Sunderland 5K

[Wed 18th Jul]

What a great race by Steven French. He certainly put the old Blyth bloke to shame who did nothing but moan about the windy conditions, congested start and “hills” on the course!

On what was a great effort by Steven his PB was smashed by about 1.5 mins. The handicapper needs to be careful here for the next Summer Cup!

Sunderland 5 km has been around on the same course since I joined Blyth, I’m sure you used to get a small memento for finishing. Anyways there was nothing this year.

The course is frighteningly congested and fast at the start, the first half a mile or so is a flat out sprint to get away from the masses or be trampled on! Although the sight in a previous year of Andrea Scott flying past Gareth, Helen and I keeps you focussed.

This year no Andrea, just a lot of runners with the same plan. Go off hard and pray!

As usual I did go off too fast and was in front of those who I have recently been behind on say 10 km races. That was probably a warning I should have heeded.

It’s a 2 lapped course of un equal laps to allow for this fast starting point. There are a couple of very short drags in it, but overall it is a flat enough course. There was a stiff breeze at times, but this was both on you and then with you as you went around the lake.

Back to Steven, a great race and well paced overall. That’s the way to do these 5 km races!!! Are they still too long for me or are they now too short?? I have no idea really and I doubt whether I'll ever work them out.

Iain