South Shields Sand Dancer – 23rd April 2023

by Geoff Hewitson

A very busy time for local (and not so local!) races continued on Sunday at South Shields, where the local club hosted its annual Sand Dancer 10k. This year’s race was incorporated into our Club Championship but with many of our runners either competing elsewhere or nursing injuries there were just 8 of us taking part.

The Sand Dancer is advertised as multi-terrain, which is an accurate assessment, so anyone thinking of doing it for the first time don’t expect a road race. The course involves a combination of tarmac roads, paths and grass. Even on the latter, there are still clearly defined paths to run on, although you have to be careful to avoid turning an ankle on one of the many rabbit holes.

The weather wasn’t looking too promising when I set off but gradually improved on the drive to the coast, and by the time I got to South Shields it was virtually wall-to-wall clear blue sky and bright sunshine. Thankfully, for an exposed clifftop route, there was very little wind, and overall the conditions were pretty decent for running.

The race starts on the South Shields sea front adjacent to Gypsy Green Stadium. After a shortish stretch of promenade (parts of which were covered in sand that had blown from the beach) you are taken off-road then make a climb onto a clifftop path. Soon afterwards you embark on the first of two elongated rectangular loops of approximately 2.25 miles each. After completing the second loop there is a short downhill section of road leading back to the promenade, then finally it’s into Gypsy Green Stadium for a lap of the track to the finish.

In windy conditions, the ideal tactic would be to tuck in behind other runners to get as much cover as possible on the exposed part of the course, but as mentioned earlier this wasn’t really necessary on Sunday. Also, a smaller field than in previous years (196 finishers compared with 211 in 2022 and 327 in 2019) meant that runners were quite strung out so “drafting” opportunities would have been few and far between. The heavy rain on Friday night and Saturday had left a few puddles on some sections of the path but unlike the Wynyard parkrun, these were easy to avoid for the most part.

The entry fee is not too bad in comparison with similar races in the area. Numbers are collected on the day from Gypsy Green Stadium and the marshalls around the course are always very supportive and encouraging. As mentioned earlier there is chip timing and the results are available later the same day. All in all, a well-organised and enjoyable event.

Results summary (196 finishers)

Overall Vet prizes are awarded in 10 year age categories: M40 – 49, M50 – 59, M60+, F35 – 44, F45 – 54, and F55+

31	Matthew Brimm	43:38
42	Geoff Hewitson	46:07 – 2nd M60+
52	Andrew Heaviside	47:20
68	Helene Rusby	49:27:00
74	Gerry Hehir	49:54:00
86	Peter Coser	51:24:00
187	Ken Cawkwell	72:06:00
191	Frank Best	73:17:00

Well done everyone, but particularly Matthew Brimm who not only was first home for the club, but also achieved a new PB for 10k – no mean feat on a multi-terrain course. I’d hoped to be close to last years time and certainly managed to achieve that aim – a whole second quicker than my 46:08 from 2022! I should thank Matthew’s brother Simon for pushing me to achieve this time, even though he wasn’t aware of it. Although I was always just behind him, we were engaged in a protracted battle over the last 2 miles or so. I didn’t feel I had enough left in the tank to make a decisive move so decided to wait until we got on to the track and back myself in a sprint finish. Unfortunately, on the last stretch of promenade we caught and passed a Sunderland Stroller who then decided he wanted to join in the battle and this seemed to spur Simon on. As soon as we hit the track he made his move and although I was closing the gap towards the end, Simon held on by one place and a few seconds.

Having recently been ill and short of training as a consequence, Helene was feeling a bit anxious before the start, but in true Helene fashion she still managed to improve on her 2022 time by 17 seconds. On reaching the track for the final lap, and spurred on by his cheering clubmates, Peter C managed to produce 2 or 3 impressive bursts of speed and passed about 8 other runners in the process.

This year’s event was also the designated NEMAA 10k multi-terrain Championship race, meaning that all paid-up NEMAA members who took part were competing for medals. We did manage to enjoy a bit of success on the medals front, as shown below:

Geoff Hewitson	M65	GOLD
Gerry Hehir	M65	SILVER
Ken Cawkwell	M75	GOLD

The three of us also won GOLD in the M65+ team category.