By Carolyn Davy – 01/04/2018
North Tyneside 10K – the one with the defective goody bag!!
Easter Sunday – a day for gorging on chocolate and Bank Holiday drinking? Not if you are Alan and I! We knew we would be in the North East over the Easter weekend for a family birthday and being a beginner I needed a run to aim for to make sure I kept running over the winter. We booked ourselves onto the North Tyneside 10K, a run from North Shields to St Mary’s Lighthouse along the North East coastline. After booking my cousin advised of a hill at 2-3 miles which has a bit of a kick to it – great!!
Race day comes along and with the weather being more favourable than forecast we headed to The Parks leisure centre in North Shields for the start. Checking out the local running club vests to see which clubs were represented – North Shields Poly, Blaydon, Morpeth, STAC – hang on there’s a guy in a STAC vest! Alan’s race target has just appeared!!
Just before 11am we were shepherded towards the start line and with a very quiet “Ready, Get Steady” and the most rubbish horn we were off. Through North Shields town, down Borough Bank and towards the Fish Quay. Running past the fishing boats and fish shops without queues waiting for the local catch (no not some gadgie from Geordie Shore – the fish variety) was very surreal but on we went along the banks of the Tyne towards Tynemouth Priory and Castle and the dreaded hill.
The path turned left up a steady incline then a short downhill and a second slightly steeper incline and I was at the top – still breathing and feeling grateful that it wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be! Now just an almost flat 3.5 mile stretch to the finish. However a 3.5 mile run with the finish line in sight almost the whole way along like a lighthouse shaped carrot!!
There were plenty of spectators along the route, kids high fiving and a water station if needed, making runners feel very supported.
My cousin who was meant to run made an appearance at 5.5 miles with some really appreciated encouragement and with that I threw everything I had left at the last half mile or so. Coming into the finish straight and seeing the clock start with a 55 I knew a PB was possible.
Knowing Alan would have been long finished I headed through the funnel collecting my goody bag with a tech t-shirt and a pair of socks and grabbed a bottle of water. However soon discovered my goody bag was defective as there was NO CHOCOLATE!! WHAT!!! It’s Easter Sunday, I’ve just completed a 10K and there is no confectionery at all.
I met Alan after he had a chat with Dan from STAC and went and took our standard lighthouse picture then headed back to my parents’ house to rectify the lack of chocolate with a PB in my pocket.
