2023 Tag

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by Mel Riley The day after the Neptune Relays, Darlington Harriers hosted the first event of their mile series at South Park. The route is basically one lap of the parkrun, finishing at the top of the little (killer!!) hill beside the bowling green. When entering we were asked what our mile time would be so we could be set off in waves with people of similar ability rather than in one group. It had been raining most of the day

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by Brad Wight While most of the club were tackling the Blackhill Relays, I was working away in Lancashire. Again, the Runbritain race listings gave me options, nothing on my doorstep but I decided the 30 min drive to Kirkby Stephen for a 10K road race made more sense than 5Ks in Workington or Stockport. The race was hosted by Howgill Harriers and was a friendly event with approximately 40 runners and a junior race was held beforehand. Another local club, Eden

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by Brad Wight I had a midweek work meeting to attend in Congleton in Cheshire last Thursday so had a look on the Runbritain site to see if there were any races in that neck of the woods. Top of the list and only a three mile drive from my hotel was: “The Killer Mile – 25% gradient road race”. Well that sounds interesting! It’s a very popular race which has been held annually since 1982 and was originally intended to be the opposite

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by Geoff Hewitson Over 50 teams took part in this popular mixed team format relay on the site of the former Consett Steelworks. The course is a challenging loop of approximately 2.1 miles with the notorious hill coming near the end. Our Club has enjoyed a great deal of success in this event, having either won it or finished in the top 3 on several occasions. In 2022 we finished runners-up and were the overall winners the previous time it was

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by Alex Hird Over the weekend, the 2023 North East Counties Track & Field Championships were held at Middlesbrough Sports Village. The highlight of the weekend was having team GB athlete Richard Kilty (aka the Teesside Tornado) in attendance. He broke the North East 100m record on the Saturday, and returned on Sunday to take gold again in the 200m. I entered the 800m on the Sunday, and due to only 9 entering, I made the final automatically! It was an extremely strong field,

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by Andy Turnell This was my second time at the Gateshead Half. Up until last year I limited myself to one Half Marathon a year at Redcar but decided to see how an early season race would feel so opted for Gateshead. This year I decided to park at Heworth and then jog to the International Stadium for my warm-up. On the way I passed the Dolans (Andrew and Anthony) who looked to be "in the mood for running". The forecast in

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by Geoff Hewitson Despite the fact that races were taking place elsewhere in the region (notably in Gateshead) I was still a bit surprised to find myself as the sole Crookite at this normally popular event. Looking back to pre-Covid times, there were 13 of us at the 2018 running, although last year I think it was just Stan and myself. Anyway, despite a less than encouraging weather forecast, over in Hartlepool it turned out to be a fairly pleasant morning.

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by Paul Wragg A day in the life of a King & Queen After being informed by King Ken about the race starting at 11 instead of 10:30 I thought I would check my emails against his better judgement. Lo and behold every email said 10:30. Arriving at Queen Jill's castle for 8:30 we swiftly departed and arrived at the Kings quarters shortly afterwards. The man himself was stood waiting sceptre in hand (empty milk carton) I’ll let your imagination do the

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by Kieron Day The Wheelbirks Farm in Stocksfield set the stage for an unforgettable weekend at the Cowshed Backyard Ultra. In this unique race format, each runner had to complete a 4.16-mile loop every hour until only one was left standing. Any leftover time between completing a 'backyard' and the start of the next one could be used for rest, refuelling, or a quick visit to the portaloo! This event was my first introduction to endurance running and was completely uncharted territory

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by Andy Turnell Races don't come more local for me than this one. I can see a lot of the course from my bedroom window. It's described as a "Beginner's Fell Race" and I did it for the first time last year. It's always held in April as that's the only month of the year that there is no livestock on Cockfield Fell. It's a fairly unique race in my opinion. Firstly because the organisers aren't allowed to mark out the course (apart