 The leading pack in the 40th edition of the Blaydon Race The 9th of June saw the return after a two-year Covid-enforced absence of the Blaydon Race, celebrating its 40th Anniversary in 2022.
This year’s event had faced numerous obstacles to even get on, and it is to the great credit of host club Blaydon Harriers and all those involved with its organisation that their determination to ensure it took place meant it could again be staged despite the many difficulties in so doing. There had to be changes, however, and notably to the start, which for the first time ever was not on Collingwood Street, near to Balmbra’s, where of course Geordie Ridley’s Tyneside anthem had its earliest airing. With runners unable to congregate on Grey Street, partly due to changes in the layout there, and with a bottleneck on the course after only a few hundred yards in front of the new Vita student flats, the organisers accepted they needed to find a different start and moved down to the Quayside. Now starting pretty much where August’s Quayside 5k is held, this meant a much less congested area for runners and a flattish long run of nearly two miles along the road under the Tyne Bridges by the side of the river, even if the route doesn’t any more follow completely that laid out in the original song. Thereafter, runners climbed out through Newcastle Business Park up a steady incline to ‘gan along the Scottswood Road’ once more, although further course changes took the out and back dogleg after the Chain Bridge further than in previous years and increased the distance to just short of 10k. A leading group of some seven or eight soon formed at the head of the race, with Carl Avery, Finn Brodie and Sam Hancox very much to the fore in the first few miles. Thereafter, a break away by Avery saw him joined by 2019 winner Graham Rush of Leeds City and Gateshead Harrier Calum Johnson as these three battled for the final medals. In the end, it was Johnson who was able to take a decisive lead, winning for the first time in 29 minutes 19 seconds. Rush was 2nd in 29:28 and Carl had to settle for a gutsy 3rd (29:35). With Finn 4th (29:46) and Sam 7th (29:54), the club did have three finishers in the top ten however, and when Ali Douglas placed 21st (32:17), Morpeth were once again confirmed as the winning team, thus enabling race commentator (one George Patterson, of this parish) to again take the trophy home… Wallsend Harrier Danielle Hodgkinson (who’d taken part in the Stan Long Mile only 24 hours previously) was 1st Female finisher in 33:58 with Sunderland Stroller and leading vet Ally Dixon 2nd in 35:08. Cat Macdonald continued her fine year by coming in in 3rd place (35:44), although she was also credited as 1st Senior Female, with Rachelle Falloon in 10th (37:39). With veterans not counting for the team prize, the club’s Senior Women (with Lindsey and Tayla making up the count) were unfortunate to miss out Tyne Bridge Harriers by a margin of only six places. Morpeth’s other finishers, many of whom had only realised they had an entry, going back to 2019, when it dropped in the letter-box (and some of whom were still listed as running for other clubs) included: Andy Lawrence, 22nd in 32:24; Ian Harding, 4th Over 40, 31st in 32:40; Mark Snowball, 35th in 33:12; Mark Banks, feeling the previous night’s mile race, 81st in 35:24; Jake Parmley, 132nd in 36:41; Shaun Land, 139th in 36:53; Rob Hancox, 201st in 38:30; Jamie Johnson, 211th in 38:42; Neil Gunstone, 231st in 39:14; Mike Winter, 361st in 41:34; Julie Vermaas, 469th in 43:20; Lindsey Quinn, 487th in 41:39; Pieter Vermaas, 516th in 43:30; Richard Kirby, 555th in 43:48; Tayla Murdy, 599th in 43:02 and being paced round with Jason Dawson, 600th in 43:03; Jim Alder ‘the younger’, in an old Morpeth t-shirt salvaged from the depths of Pam’s cupboard, 713th in 46:03; Peter Scaife (‘didn’t know I’d even entered’), 888th in 48:11; Mike Stevens, 923rd in 48:00; Laura Mclean, 1262nd in 49:21; Claire Calverley, 1342nd in 50:20; Laura Shaw, 1611st in 51:42; Nobby Clark, 1822nd in 52: 53 and Damian Foster, 2356th in 57:24. Comments are closed.
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