The Winter Cross Country North East Harrier League is above all a challenge. Each race has been a test of mind, body and running shoes and race 3 at Bedewell Park, Jarrow, was no exception. A cold, but not freezing, day was complimented by a large majority of the course in thick, sludgy, slippery, boggy mud. Ponteland Runners fielded 4 men’s runners and a full ladies team of 3 braving the treacherous conditions.

The men’s race had a total of 390 runners, four of them from Ponteland with first timers Chris Heppell and Nigel Baxter joining the ranks alongside cross country ‘veterans’ Jon Parkin and Adam Graham. As usual the men had a 3 lap race but this race differed to the first two races in that the start and finish line were in different places, making it very difficult to grasp where one lap finished and the next started. Coupled with a circular and winding course this made it difficult to judge whereabouts you were in order to understand building pace and gathering momentum for a strong finish. The most important part, however, was ensuring shoe laces were tight and that shoes stayed on your feet as the large boggy areas sucked your shoes away from your feet and drained all your strength from your thighs and calves! That being said Ponteland Runners ran as strong as they could and once again took it in their stride.

The ladies totalled 168 runners and it was great to see 3 Ponteland Runners making up a team for the league standings. Eva Kenny ran in her third consecutive race, Ali Guadagno in her second and Sue Heppell joined the team for the first time to complete the minimum three runners for the team. Ladies complete a 2 lap race with Ali and Sue in the slow pack (starting first) and Eva in the medium pack (starting second) 2 minutes behind the slow pack. The temperature dropped quite dramatically for the ladies race but the team pushed for a strong finish all-round. Full results below with the Ladies team finishing 8^th out of the 11 teams fielded and 9^th out of 12 scoring teams. The ladies now stand 10^th/23 teams in division 2.

The route can be seen from Adam’s Garmin by clicking here

Results

Men’s

Ladies

Two Ponteland Runners, Paul Gerrard and Chris Heppell, took part in the Keilder Duathlon on a cold, very cold morning.  It was very clear on the drive up and the 4cm of snow should have warned us about conditions, upon arriving the temperature gauge in the car registered -5.5, even heading home mid-afternoon it was still well below freezing. 185 single competitors and 15 teams took part, with 167 completing the course.  Winning time was an incredible 2hr 02min from Harry Coates of Wallsend Harriers with the final finisher in 4hr 35min.  Paul completed in 3hr 9min in 95th place and Chris in 2hr 41min in 42nd place. Full results are available here. Looking at the transition times both have much to learn as they were extremely slow between disciplines.  Would highly recommend the experience to all as the views were stunning on a glorious day.  It’s fell running and mountain biking, mostly on snow and ice this year, but great fun. As with the Harrier League it adds more options to events out of season.

A freezing cold morning on Saturday 24 November found Adam, Jon, Mark, Elliot, Dave (L), Eva and Lucy participate in another Newcastle Park Run.  The course briefing warned of slippery pathways and sections of ice to be wary of so it looked to be a moderate paced race this week with difficult ground underfoot. Not the case for Ponteland Runners with Mark Lyon finishing first of the team and 21^st overall smashing his previous time for a PB of 18.43 – a great result. Park run first timer Eva Kenny continues her strong finishing completing the course 41^st overall and a brilliant 5^th female. Followed by Jon Parkin in 66^th place and a new PB for Adam Graham in 96^th with a time of 22.13. Dave Legg was only 30 seconds behind finishing in 103^rd with another PB of 22.43 and Elliot Ward another solid run of 23.09 and 109^th place. Another first timer Lucy Peel clocked in at 25.11, 117^th overall and 27^th female finisher out of a total 308 runners.  Considering the freezing conditions, both Eva and Lucy running the course for the first time and difficulty underfoot Ponteland Runners came out strong across the board building on already solid times. The pictures from Sportypix shows no-one took it easy at the finish line and hopefully we can build on the turnout at least once every month for the this good 5km run.

Blaydon Cross Country – Harrier league race 2 Saturday 17^th 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 53^rd.  Ali Guadagno made her cross country debut digging deep to come home in 94^th place, whilst Lucy peel again ran well and completed the team in 150^th place out of a field of 198 runners.  Overall the women scored 297 points and finished in 13^th 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 149^th place – a great effort.  Second counter was Chris Wright in 305^th place – who eased passed me on lap three and proved uncatchable.  I came in 313^th position but managed to get round blister free this time!  Our good Chairman David B was next in 377^th 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 387^th who had run hard to nip ahead of Adam Graham in 394^th.  Bart completed our runners in 425^th 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 15^th December – it would be great to see as many runners on the start line as we did at Blaydon, more details nearer the time.

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 303^rd, Chris Wright 320^th, Dave Legg 354^th, Adam Graham 395^th and Peter Bartholemew  413^th.  Women (field of 179) – Eva Kenny 5^th and Lucy Peel 112^th.

There were some great performances by all the Ponteland Runners but performance of the day belonged to Eva who came home in 5^th 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 17^th 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.

The Gibside National Trust run estate in autumn must be one of the most beautiful venues for any race in the country – but it comes with a sting in the tale!  Any course that has a colour code route map with down sections, up sections and then very up sections gives a clue to how hard a test faces the runners over the 5.9 mile course.  2 Ponteland Runners lined up this year – myself and Dave Legg, and we finished 72^nd (43:33) and 143^rd (47:32) respectively.  The winning time was an unbelievable 35:41 given the hilly nature of the course whilst last of the 413 finishers took 78:32 to finish.  Congratulations must go to Blackhill Bounders club for organising such a fabulous race.  Any members who fancy a really challenging but rewarding race should definitely include this one in their list of must do races next year.