Heaton Memorial 10K – 12th November 2023

by Caroline Teasdale

The Heaton Memorial 10K takes place on the Town Moor in Newcastle – a flat course that can be notoriously windy on a bad day. Thankfully I arrived in Newcastle in bright sunshine, cold but no breeze! I walked to collect my number then made my way back to the car to take a few layers off and warm up. Lee and Stan invited me to warm up with them which was nice and they happily ran my warm up pace.

I ditched the rest of my layers – by this time the sunshine was nice and warm – and made my way to the packed start (maybe around 500 runners)

I had a target of around 46 minutes. I’ve lost both speed and fitness over the summer however have been training consistently over the last couple of months and based on a few recent 5K time trials I thought this would be a challenging goal.

The first couple of miles I felt strong and full of life. I can’t pinpoint exactly where it all unravelled but, by mile 4, I was desperately trying to cling on to other runners around me and counting down the kilometres until it was over. As with any 10K the last two miles were utterly awful, I tried my very best but I could not go any faster at the end and crossed the line in 47:16. It is still progress and I will continue to stay motivated!

This is a very ‘no frills’ race so I was given a poppy-shaped medal, a bar of chocolate and a bottle of water. Charlotte got both the chocolate and the medal, so I drank my water and ran back to the car for a warm down. Lee ran a big PB and Stan had another blinder, securing 1st M55 and some more START FITNESS VOUCHERS!

Lee Thompson 34:01 (23rd overall)
Wayne Pearson 35:44 (47th / 1st M55)
Caroline Teasdale 47:16