There were three Morpeth Harriers at the annual Watergate Trail Race last Thursday, and all of them were age category winners. With the 5k, two lap multi terrain event again incorporating the NEMAA off road championships, John Butters was a winner in the Over 45s, finishing in 8th place overall in a time of 17:00. Lee Bennett was 1st O/50, 17:26 in 14th place, while Paul Bentley, in his first race for a while, won the O/75 category in 25:55.

Four Morpeth Harriers were in competitive action at Sunday’s annual Tartan Games, organised by Gateshead Harriers, and held at Gateshead Stadium.
Busiest of the quartet was undoubtedly Veteran Throws specialist, Claire Reid, who travelled down from her Scottish home, to compete in all three throws events.
Her best performance was in the Discus, where she was the leading Female, throwing a best of 30.73m.
In the Shot Putt, she finished fourth overall, and was third Woman, but first Veteran, putting a best in her series of 9.37m.
She also threw 16.61m in the Javelin, finishing ninth overall, and was second Veteran Woman.
Although she could only finish second, Morpeth Under 20 Woman Charlotte Earl managed a best of 4.81m in the Long Jump, improving her best by 3cm.
On the track, although he only finished second in the combined Under 13/Under 15 Boys Mile, Morpeth’s Elliot Mavir took the Under 15 Boys title, posting a time of 5m32.50s, in his first ever attempt at the distance.
In the combined Under 17/Under 20/Senior Men’s Mile, Morpeth Under 20 Man Joe Anderson finished second to Gala Harriers Senior Man Darrell Hastie, posting a time of 4m43.06s, beating fellow Under 20 Man Thomas McCaskill of Teviotdale, who finished third in 4m46.98s.

Winning medals in four out of the five competitions – three of those medals gold – Morpeth Harriers were a dominant force at the Signals Relays on Saturday afternoon.
 
The sunniest conditions anyone could remember at the event for a long time greeted the several hundred competitors representing clubs from all over the North East at the traditional venue of Hetton Lyons Country Park, Hetton-le-Hole for the 2021 fixture, moved from its traditional place in the Spring calendar after being cancelled altogether in 2020.
 
As is customary, Race 1 featured Veteran Men Over 50, Senior Women and Veteran Women, with teams of four all completing two laps (some 2.22 hilly miles) around the picturesque lake.
 
Morpeth were to the fore from the gun, with Guy Bracken, running leg 1 for a change instead of the customary leg 5 he has run for many years, soon at the front and Cat Macdonald leading the Women’s race.
 
Bracken was first home in 12 minutes 19 seconds with his old club, North Shields Polytechnic Harriers, chasing in second. Meanwhile Macdonald had run an impressive 12:31 not far behind to put the Women also in front.
 
Rob Hancox, some way off full fitness but keen to give himself a hard run out, was challenged all the way by the NSP leg 2 athlete, but did well to hold him off, finishing in 12:28, and with Alistair Macdonald, who has been in good form on the track in the last few weeks, clocking 13:13 the lead to the Poly was extended further.
 
The outcome of the Over 50s race was put out of any doubt when a flying Lee Bennett, who had won his age category at the Watergate Trail Race less than 48 hours previously, clocked an impressive 11:56. (Bennett was in fact the only athlete in Race 1 to record a time of under 12 minutes.)
 
The team’s cumulative time was 50:56 and the final margin of victory over NSP well over a minute at the end, with Sunderland Harriers having to settle for third.
 
In the Senior Women’s race Macdonald had passed on to Under 18 Kate Gaffing, one of two Mike Bateman coached teenagers stepping up to represent the club at senior level for the first time. Sticking purposefully to her run, Gaffing was overtaken by the vastly experienced Alex Sneddon of Jarrow and Hebburn, but finishing in 14:31 did enough to keep the team in contention, handing onto in form triathlete Millie Breese.
 
Still a few days short of her sixteenth birthday, Breese showed herself in no way overawed by the task ahead and set about reeling in the Jarrow and Hebburn athlete ahead of her. This she did in some style, her leg time of 12:43 the second fastest overall women’s time of the day which restored Morpeth’s lead and put the club in pole position on leg 4.
 
Rachelle Falloon was always in control on this leg, holding off the Jarrow challenge of Steph Patterson without too much difficulty and in fact increasing the margin of her lead by the finish.
 
With a final leg of 13:09, the team’s total time was 52:54., some 45 seconds ahead of second place Jarrow and Hebburn with Gateshead Harriers in third. (In fact the Senior Women’s time was only bested by the first three Men’s Over 50s.)

It may not be tripping off the tongue any easier, but the second running of the Morpeth parkrun at 9am on Saturday proved nearly as popular as last week’s inaugural event, with some 170 finishers in all this time.

First finisher in this week’s run was John Butters in a time of 17m 55s, a full minute ahead of his nearest challenger and only 4 seconds behind the time set by club colleague Richard Johnson the previous week.

This time round there were some 17 finishers from the club, proving that despite the early start and a tough, three-lap hilly course round Carlisle Park, enthusiasm for the event remains strong in the town. Full results here.