Tag Archive: North East
September 19, 2025,
by Pete
There are two races I run most years for reasons entirely detached from the race itself; Blaydon and the Great North Run. I don’t run them because the courses are good, or because I might get a personal best, or even because it’s convenient. I run them because I’m northern and it’s what we do. It’s road running, it’s fast, the stupid shoes make my stupid quads hurt. But it’s what we do. Blaydon was three weeks before Lavaredo and went surprisingly well. As is often the case with Blaydon, it would’ve comfortably been a 10km personal best if only the race wasn’t a 9.6km race, plenty of positives and a lovely little confidence boost ahead of the year’s first a-race. The Great North Run was four weeks out from my other a-race, Ultra Pirineu, and the build up had been turbulent to say the least. At the start of... View Article
There’s a saying, often attributed to Disraeli, that there’s three types of lies; lies, damned lies, and statistics. I can’t tell you if Disraeli ever said such a thing, but I can tell you it’s been true in my running. After being frustrated on my Bob Graham attempt in May, I wasted no time getting running again. I was back out within a couple of days. That next weekend I set a target to take a Strava crown on a four mile segment I’d been eyeing up and did so comfortably. The weekend after that was the Trail Pursuit half marathon, which last minute route changes had turned into a 15 mile technical fell run. Bad news for people who paid in good faith for an accessible trail, good news for gluttons for punishment like myself. All seemed to be going to plan until a frustrating outing at Blencathra Fell... View Article
Blood. I knew there had to be a way to identify other marathoners in the crowds running up the beach towards the finish. All race distances had different coloured numbers, but from behind that was no help. Luckily, mud caked, bloody and scratched legs were a dead give away. But that was later. Of course. At the end. We’d started almost four hours earlier, wide eyed and shivery in the shadow of Alnwick Castle. It was a surprisingly cold start to the day – or perhaps I just have a poor grasp of how cold clear mornings in February are. The event was Endurance Life Northumberland, with four distances culminating in a finish at Bamburgh. A friend and I plumped for the marathon distance, though it was of course a mile and a half longer because in trail world no one cares how long you hurt for. I imagine this... View Article
December 18, 2019,
by Pete
I always said no to Cross Country. Marathon training was my usual excuse. Saturday is long run day, but really it was the memory of how crap it was at school running along the grassy cliff tops in the cold. This season though, I ran out of excuses. I’m not marathon training yet and my enjoyment of the fells made me think cross country might be worth a try. My first two outings have been in the Harrier League, and it turns out this cross country running lark is popular. Wrekenton proved to be a pretty dry and pleasant affair and then, as if to show how grim things can get, Aykley Heads was a mud bath of epic proportions. We’re talking like the fields of Agincourt kind of muddy. There are probably people still out there, crying for help under a foot or two of sludge. Aykley Heads was... View Article
September 9, 2019,
by Pete
There are many things that I find frustrating about the Great North Run. It’s expensive, over commercialised and mainly ran on dual carriageways. There are too many people and the t-shirts are cheap. But the moment I hear the gun, and the opening bars of Local Hero come from the speakers, all frustrations are forgotten. The run up to this years event has been a little different for me. I’d been having a golden spell in early summer. In eight days I ran personal bests for 5k, 10k and the Chevy Chase. Everything seemed to be falling into place right until the moment I took a tumble at the Turner Landscape. As my ankle turned over on itself, I saw my hopes of a quick summer disappear. It’s been a tough five weeks since. I spent two weeks flailing around attempting to swim before a gradual return to running. I squeezed into my start pen... View Article
There’s a little section on the club website that says to try to limit yourself to one important race or PB attempt in any four week period. I couldn’t help but think of it while I flagrantly ignored it on my drive to Silksworth for the Sunderland 5k. It was Pablo Picasso who said, “learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist”. I’m not sure that’s exactly what I was doing, but chalking it down to artistry rather than stubbornness works for me. I’d ran Tynedale 10k last Wednesday and ran a PB by over 40 seconds. On Saturday it was the Chevy and the elation of crushing past performances there too. This week my legs are feeling tired but my mind is raring to go still, I’m just enjoying it at the moment. So, remembering it was the Sunderland 5k, I headed south after work.... View Article
There are a few basic elements of a good narrative — you have a character, some conflict or adversity, and then a resolution. The thing that keeps us reading, watching or listening is the tension between those things. The writers of the medieval Ballad of the Chevy Chase understood this. They recounted a tale of Harry Hotspur, Earl of Northumberland, going on a hunt in the Cheviot Hills. The Scottish Earl Douglas saw this as an invasion and set off in pursuit, losing his life in the following battle. It had all those elements of a good story. Seven centuries later, competing in the 63rd Chevy Chase fell race, I expected a similarly epic story — though hopefully without a death at the end. What more would you want from a race steeped in such heritage? I was already penning a race report in my head, usually ending with me... View Article
I don’t think there’s a race start quite like the Tynedale 10k anywhere in the north. A steep downhill that eases off and sweeps you from Ovington into Ovingham. The challenge isn’t to start fast, but rather not to start too fast. I set my 10k PB two summers ago in Morpeth at 40:43. It was a hazy, dreamy, summer night and I’d set out for a 42:30 and found myself faster than I’d believed possible. I hoped I’d go on from that to get a sub-40 but it just wouldn’t come. My times started to slacken off and I settled in to 41-42 minute territory. Preparing for this race I couldn’t help but think that this might be my day. It’s a little over a mile up from the race headquarters up to the start line in Ovingham, but it’s a pretty walk and helps prepare you. My strategy was to... View Article
On Sunday the elites of world mountain running raced at Zegama. It’s a race so legendary that they say, “Zegama is Zegama,” as though nothing could convey the essence of the race except the name itself. Basque crowds line the path of the Sancti Spiritu climb, only inches from the runners, to cheer them on. It’s a definite on my bucket-list, but also almost impossible to get into. There’s little I can do except keep entering the ballot and live in hope. Last night was the annual Ernie Johnson Memorial Penshaw Hill Race. It’s not Zegama but, for the briefest of moments, hurtling through the woods around the back of the monument, you could imagine. Penshaw Hill is a low lying hill that sits to the west of the city of Sunderland. It’s visible across the area thanks to the half size replica of the Temple of Hephaestus, in Athens, that... View Article
