The inaugural HogmanHaway 5k took place on New Year’s Eve in Newcastle, with over 1500 taking the chance to post one last performance in 2025 before the New Year celebrations themselves began.
Featuring elite men’s and women’s races over a three lap course round the top end of the city, to be followed thereafter by a mass participation event, distinctly chilly weather compounded by a sharp breeze wasn’t enough to deter the many enthusiastic runners in an event which looks certain to grow in popularity in the future. 
And it was a victorious homecoming for Morpeth Harrier Scott Beattie as he took to the roads once again in his home town after his excellent performance in the European Cross Country Championships in Portugal recently, where he had been narrowly edged out of a medal.
Posting a time of 13 minutes 59.2 seconds, Beattie was in the end a comfortable winner over second placed runner Aron Gebremaria of Birchfield Harriers (14:17.5) and Sheffield and Dearne’s James Gormley, third in 14:27.9.
Three club colleagues also had the distinction of appearing in the elite field, with Peter Smallcombe 8th in 14:44.7, James Tilley 13th in 15:13.1 and Ellis Hetherington one place behind in 15:43.1.
The women’s race was won by Newbury runner Izzy Fry in 15:48.7 with Verity Ockenden of Swansea Harriers 2nd in 16:03.2 and Herne Hill Harrier Lucy Jones 3rd in 16:04.3.
With the elite races over, the ensuing open to all 5k followed a slightly different route round the city centre, with a rather congested start (requiring  some pointy elbows) soon giving to a well strung out field in a twisty and turny course and just over 1500 finishers.
Won in a time of 15:24.7 by Gateshead Harrier Alfie Cook with Birtley Harrier Katie Francis recording the fastest women’s time of 17:56.2, no less than thirteen Morpeth Harriers also ran, with Liam Roche 4th in 15:32.7 and Matthew Walton 7th in 15:46.7.
It was certainly a successful night for the Roches, with Liam’s younger sister Molly 3rd female finisher in 18:44 and brother Thomas 147th in 20:15.8.
Under 15s Mason Gaylor and Heidi Wilkinson were 20th (16:28.9) and 4th Female (18:56) respectively.
Link to full results here: Professional Chip Timing & Event Services in the UK | Titanium Race Timing
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Club subscriptions for 2026 are due from January 1.
 
Fees for this year will rise by £5 largely to take into account the rise in England Athletics affiliation fees, which will rise by £3.  
 
Members are encouraged to pay fees by the end of February at the latest to allow for the smooth processing of EA affiliation fees ahead of the new registration year.
 
Subs can be paid online and should be marked with a reference to subs and the name of the member.
 
Members are also encouraged to accept the EA athlete code of conduct. This can be done by logging into the EA portal with your EA registration number. Athletes should also check that their data and contact details are accurate. 

For full details and to complete your membership renewal please click here.

Valencia Marathon
 
The Valencia Marathon, one of the last big city marathons in the annual calendar, took place on 7 December with a field of over 18,000 running.
 
In a race won by Kenyan John Korir in 2 hours 2 minutes and 5 seconds, with compatriot Joyciline Jepkosgei breaking the women’s course record to win in 2:14:00, Olympic gold medal winning triathlete Alex Yee in 9th produced a remarkable time of 2:06:38 to go second on the UK all time list behind Sir Mo Farah.
 
Three Morpeth Harriers also made the journey over to Spain, with the versatile Ali Douglass – whose run at every distance from 800m to 100k this year - clocking 2: 37: 45 to finish just outside the top 1000, O/50 John Butters recording 3:04:20 and Lindsey Quinn 3: 52: 21.
 
Ranking . Maratón . Valencia Ciudad del Running
 
Blyth Sands Race
 
It might not have as warm as Spain, but conditions were the best for many years down on the beach at Blyth, where the 65th running of the Sands Race, from Blyth to Seaton Sluice and back (a distance of just short of five miles) took place.
 
There was even an unexpected bonus this year for the two hundred or so who took part in the uniquely handicapped event, with low tides meaning competitors were even able to avoid the dreaded ‘groynes’ in front of the beach huts and were instead able to sneak round the bottom end, albeit at the cost of some wet feet.
 
There was an excellent win for the club too, with Over 70 veteran Gavin Bayne finishing his racing year in fine style with a victory in a time of 35 minutes 25 seconds off an eleven minute handicap.
 
Bayne finished over thirty seconds ahead of 2nd placed NSP Harrier Steph Maclean-Dann, running off 9 minutes, and her team mate Wendy Pawsey, running off 8.
 
Last year’s winner Jimmy Anderson ran the day’s fastest net time of 25:44 in 4th place with the Poly cleaning up for the team prize.
 
Disappointingly there were only two other Morpeth vests out, with Peter Scaife 72nd off a 9 minute handicap and Fran Robson  93rd off 11.
 
Some 167 finished in total.
 
Blyth Sands Race 2025 - Blyth Running Club
 
York Even Splits 5k
 
The most recent in the monthly York Even Splits 5k, run over the cycle circuit in the University Sports Village on a Friday evening, saw two Morpeth Harriers in action.
 
Ellis Hetherington was 3rd in 15:19 behind race winner Sebastian Kingston (15:09) and John Haden (15:18) and Josh Fiddaman 4th in 15:28.
 
York 5K (DEC '25) results - RaceBest

The North East Counties Athletics Association’s annual cross country championships took place on Saturday afternoon at Steward Park, Middlesbrough, at the birthplace of Captain Cook and under the stern gaze of several Moai statues.
 
The 7km course was on reasonably firm grassland, only slightly muddy in places; Stewart Park isn’t large, but the organisers had done well with it, adding a few convolutions to each lap after the first, which comprised several up and down slopes without ever being steep. Most comments afterwards were certainly favourable.
 
On a day of thinner pickings by comparison with last year, there were nevertheless one team Gold and one team Bronze medals, allied to two individual Golds, one Silver and two Bronzes for the club.
 
First races of the day for the Under 13s saw Morpeth’s keen squad narrowly miss out on a team medal (although confusingly credited with one on the day, with chips of several others not registering), with the boys finishing 4th overall behind NSP, Tynedale and Darlington. Joe Fawcett was first back in 16th, Luke Thompson 19th and Will Fawcett 26th. Disappointingly, no U/13 Girls ran.
 
The first individual medals of the day came in the U/15 Boys, with Mason Gaylor collecting a Bronze, with the team again in 4th. Jack Dhawar was 18th and Jacob Thompson 39th.
 
Although there were no individual medals in the U/15 Girls, there was, however, a team Bronze, with the club finishing behind Durham City and Birtley. Heidi Wilkinson was 5th, Faye Heatley 10th and Zoe Tomlinson, still making her way back to full fitness, 31st.
 
The club’s first Gold of the afternoon came courtesy of a terrific run by Molly Roche in the U/17/20 combined race, where she finished 3rd overall but 1st U/17 and indeed only some 17 seconds behind the race winner. Emma Tomlinson was 21st and 10th U/17, with the absence of a third placed counter undoubtedly costing a team medal. There were no U/17 Boys running.
 
Molly’s older brother Liam also collected a medal, Silver this time, in the U/20 Men’s race. Oliver Tomlinson also ran well to finish in 8th, but once again no third counter meant a trophy the club has won for several years running went begging.
 
Final two races of the day were the Senior Men’s and Women’s, with the club looking to defend both titles won last year.
 
And one of the stand-out runs of the day by a dominant Chris Coulson from the off saw a gun to tape victory by a margin of 37 seconds over Gateshead’s Josh Blevins, with TBH’s  veteran Jarlath Mckenna defying the years to finish third.
 
However, with a Morpeth squad badly affected by illness, injury and unavailability, it was always going to be a close thing to see if the club could retain a title they have consistently won for over ten years.
 
It was looking promising half way through the race but ominous packing from a delighted Gateshead Harriers in the end saw them pinch the title by a ten point margin, with Morpeth on 117 points. TBH were third on 132.
 
The club’s five counters behind Chris were Matthew Walton, making the top ten in 9th, Connor Marshall, 19th, Matthew Briggs just the one place behind in 20th, Dan Dixon, in his first cross country outing for over two years, 32nd and Lee Cuthbertson, 36th. Tom Innes (63rd) and Andrew Mirfield (79th in his first ever North Eastern) also ran well.
 
Final race of the day saw undoubtedly the day’s best team performance, with the Senior Women defending a title they had won last year at Temple Park.
 
The team of Millie Breese, Poppy Buck, Holly Lawrence and Lizzie Rank set off with intent, with all four in the first nine after half a mile. Millie battled with Megan Stenhouse of Durham University until the second lap when the Nathan Shrubb coached Stenhouse, who was been in imperious form in the North East over the last few months, injected some pace and opened a considerable gap.
 
Millie was then overtaken by Helen Warburton from Tyne Bridge, and held third place from that point. Considering her recent problem with a hip injury, some slight reduction in endurance was perhaps to be expected, but the team GB Under 23 triathlete can be very pleased with her individual medal.
 
A determined force behind Millie was Lizzie, who held her fourth place throughout. Her pace after the pack settled down was remarkably constant for the remaining three miles. This is a feature from her training for ironman events during the year, a big contribution to this excellent result.
 
Although not at her best, Holly battled her way through from seventh to fifth, eventually collapsing on the line, although happily she recovered after a few minutes ready for the presentations. Considering the effort required to achieve this result, Holly can look forward to her next races being less dramatic!
 
Behind Holly, Poppy’s performance was a gritty display, as she was beset by severe pain in her back. Nevertheless she kept working very hard and although a few got past, she held up very well to finish 20th out of 132 finishers.
 
Altogether this was a magnificent triumph over adversity, and any senior women reading this will hopefully be proud of what the Morpeth team achieved on the day, they may also reflect that had one of these girls dropped out from injury or illness, there was no cover, and no team medals would have been won. Hopefully the club can have strong teams with some spare capacity in future. The team scored 32 points, with a 26 point margin over second placed Tyne Bridge and another 37 points over Sunderland Harriers.
 
A day of mixed fortunes then, and while congratulations must be extended to all individual and team medallists, something of a disappointment overall for the club after last year’s achievements. 

Full results here

Morpeth Harriers Scott Beattie and Rory Leonard had the distinction of competing for Great Britain in the European Cross Country Championships held in Lagoa, Portugal on a sunny Sunday morning, with Scott most unfortunate to miss out on an individual medal by the tightest of margins.
 
On a five lap, short 7.5 kilometre course – and a course some 3.5k shorter and markedly different in character from that on which the North East Cross Country Championships were held the day before – both athletes showed that they belonged win this illustrious company, which included  World Athletics 10,000m Gold medallist Frenchman Jimmy Gressier, and were soon showing near the front of the race.
 
With Gressier and eventual winner Spaniard Thierry Ndikumwenayo pushing ahead on the last lap, Scott was left with a battle for a Bronze medal with Swiss athlete Dominic Lobalu in which the lead changed hands several times as the runners twisted and turned back and forth on a course he later described as being ‘pretty impossible to get into any sort of rhythm’ on.
 
Falling across the line neck and neck, Scott was credited with exactly the same time as the Swiss, but lost by the thickness of a vest in the photo finish.
 
The understandably disappointed Morpeth Harrier did later comment however: ‘I gave it everything I had and ran the race I thought I should. It is validation to me that I can compete at this level and get it done on the day and hopefully that can translate next year.’
 
Meanwhile teammate and training partner Rory Leonard also ran well, finishing in 17th place and second counter for a GB team who sadly finished just out of the team medals in fourth behind winners Spain, Ireland and France.