Nine of us taking part in this well established local race today with too many PBs to mention them all individually (despite fairly windy conditions – well done everyone)
(Dario’s not in the photo as he only decided to enter whilst heading to Ponteland this morning for the 9am run!)
Who’d like to be the person to do the cross country race report after Helen O’Neils amazing one last time out? Oh that’ll be me then. So here we go:-
Temple Park South Shields was the venue for yesterday’s Sherman Cup – presum
ably it’s called this because the winner gets to take home an American tank but I couldn’t see it in the car park.
Only 5 men for us today (lame excuses like taking part in the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii will only wash for so long Martin Hallissey!) but a strong turnout of 11 ladies meant our tent was pretty full at times today. After the now usual large dose of flag envy the races commenced.
The course itself was fast and pretty flat and a special note of thanks to the great marshals who were very encouraging throughout. Some great runs again today from so many of the club resulted in 13th position overall in the female seniors and 18th in the male veterans.
The highlights of the day were undoubtedly the wearing of the new woolly hat in club colours and the noisy jangling of the cowbells that came free with the hats. Girls, I know I look miserable when I run past but your support makes me so much faster (even if it is just to get away from the noise)
So, two races into my new cross country experience I’m able to confirm that:-
Roll on the 21st of November and Aykley Heads (where there are NO steep hills apparently)
Full results available from http://harrierleague.com/results/2015-16/cup-shield/
Only me taking part in this one for Ponteland Tri so just a quick report.
There were three distance available to race:- 1 mile, 2.4 miles (“Iron” distance) and a massive 10 kilometres with feed stations. Presumably the feed stations are a bit like how they feed a seal at the zoo so sensibly I opted for the 2.4 mile option. I also wanted to gauge how I would feel afterwards if I then had to then immediately cycle 112 miles (as I will next year).
The weather was perfect, the event was well marshalled and the race was nowhere near as boisterous as an open water swim is when part of a full triathlon. The water was a refreshing 13.5 degrees but the chance to swim in the clear calm waters more than made up for the numb feet and fingers despite wearing shoes and gloves. Mrs L probably had a tougher time watching as she had to fend off the entire midge population of Northumberland on the shoreline!
Definitely recommended to other members for next year. Although I wouldn’t go for the non-wetsuit approach of some competitors!
The sign in the photograph says “runners in the road” and this was certainly true when four club members took part in the inaugural Stamfordham 10k organised by Run Nation on Wednesday 19th August. It seems you never quite know what you’re going to get with a Run Nation event but this one was very well organised and offered a well marshalled, scenic, flat course. A few spots of rain just before the hooter also helped to cool the temperature for the 176 participants. James Leiper impressively broke the 40 minute barrier to finish 18th overall followed in by John McGargill who was 2nd in his age category (far too polite to state which age group that is). Further down the field there were PB times for both David Levison and Nicky Matthews. Talking afterwards, all four thoroughly enjoyed the race and would recommend it to other club members for future years. 