Well, what a fantastic weekend that was in Rome. We had 3 club runners – Paul Holborow (me!), Elliott Ward and Paul Quigley – taking on the mighty Rome marathon. Strike action in Italy initially put the whole weekend in doubt as cancelled or overbooked connecting flights left Elliott and I without a seat to Rome, and we hadn’t even left Newcastle! With nothing more than hope we flew to Paris prepared to stay overnight when at the Air France desk 2 seats suddenly became available and we were off, arriving in Rome earlier than originally planned! Paul meanwhile was running about an hour late, but he made it with his best mate Neil and we all met up in the evening at the race Expo where we picked up our bibs and race backpack & shirt.

A leisurely Saturday was spent checking out getting to the start which was by the iconic Coliseum and resting the legs for race day. It rained all night and in the morning it was cold and still raining, just like at home! After months of training, this was it. All those Sunday Long Runners club runs, parkruns, solo runs round and round Darras, and the little aches and niggles that all brings, culminated in this moment. Feeling slightly nervous, cold and wet, it was more of an amble across the start line and we were off. Elliott set a good pace and was away up front on his own, whilst I needed to be more steady. No sign of Paul and Neil, but they were probably not far behind us all the way as we didn’t see them in front.

Still raining for most of the first half of the race the highlight of running through St Peter’s Square at the Vatican was amazing and you could almost feel the excitement amongst the fellow runners. A steady but significant climb at around 17 miles did the damage for me. Elliott motored on and finished first in an excellent 3:55.  I started to fade and cramp up and finished in 4:27, a new PB. At the finish we joined up with Paul who had had a bad first half but, after apparently visiting the Vatican and having a private audience with the big man himself, found the energy to pick up the pace and finish strongly on 4:34. Neil, who had had a few injuries of late and done very little running, made it home in 5 hours which was a brilliant effort as the cobles, especially towards the end, made this race brutal.

Feeling shattered, we staggered back to the apartment where I needed a lie down! It was later that evening, when we met up for something to eat, that the realisation of what we had just achieved started to kick in and I’m still buzzing! Completing a marathon, irrespective of the time, is a fantastic, positive and lasting life experience, so if you haven’t run one yet, why not give it ago too! Believe me, if I can do it, anyone can!

Congratulations too to Paul Doney by the way who did a terrific sub 3:30 marathon in Barcelona the week before! We want to hear from you too to see how you got on! We have quite a few runners heading off to London next month and to Edinburgh in May so we all look forward to hearing how everyone gets on then.

Paul Holborrow.

It has been a real pleasure organising the club’s first few years in cross country running. I have met many excellent people and had a lot of laughs along the way. This was our third full season and the most successful for the club by some distance.

Can I start by thanking Joanne Brown for being ladies team manager – the number of women taking part has grown significantly since she became involved and all of you have greatly contributed to the fun atmosphere and social side of cross country. The number of men running has also grown by nearly double compared to previous years and a real team spirit has developed. For the first time both men and women fielded full teams (4 women and 6 men per race minimum) for all 6 races this season.

The increase in numbers running along with some excellent performances has seen the men’s team finish 4th in division 3, and with the top 2 being promoted we are well placed to challenge for promotion next year. The ladies finished 12th in division 2 and this would have been a promotion spot had the women’s league been 3 divisions instead of the current 2 division set up. We are competing against many bigger and longer established clubs but we are more than holding our own thanks to our brilliant runners.

Cross country has a terrible reputation – I think mostly as a result of us often being forced to do it at school. As a result many never give it a try. Some try it and it isn’t for them. Others try it and love it. Whatever category of runner you are I would like to thank those people who have run any of the races this season.
They are:
Finlay Ward, Sarah Kate Huntley, Kelly Hymer, Nichola Conlon,
Laura Choake, Martin Hallissey, Matty Bell, Chris Kenyon, Simon Gaffney, Mark Lyon, Mark Perry, Kerrie Old, Tina Kelly, Joanne Brown, Sue Heppell, Alison Jurowski, Allison Britt, Alison Guadagno, Suzanne Robson, John McGargill, Elliott Ward,
David Buffham, Steve Allison, Dave Legg, Chris Wright, Peter Bartholemew, Neil Ward, Seb Aspinall, David Stroud, Paul Holborow and Andy Gowens.

I have taken all the names from the results on the harrier league website and if I have missed you off the list I apologise hugely because your efforts were greatly appreciated.

While cake eating and socialising are definitely high on the list of selling points for cross country there is also a competitive element to proceedings. 6 races are run and your best 4 finishes are recorded and runners ranked according to points accumulated in those 4 races. Completing 4 races really helps a high finish in this competition. Next year we are going to award trophies and/or prizes to the best performing male, female, veteran man and veteran woman. No trophies this season (sorry!) but the winners this year were:

Senior male – Martin Hallissey
Senior female – Sarah Kate Huntley
Veteran man – John McGargill
Veteran woman – Kerrie Old

Well done to all four for some terrific runs over the course of the winter.

Joanne taking it seriously!!!!

Rounding off the longest post I have ever managed to produce I would again like to thank all people who have run, baked, cheered on others, taken photos, posed for photos (Joanne!!!!!! lol) and been involved in any other way. It’s been a blast this year and I can’t wait for October when it starts all over again. Jon