Gerry Hehir Tag

250
0

by Geoff Hewitson A reasonable turnout of 9 Crookites were present for this annual event, much healthier than in 2023 when I was the sole club representative, and 2022 when I think it was just Stan and myself. A less than encouraging weather forecast (to put it mildly) for Sunday morning unfortunately proved to be spot on, and we were greeted on arrival with lashing rain and what felt like a freezing cold Northerly wind. As we took refuge inside the

256
0

by Jill Berry Denyse Holman & Jayne Henderson convinced me that it would be a nice idea to register to run Hamsterley 10k trail race. The day of the race we all met up at the Nest car park looking a little nervous and not sure of what to fully expect. We met with Mark Standbridge and Jason Marr too and we all went to collect our race numbers. The run nation marshals were lovely and the event was very well organised. Looking

515
0

By Gerry Hehir Sunday morning, after the presentation evening, saw me and Jane set off on our next half marathon run, this time we were heading north up to Alnwick Castle and a run around the castle grounds. We met up with our very own Crook star Kelly who had decided to add a trail half marathon to her marathon training programme. We all gathered below the castle walls next to the river (wet and muddy) the ground looked as clarty as

266
0

by Geoff Hewitson “There is a course in Old Wallsend They call the Rising Sun And it's been the ruin of many a runner And God, I know, I’m one!” Well OK, so it’s not quite the opening lines to the early 60’s classic “House of the Rising Sun” by the Animals, but if lead singer Eric Burden (and/or the rest of the band) had experienced Saturday’s event, he may well have been tempted to change the lyrics! The link to the song (other than the

267
0

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

254
0

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

270
0

by Gerry Hehir Sunday morning saw me and Jane heading up to Housesteads roman fort for the start of the Hadrian's Wall half marathon. It was freezing 🥶. The race is well organised and runners set off in waves so that the narrow paths along the wall don’t get clogged up. I dropped Jane off at the start then drove back to the finish at Hexham and got the bus back up to the start. As I said, it was bitter, even with

259
0

by Geoff Hewitson The second NEMAA Track & Field League meeting of the 2023 season took place last Monday evening, once more in near perfect weather conditions. The men's team had a reasonable turnout of 9 competitors, including a welcome return to NEMAA competition for Jason Marr. A combination of unavailability and Kimberley being struck down with Covid at the 11th hour meant that the ladies only had the bare minimum of 3 competitors necessary to constitute a team. The men’s team

218
0

by Gerry Hehir Saturday morning saw me and Jane head off to Reeth for 2023 Swaledale marathon. Nothing new about that I suppose until we rewind to about 6 weeks ago, someone asked Jane if she was running it this year 🤔. Unlike other years where we had put in lots of time and effort to train for this tough run. So we started (sort of) our training runs. I managed 3 and Jane a couple more, all of them in cold

284
0

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