London 2015 saw 9 Ponteland Runners participate,  fantastic to see such presence of our club at the event.  Well done Matthew Bell, Joanne Brown, Suzanne Dunn, Jason Old, Paul Quigley, Elaine Stroud, Elliot Ward, Nick Winslow and Paul O’Neil who’s not listed above as not showing as a Ponteland Runner in the results.

Picture left shows Elliot, Matty and Paul.

Suzanne Dunn experienced her first Marathon and has posted a great race report below….

VLM – my first marathon experience.

A week to go and the nerves started to kick in big time. How far? Seriously? Who was I trying to kid! Decided that the only way I would get through the final 7 days would be to consume my body weight in fuel, so in the name of training I did. And very enjoyable too it was. Sleep became impossible, waking up at 5am after dozing off around 1:30am became the norm. As did the nightmares about falling over and breaking both ankles the day before!

Somehow hubby and I made it to Friday in one piece, travelled down on train straight to the Expo to collect my number. Strangely enough it was when number 13,588 was officially in my hands that calm arrived, nerves left and bundles of excitement descended upon me. Strangely enough we left Expo having resisted buying any of the overpriced running apparel, hubby was suitably impressed to say the least. (I was far too excited to shop).

Bright and early on Saturday, another spontaneous 5:30 wake up, and we travelled into London for two nights of luxury hotel. Hubby had decided that if he had to spend hours being cheerful watching random runners in the hope that I might pass by that we might aswell have a nice weekend. (As you can tell he’s a non runner, and rapidly getting fed up of trailing around the country being my one man cheering squad).

Saturday was spent chilling and resting legs. Sunday finally arrived to grey, fog and drizzle. Perfect, this made me feel someone was looking down on me already and cheering me on. Yesterday had been sunny blue skies and hot; perfect for the tens of thousand spectators but certainly not us runners/plodders.

Water taxi to Greenwich was a master stroke, as we avoided all huge tube queues. Arrived calm. Several loo trips later and an emotional goodbye and I was on my own, alongside 38,000 runners. Attempted to carry an air of indifference and look experienced. Don’t think it worked.

Off we went, finally escaping Peter Andres commentary in the starting pens.

My race plan was to start slowly, and when I say slowly I mean 11-12 minute mile. The smile beamed across my face like a delirious maniac for 6 miles, reached the Cutty Sark, paused for a photo and carried on basking in my glory whilst crowds ten deep cheered and chanted my name. Felt like a pop star, just a bit less glamorous. Reached 11 miles easily (well I was doing average 11min mile) nipped behind a bush (loo queues were huge) and plodded on, still with ridiculous smile. Still hadn’t put earphones in, as crowd were absolutely rocking it.
Floated over Tower Bridge, had a teeny emotional moment as it was one of those iconic moments that I’d been thinking about for months. It really was as amazing as I thought it would be. Looking good (probably not really) and feeling good by this point having reached half marathon at 2:39 (only 22 minutes slower than my fastest 1/2) , well chuffed. Decided not to feel perturbed by the fact that a cheesy string, a green and purple dinosaur, batman & the joker plus several rhinos had overtaken me. Not to worry, I had at least caught up with some of the senior citizens who had whizzed past whilst I was crouched in a bush.
Through the financial district was LOUD, cheers from both sides of the road flanked by shimmering glass skyscrapers pushed me on for what was probably my speediest few miles. Then the twinges began at 18 miles, little niggle in buttock, slight click in knee, tiny burning of feet. Switch off, listen to the crowd, they think I’m the greatest, arms in air to celebrate.
At 20.5 miles it all went horribly wrong. Right knee decided that it was going no further and protested very loudly. Limped on much to its disgust, to the 21 mile marker and St Johns Ambulance where a guardian angel strapped both knees whilst I stood holding on to her shoulders. Medic suggested sitting and resting. Was he serious? Did he really think I could have DNF against my name? Feet like punching him in face, but instead thanked him ever so politely and left him shaking his head in despair. Decided to stretch the legs out and walk for a bit so texted the family, had a group chat, couple of selfies with the crowd and a phone call with hubby. Okay, back to the task in hand – complete this marathon. Smile was less ear to ear by now but still very much there. Took a ridiculous 55 minutes to complete the next 5k. Slight annoyance with self at this point. Had hoped to be absolutely on fire running down Embankment, instead I rather comically ran/limped in the style of elephant man which seemed to encourage even more crowd support.
Finally reached 25 miles and there was hubby, sister, brother in law and 9 year old niece (who didn’t look impressed) so it was time to look energetic, leap, dance and pose for photos and burst into ten seconds of energy until out of their sight off towards Buckingham Palace.
The finish was amazing. By this time another rhino had just overtaken me, and an ostrich stopped to lay an egg right in front of the viewing stands. A lovely lady ran beside me, so we joined hands and crossed the finishing line arms in air and promptly burst into tears together. That was it. I’d done it. 26.2 miles. Collected my medal as if it was solid gold. Shuffled along and collected goodie bag. Not interested. Had numerous photos taken, by this time tears in full flow. Shuffled further to meeting point D , sat in middle of road and removed shoes. Heavenly.

In summary after all this waffle: This event was everything and so much more than I had dared to hope for. My only goal was to finish, in one piece. A teeny part of me was aiming for sub 5 hours , but after running for 5 hours, 46 minutes and 8 seconds I was deliriously happy to say the least to cross the finishing line.

Don’t tell hubby, or my 3 daughters, but that was THE best day of my life!
Medal will be framed and hung somewhere very prominent, probably in the hall, just to remind everyone that I ran the London Marathon. Now what are the chances of me getting another ballot place for next year? Here’s hoping.

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

Cramlington cross country race report.
This comes courtesy of Kelly Hymer, a cross country first timer today:

A first timers guide on how not to do your first Cross Country:
When I think of Cross Country my mind instantly goes back to dragging myself round the school field in cold, wet conditions. Mistake number one, too many layers, turns out not all Cross Country events are in wet and windy conditions. Today was surprisingly sunny for a October afternoon and so after my first lap I was melting. Mistake number two, wearing brand new trainers for an event. What a rookie error. Consequently, I am now sporting a blister of epic proportions. However, the route was quite nice. Not as flat as had been advertised (sorry about that Kelly! Jon P). The beginning stretch was a little bumpy and having a mass of runners around did make it a little hard to negotiate, but once passed that it wasn’t so bad. I did do a little tumble and had to use the lady in front to stop me going down. Luckily, she was more steady on her feet and wasn’t to upset I groped her bum. There was a rather sharp climb towards the end of the first lap. I am all for gender equality but could not have done THAT 3 times! (Sorry lads). Twice was more than enough! And so to the finish line I plodded – hot , sweaty, wishing I hadn’t let my training slip over the past month or so, but ultimately happy I made it round in one piece and didn’t have to stop or walk.

And then for the important part, with my steeliest Paul Hollywood gaze, I made sure to sample ALL of the cakes, brownies and flapjack that were provided! It’s only fair. In conclusion, the course was a little harder than I expected, the temperature was a little hotter than I’d dressed for but the atmosphere and support was second to none! And now I sit at home with a warm glow of achievement, nice cup of tea, belly still full of cake, counting the weeks until next time…

Congratulations to the 28 (I think) Ponteland Runners who completed the GNR. They were not the conditions for PBs so if you achieved one please shout about it on this page. To the first timers… It is not always as hot as that, so don’t despair if you didn’t achieve your target time. Next year’s race is two weeks later in September. If you are coming to the AGM tonight the dress code for GNR finishers is full dress uniform race T-shirt) with campaign medals. We might hold the AGM (which won’t interrupt the drinking for long) standing up in case those who ran can’t stand up again after sitting. I think that will include me. David

Three Ponteland Runners raced the Tynedale Harriers Jelly Race yesterday in good conditions.  A scenic route provides an excellent 10 mile race in the final run-up to the Great North Run.  David Buffham, Paul Holborrow and Elliot Ward participated in the event,  results for our club below. Full results here.