Author: carlliver

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by Rob Teasdale The very popular Brass Monkey once again delivered the goods with a cracking turnout of 14 runners from the club. For the first time this years event was a ballot process which meant many missed out, I did originally but thanks to Lee I was able to secure a place. Not that I need motivating to run but I always feel a place in Brass keeps you going over those winter months when it’s cold and dark to get out

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by Brad Wight The Northern Cross Country Championships were held last Saturday at Sedgefield and what a cracking event it was. The organization was excellent, the weather behaved, and we had some cracking results! Rory Hart and Alex Merryweather were first up for Crook in the U17s race. The front runners were extremely fast, covering the 3.5 mile course in little over 18 minutes. Rory finished 20th overall in a time of 19:28 (roughly equal to a 5K time of 17:15) which

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by Gerry Hehir Saturday morning saw me and Jane set off on our next half marathon run, this time we were heading back to Yorkshire and it was the Harewood House Trail half marathon. The weather was cold but clear and the sun was shining. It was on a new course from last year, instead of 2 laps around a very hilly and muddy trail we did the 1 lap and then they added an even hillier and muddier second loop. The

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by Geoff Hewitson This annual event was traditionally held on a January Sunday morning in Durham for many years, when it was known as the Cathedral Relays. Towards the end of 2018 the long-standing host club (Durham City Harriers) pulled out of organising the event at which point Birtley AC stepped in to take it over, and moved the venue to the Lord Lawson of Beamish Academy in Birtley. It was held here for the first time in January 2019. The

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by Sam Etherington This race was a new one to the series and going from the previous events it was going to be a good one. I didn’t realise however, before entering, that it clashed with the NE Champs so I’d double booked myself and felt I had to give both a go. After a good run out at South Shields I had a couple hours turnaround before heading up towards Northumberland, Amy came along as well to see if she could

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by Brad Wight One of the things I've loved most about this club since joining three years ago is the team spirit and camaraderie at team relays and cross country meets. There’s something about bad weather that amplifies this and Saturday was no exception, we had some good individual and team results and as far as I know, everyone really enjoyed the day! After a quick detour to South Shields parkrun, we had the tent set up in time for the first

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by Geoff Hewitson Described on the race entry form as “A beautifully scenic, always inspirational, often challenging, approximately 5 mile handicap race along the sands between Blyth Harbour and Seaton Sluice Harbour” (wouldn’t disagree with any of that) 2023 was the 63rd running of what is one of the region's oldest races. Despite lots of expressions of interest, ultimately there were only three Crookites in this year’s race - myself and “Sands Race debutants” Lisa Donaldson and Phil Healey. The start time

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Ladies & M65 Race - by Lisa Donaldson 11 Crook ladies & 5 M65’s lined up for this extra tough course and last fixture at this venue. Some may be pleased but I’m sure it will be replaced with an even tougher one! The start was a bit delayed so a quick dash back for our coats as we were freezing our what’s its off and no sooner were we back than they were setting everyone off! So off went the slow pack

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by Andy Turnell We submitted 3 teams for this relay as not many people came forward, so we had 1 senior ladies, 1 masters men and 1 senior men, after a few rearrangements we had our complete teams ready to tackle the not so easy course. As relays go, I would say this is the toughest you’re going to get with the XC conditions under foot and for someone who wasn’t actually racing this event and only spectating, the mud was unreal

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by Josh Pearson I only signed up for this race around 1 week before the event took place. I thought it would be great to test myself over a harder and hillier 10k with mainly up and downhill and basically no flat sections at all. I arrived at the event around 1 hour before the race. I had a wander around the small village and the outskirts of the village and the views were out of this world. I managed to check