06:00 alarm to rise for the first race of the 2025 BRC Grand Prix, it had been decided that we would leave Blyth at 08:00 in an attempt to get up to Druridge early enough to get a space in the car park and not halfway along the road to Hauxley.
Breakfast, stretches and gear sorted, pick up of another BRC @7:50 and off to ASDA for rendezvous and lift to Druridge.
Arrival just before 08:30 and success, place in the car park ‘Woop Woop’, now a wee bit of time to kill before race start at 09:45.
Number collection straight forward and good to see Dan Frater volunteering. Number pinning however not so straightforward for the some of us, straightness not ideal in one case and even got a ‘refusal to look at it’ from fellow BRC as I understand it was setting off some peoples OCD…we are all on the spectrum, just at different places….
BRC numbers growing by the minute and bags returned to the car except for the drivers’ which went in the bag drop, the pre-race chats (and banter) ensued. Topic of conversation primarily was the coldness and potential slippyness of the course thus many queries on shoe choice. On the subject of coldness, 09:15 ish, now starting to get a little chilled, time for the warm up.
A lap of the lake and the small section out to the road and back (2.5 miles) showed a few key points.
- The lakeside path had frozen puddles on LHS early doors
- There was a rough/uneven bit in the woods before the road
- The road was slippy and sun was not getting on it to melt the frost
With this info to hand, back to the start area and get in the right place for race start.
Quick briefing and off we go. Had picked a place near to the front but with 469 people in the race (29 of them from BRC) it was a bit mental for the first 2-300 metres, people passing left and right, slower runners in front, faster runners behind, mental but eventually it settled down by the water sports car park with the only decision left to make was how to tackle the race.
Knowing the info on slippyness of tarmac in the frost and also knowing there was going to be a headwind on the beach, decision was to go hard early on the hard trails and take the rest as it came…
The trails were good, solid underfoot and no sign of claggyness, was pretty chuffed I had chosen the vaporfly at this point. Exiting the trails onto the tarmac towards hauxley and the sun had actually landed on the road and the frost was disappearing, you could find a line that wasn’t slippy, bonus!!
Passed by 1 on the road before dropping onto the beach (not a Grand Prixer) and it was a little skity on the slipway but negotiated successfully and hard right to tackle the near 2 miles of sand into a headwind.
The sand was beautiful to run on, solid as a rock, smooth as a babies bottom, absolutely the best it possibly could have been but that wind, bah, it made it tough…..
I was aware of someone 5-10 metres behind and switched my goal for the beach section to work hard to stay that far ahead and not allow them to draft me, wasn’t making inroads to those in front but never heard any closer footsteps until we left the hard sand and got on the soft stuff.
Through the soft stand and up to the style where I could my left foot and nearly went flat on my face, it was then I realised it was Will Brindley who had caught me up, he went past as I recovered from the near fall then it was through the dunes, over the next style (no fall this time) and onto some hard tarmac again for the run towards Red Row.
Slightly different to the road to Hauxley, the sun had never managed to bear down on this road and there was very little traction anywhere. Switched left, then right but no real line to find that was better than the rest so just had to fight on and do whatever was possible. Managed to stay on Will’s heels through this section and not passed by anyone else so the race was going well. Fortunately, the road turned right and we found ourselves on hard trail again and there was some traction to be found, so with a mile to go the goal was to maintain speed, hold form and just see where we were with a few hundred metres to go….
I think the shoe choice (road carbons) was about right for this course, might have had a little more grip on the red row road in trails but on balance, I was pleased with my choice.
So coming round the cones on the roundabout and behind the pavilion for the last 200 metres, still with Will, about 3-4 metres behind, round pavilion, over the parkrun finish funnel, onto the grass and he’s gone, 4 seconds was the gap, about 10-15 metres by the line, not disappointed though great run by both of us (P11 and P12) and turned to see Stuart Smith follow us in only 6 seconds behind (P13), Division 2 is gonna be a tough one this year….
With it being hosted by Wild Deer, a Buff, Cider and snickers were the reward for my efforts and then the chance to welcome other BRC across the line and discuss what we had all just experienced.
It was a fantastic event to be honest, well organised and some friendly faces out and about around the course to offer support and motivation. Some good races within divisions and a great showing for BRC en mass with 29 appearing in the results for the Grand Prix as well as other BRC members there in the 10K and the HM. With many good results for individuals across the board, I am not going to single any one person out for specific recognition, more to simply say well done to everyone that took to the start line on the day, you did yourselves and the club proud (the wearing of Blyth vests at these events is a way of promoting our club and showing all just how lovely we are) and I hope you enjoyed the race and venue as much as I did, there really is no better place to undertake our sport/pastime than on our wonderful coastline.
So race 1 is done, division tables are on the website (and facebook) and we move on to race 2. Thank you to Wild Deer for putting on this event and well done to the Grand Prix Working Party for selecting it to be a part of this year’s competition.
The full results can be found HERE