Northumberland 1/2 Marathon Sunday 10th March

Despite organisational problems with getting numbers to runners on time the race is going ahead as planned and quite a few of us are running.  The website says parking is limited on site so does anyone fancy car sharing?  I am happy to drive and can pick up from houses or the leisure centre if there are a few interested.  This race is the first event in the new for 2013 Club Championship and will see someone claim an early lead (fame but sadly not fortune awaits)

Let me know by e-mail if you want to car share.

Jon.Parkin@pontelandrunners.org.uk

 

 

Alnwick Cross Country 2nd March (HarrierLeague)

Hello mud lovers.

It was a beautiful day with wall to wall sunshine for the 5th harrier league race of the season at Alnwick.  The race was 3 laps totalling approximately 6.2 miles and the course was probably the most enjoyable of any we have ran at so far.  Although there were the now accepted sections of calf high mud to wade through there were also long firm sections run in the shadow of Alnwick castle and through woods before belting (ish) down a steep hill back to the start area.  The winner was a guy from Sunderland Harriers who also happened to represent his native country of Eritrea in last summer’s Olympics.  Given that, I hope our 4 runners can be forgiven for not pipping him on the line and claiming the prize of tea with Harry Potter and the Duchess of Northumberland.  The finishing positions for our runners out of a field of 369 were as follows:

Jon Parkin           231st       48:16

David Buffham    334th      54:28

Dave Legg          336th      54:42

Bart                      353rd      57:54

Well done to all runners who took part today and we now look forward to the last race of this season held at Prudhoe on the 23rd March.  It would be great to see a full turnout from Ponteland for this one and even if you have never run a cross country before you would be most welcome to join us.

Blaydon Race Entry

Gannin along the Scotswood Road on the 9th of June – what could be better fun than that?  Throw in the fact that this race forms part of the Ponteland Runners Club Championship and is only 5.7 miles in length and you have a race I hope many of us want to enter.  Entry is always oversubscribed and if you want to have a go then here follows a reminder on how to do it:

Online entry for the Blaydon Race will open next Monday (February 4th).  Online entry will be in four batches which will open at 2pm, 4pm, 6pm and 8pm with 500 entries in each batch. These will fill. You will also be able to download the postal form on Monday.  In 2012, the 2000 limit for postal entries was reached in 3 days.

Visit the race website at: http://www.blaydonrace.co.uk/pages/entry.html  for more details.

In short, if you want to enter get in there as quick as you can a week today and I’ll see you on the start line.

 

July Northumberland Coastal Run

Hi Everyone

One for the lovers of longer races this one but it’s an absolute cracker of a run.  It is virtually all run off-road in a combination of beach and coastal grassy paths – hopefully the finishing stretch isn’t run into a near gale force wind this year.  Just a quick heads up about entry if you want to run.  It is always very popular with local runners and entry usually goes within 12 hours or so of it opening online.  NE Races.com and the Alnwick Harriers website says online entry opens  at 1 minute passed midnight on Saturday 19th January so if you are planning to enter then you had best plan on a late night next Friday.  I’ll see you on the start line…

Blaydon cross country – harrier league race 2

Blaydon Cross Country – Harrier league race 2 Saturday 17th November

A good turnout from Ponteland Runners saw 7 men and 3 women taking part, meaning for the first time we had full teams and scored points in the league.  Following on from the first race at Cramlington it was again a very popular event with record sized fields taking part, and the standard of competition was really high compared to the typical road races that most of us have entered in the past.  Finishing positions are hard earned in this league that is for sure.

In the senior women’s race Eva ran well from the medium pack and finished a very creditable 53rd.  Ali Guadagno made her cross country debut digging deep to come home in 94th place, whilst Lucy peel again ran well and completed the team in 150th place out of a field of 198 runners.  Overall the women scored 297 points and finished in 13th place out of 15 teams in division 2 – a terrific effort for only our second race.  Any other women who would like to take part would be very welcome as we only have 4 registered runners at present meaning fielding a full team will always be tricky.  Please e-mail me if you are interested.

The men’s team was lead home by debut runner Mark Lyon in 149th place – a great effort.  Second counter was Chris Wright in 305th place – who eased passed me on lap three and proved uncatchable.  I came in 313th position but managed to get round blister free this time!  Our good Chairman David B was next in 377th place on his cross country debut “It’s a lot harder than road running” was his understated view on running in the harrier league.  Dave Legg was next in 387th who had run hard to nip ahead of Adam Graham in 394th.  Bart completed our runners in 425th place out of a record harrier league field of 460 senior men (and vets).  The men beat 6 other teams in division 3 and again this represents a great effort in only our second race.

Next race up is at Jarrow on Saturday 15th December – it would be great to see as many runners on the start line as we did at Blaydon, more details nearer the time.

Cramlington Cross Country – Harrier League race 1 report

Congratulations to Eva, Lucy, Adam, Bart, Chris, Dave, and myself for surviving, and hopefully enjoying, the wettest and muddiest cross country course on record!!!  The finishing places were as follows:  Men (field of 425) – Jon Parkin 303rd, Chris Wright 320th, Dave Legg 354th, Adam Graham 395th and Peter Bartholemew  413th.  Women (field of 179) – Eva Kenny 5th and Lucy Peel 112th.

There were some great performances by all the Ponteland Runners but performance of the day belonged to Eva who came home in 5th place in the ladies race.  As a new club there is no better publicity to attract new members than our current crew finishing high up the field in a very competitive race.

The next race in the 6 race series is at Blaydon on the 17th November.  This is a very flat and hopefully dry course, and could be the first time Ponteland Runners fields full teams in both the men’s and women’s races.  At this event we plan to be better prepared!  Hats off to Chris for bringing a flask of hot coffee – I think we will all be bringing something similar to the next event.  We all felt a bit of ‘tent envy’ of the other clubs and some discussions were had about the bringing of some kind of tent next time to keep kit dry and to act as a meeting point for members.  For my part I shall be bringing plasters for my heels – it would be fair to say that the new spikes rubbed at my heels a little bit over the 5.8 mile course.

Overall the event was great fun and a real test of running ‘toughness’.  Let’s hope it was the first of many such days.

Happy running.