Northumberland
Half
[Mon 7th Mar 2011] On a cold
morning, 34 runners from Blyth joined over 300 runners on the road outside
Wallington Hall for the start of the inaugural running of the Northumberland
half marathon. The starters included Dave
Cox who, having turned up without any running shoes, spent ½ hour stopping
perfect strangers to try and scrounge the use of a pair of size 9’s! By the time we all set off on the first
(downhill) mile, the weather had improved to give us near ideal running
conditions. Following the laws of
physics that states what goes down will have to go back up, we were soon
hitting the first of many ‘undulations’.
The course was scenic, although some of the winding country lanes were a
bit narrow and blind bends were a bit of a worry, as was the 2 or 3 occasions
that the runners had to cross from one side of the road to the other. Luckily the majority of the drivers using the
roads were sensible.
The
sting in the tail on this course was the hill at 12 miles – lots of cursing
going on at that point – before a welcome downhill stretch back to the estate
entrance. Slight problem at this stage
as runners were competing with cars to get into the grounds and weaving between
the cars became necessary at times.
Congrats to the marshal’s for handling this situation well.
First
back for Blyth in a very creditable 7th overall was Peter Brown with a time of
1:20:54, followed by Michael Butters with 1:23:12 for 12th place and Robbie Barkley with 1:25:26 in 16th
. First Blyth lady and 3rd lady overall
was Heather Christopher, 53rd overall in 1:33:28. Rob
Hall, who finished 33rd overall, was first back in the men's O60 age category
and Davina won her first ever prize as she finished
first LV45. Also well done to two of the
clubs newer members, Beverley and Mark Jennison, we
hope you enjoyed your first run in club colours.
The
full results can be found on the Team Decathlon web site by clicking HERE
Some
photos of the day are on the Photo's page of the web site, for the full
collection see Dave K's photo's site by clicking HERE