 Kielder Marathon Weekend Saturday & Sunday 12th & 13th October 2019 Around 7,000 athletes took part in the tenth anniversary edition of the Kielder Marathon series
with Morpeth Harriers represented across all of the weekend’s events. A decade since Steve Cram’s Events of the North company organised the first race along the gruelling 26.2-mile off-road course, the weekend has blossomed into a popular series of running and cycling races. Sunday’s marathon is now accompanied by a half marathon which takes in part of the same course around Kielder Water. And Saturday sees the popular Run-Bike-Run individual and team races, plus a 10k and junior events. Athletes faced variable conditions across the weekend with blue skies and sunshine on Saturday but mist and rain on the Sunday. By the time the marathon was coming to its conclusion on Sunday afternoon, the downpours were occasionally torrential and conditions were getting challenging under foot. Morpeth’s sole medal success came in the 10k where Mark Snowball ran a time of 35mins 25secs on the undulating course, which saw him claim second place. Mark finished 20secs behind winner Liam Taylor, of Sunderland Harriers. In the marathon, Morpeth’s highest finisher was Andrew Hebden, who was on the starting line for the inaugural race in 2010 and has only missed it once since. His time of 2hrs 58mins 42secs was just 20secs shy of his course PB and secured him seventh place overall in the fastest field in the event’s history. The gold medal went to North East veteran Iain Tweddle in a time of 2hrs 45mins 56 secs. He saw off a determined challenge from Keswick AC’s Russell Maddams (2hrs 47mins 6secs), who had been looking to secure a third successive Kielder title. Second home for Morpeth was Gary Mason, who finished 176th 3hrs 58mins 48secs, while Jane Briggs and Mike Steven crossed the line together in 4hrs 37mins 23secs, in 394th and 395th place respectively. Morpeth’s sole representative in the half marathon was Jill Sandeman who finished 653rd in a time of 2hrs 18mins 14secs. The club’s other finishers in the 10k were Clare Walker and Carol Parry who crossed the line together in 1hr 1min 26secs, in 466th and 467th place respectively. Brothers George and Hamish Tweedie, meanwhile, flew the flag for Morpeth in the junior run, finishing in 10th and 12th place respectively. Comments are closed.
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