More than 530 athletes toed the line and observed the traditional 1 minutes silence in one of the most popular and traditional races on the circuit. Little did they know that 15 minutes later they would be back on the start line to try again!
Controversy, injuries, a restart and wins by two of our region's International athletes, this year's Heaton Harriers Memorial 10k certainly wasn't without incident!
More than 530 athletes toed the line and observed the traditional 1 minutes silence in one of the most popular and traditional races on the circuit. Little did they know that 15 minutes later they would be back on the start line to try again!
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As most of us know by now, the parkrun series is a regular fixture in our race calendar with 11 events in the North East region alone (and the 12th starting in December in Darlington). We recently sent our roving reporter to spend the morning with the officials at the Whitley Bay event to see how much organisation goes on behind the scenes. In the first of two reports we see what is involved for the organisers to ensure the smooth running of the event while in Part Two who speak to Race Director, Heather Gould. _______________________________________________________________________________________________
Last month we rounded up the statistics from the local parkruns from September and we’re back again looking at October. So what did October look like from a parkrun point of view then? With the Great North run now a distant memory and the Harrier league kicking off to change the face of Autumn/winter Saturdays we were expecting a bit of a dip in numbers. But turns out actually it was a bit split across our North East. Blyth Harriers hosted the first North East Harrier League at East Cramlington Nature Reserve and despite the tough, muddy conditions, there were still some great performances and exciting races. The course is a regular on the harrier league calendar and has also hosted the North Eastern Cross Country Championships but it has rarely been as muddy as it was for this opening league meeting. We recently pulled together some statistics from all the Parkruns that are ran in our region over one weekend. After all, there are close to 2,000 of our runners competing in these events every Saturday so they are hard to ignore! The feedback we received was fantastic so we decided to do it again, much to the joy of our resident 'statto' (they didn't mind, in fact they love doing it really!), this time covering all of September. It's very interesting to see how the events are developing and improving, not only in terms of quantity but also in quality. Again, we welcome any feedback and hope you enjoy the information that we've dug up. Winner Jim Bulman In a change from the usual early Summer date, in its 30th Anniversary year saw a move for the Redcar Half Marathon to late September, but would this make a difference to the turnout … It certainly did to the conditions and a rather wet and blustery day kept many a PB at bay. With its long stretching out and back course the likelihood of having to tackle a wind for most part of the race is pretty much 50/50 and so it was that many of you lot have come back from Redcar with tales of ‘6 miles of torture’. L-R: Lewis Hogg, Phil Hurst and Kevin Calvert South Shields Harriers hosted the opening NEHL of the season as the Sherman Cup and Davison Shield were contested at Temple Park. The competitions reward the clubs that have strength in depth as the points awarded in all the age group races are tallied up. It truly is a team event and the performance of an U13 is just as important as that of a senior or veteran. Conditions were firm underfoot but a strong wind would make things tough for all runners and clever tactics were bound to play a part. What a morning for a run in the park. Conditions were perfect out on the Town Moor for some good running but would the winner break the magic 17min barrier? The Newcastle Parkrun this week saw a whopping 342 finishers which is close to the record of 367. There were 67 new registrations which for an event which has been running for years now and is nothing particularly new, is quite some feat. We're sure last weekend's Great North Run action spurred quite a few of those new registrants into action, but isn't that the point? Morpeth's Ian Harding made it 2 wins in a week after winning Sunday's Tynedale 'Jelly Tea' 10 mile road race which also incorporated the North East 10 mile Championships. He followed up his win at Tuesday's Blyth Links 10k with yet another win on the local circuit. Helen Waugh from Tyne Triathlon took the ladies race in very hot conditions in one of the most picturesque races on the North East scene which starts at Hexham before going through Corbridge and finishing at Ovingham. |
Race ReportsHere are North East Runner we try to attend as many local races as possible to report on the action. Archives
March 2013
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