weekend round-up, january 19&20

Pam Woodcock and Shuna Rank with their medals on the Quayside

The inaugural Run Through Newcastle 10k took place at the weekend on a flat and fast out-and-back course along the city’s Quayside, with an elite A race featuring some 160 finishers and over 1500 in the mass participation B race.
Houghton Harrier Cameron Allan, in tremendous shape over the cross country this winter, was a winner of the A race in a time of 29 minutes 28 seconds, just pipping Gateshead’s Callum Johnson to the win, with Durham City Harrier Jasmine Wood first female finisher in 33:37.
There were some nine Morpeth Harriers out in the A race, with Lawrence McCourt just missing out on a top three place, coming home 4th in 30:44, and Alex Brown next home for the club in 7th place (31:10). George Lowry was 12th in 32:05, Adam Pratt 28th in 34:32, Richie Hughes 32nd in 34:25, Ali Douglas 56th in 36:37, Jake Parmley 78th in 37:26, Shaun Land 79th in 37:23 and Ben Clarke 82nd in 37:35.
There were six Morpeth Harriers in the following B race, with Richard Glennie first back for the club in 41:44 and Steve Johnstone 211th in 45:42.
Sunderland Harrier Liam Taylor obviously fancied winning the B more than featuring in the A, coming home in 32:05 with veteran Sarah Duncan first female to finish in 39:07.
There were age category medals for three Morpeth veterans however, with Anna Wright 2nd Over 40 in 42:22, Shuna Rank 2nd O/55 in 46:08 and Pam Woodcock winning the O/70 category in 57:13. Laura Mclean also continues to make great strides, here running a personal best when finishing 207th overall in 46 minutes. 

​The following morning saw the running of the ever popular and always over-subscribed Brass Monkey half marathon in York, with nearly 1700 finishers.
Hallamshire Harrier Tommy Power was the winner in 1 hour 6 minutes 58 seconds, with Leeds City AC’s Sarah Potter finishing in 1:12:32 to take the woman’s race.
Some six Morpeth Harriers travelled down the A19 to make the race, with Finn Brodie coming home 10th in 1:09:03 and Phil Winkler 12th in 1:09:11.
Seasoned marathon runner Andrew Lawrence was 47th in 1:13:26, Rob Balmbra 64th in 1:14:30, John Butters 71st  and 5th O/45 in 1:14:56 and Mark Snowball 697th in 1:36:26.
Brad Duesbury, who was been training with Gordon Dixon’s group recently and will be hopefully joining the club soon from Telford AC, was 246th in 1:22:53.