at the start line for this one anyway, In our lovely matching pink monstrosity canoe trainers that we’d bought specially for such events!

North Tyneside Road Race – 10km – A Taste of Summer

by Sarah J.

What a gloriously sunny day for a run! A positively tropical 12ºC and clear blue skies for Easter Sunday. It makes a massive contrast to the horrible snow and hail we were running in only last Tuesday – I can’t believe it was less than a week ago! I made it to the leisure centre at North Shields early enough to nab an on-site parking space and then loitered around there – without a jacket on, or tied around my waist in my usual ridiculous ways! I’d not even taken one with me, my hoody was in the car but that wasn’t even an option for running in. I had my buff on my head, but I’d been fine with that on muggy Saturday’s morning run. And the great thing? Even while standing around outside the sports centre for 40 minutes I wasn’t cold! Unheard of for the cold North on an April morning! I was running really lightly laden for me – only a tiny waist pouch with phone, dextrose tablets, keys and a small amount of cash – normally for a 10k I take the bigger bum-bag with the bottle pouch, but this time with there being a water station in the middle I didn’t bother with it – and of course made myself psychologically thirsty at the start line without it and had to visit the water fountain a few times!

The North Tyneside 10k is a road race from North Shields to St Mary’s Lighthouse and follows right along the coast, the views were fab, and with the exception of a bit of a pig of a hill by Tynemouth Priory, which I’ve only ever seen from further up the coast and never been to, the route was pretty much flat or downhill for the whole stretch. I still don’t think I can say I’ve been there – I know nothing about its history or anything, but as with Penshaw Monument, I have been ignorant from a much nearer distance! I’ve been to Whitley Bay before, but only to the Sea Life Centre or for a walk along the beach from about halfway between the aquarium and the lighthouse – and never in the direction of the lighthouse, so I’ve probably only covered maybe 2.5 miles of this stretch of coastline.

No Ego Trail Challenge: Hamsterley Forest – 10km

by Sarah J.

Off on my running travels again today, this time to Hamsterley Forest in Durham with J as my trusty driver, chief waver and photographer! I’ve driven past signs for Hamsterley Forest before on the A68, but never actually pulled in to see what was there – expecting something similar to Kielder Water – several pretty walks and maybe a visitor centre and some other buildings scattered about. All of these were present, but it also appears to be biking central for those who want to launch themselves through the air on their mountain bikes to land in copious amounts of mud. Even on a rather damp day like today, it was pretty busy – it must be really buzzing in the summer!

I had mixed expectations of what this was going to be like after doing the No Ego Torch Challenge at Wallington Hall last month, I’d already figured that I’d probably be going a little off the beaten track and was likely to end up rather muddy, but as the same description was on both the Hamsterley and Otterburn trail run descriptions, I wondered how much of it actually applied to this particular route.

http://www.thirskandsowerbyharriers.co.uk/thirsk-10

Thirsk Ten

by Sarah J.

Today was my first attempt at a 10 mile race – first time running the distance at all, and first time in an official event. It’s also the first time I’ve been to an event that was organised by a running club rather than a racing organisation, and I was very impressed – Thirsk and Sowerby Harriers did a fantastic job planning and running a long road race that felt welcoming to all levels.

As expected, after the initial mad passing of many people at the start (passing me, not me passing them!) where I learned very quickly how to jog along with my elbows in so I didn’t cause too many injuries, the runners spaced out. Also as expected, I was near the back almost from the get-go! I set my pace more on my breathing than my speed or having any particular time in mind and pottered along at a comfortable jog. The route was gorgeous: the sun was shining, the roads were clear – the long road for the first few miles had been closed off to cars so I bimbled right down the middle, mainly just because I could! I realised when doing the 10km at Kielder last year and after the first 2km wondering if I’d actually make it round, that I just enjoy having my own space to enjoy the settings of a race – not running in a pack where my pace gets upset by mismatching people around me, getting pulled along at a rate I’m not comfortable with or feeling demoralised when starting to lag behind. I also quite enjoy just watching other runners; spotting the neutrals and pronators, different length strides, different breathing techniques, different gear. There were two wheelchair racers that I saw, one runner with a wheelchair passenger, a blind runner with a guide, large runners, small runners, short runners, tall runners, the speed demons and the steady plodders, all in a multitude of colours – pinks, blues, yellows and greens. The great thing about being at the back is seeing the colourful trail highlighting the route in front of you, it’s like a train of peacocks out on display! I think pretty much every type of runner must have been represented today!