Coastal Run

Beadnell to Alnmouth, Sunday, July 20, 2014

14 miles

Colin Blackburn

I’ve done a few Coastal Runs over the last five years but up until now I’ve always arrived from the south. This year when I entered I lived in Co Durham but by race day I’d moved to Berwick-upon-Tweed. It turns out that arriving from the north is quite scenic courtesy of the X18 bus. This great bus service runs from Berwick to Newcastle via the coast, including Beadnell! So an hour after leaving my house I was in a very sunny and very warm Beadnell collecting my number.

It wasn’t long before I was bumping into more and more Striders as the sea of purple swelled. The afternoon start of 1:30 was pushed to 1:45 to create more of a start line by letting the tide go out a little bit more. That gave more time to sit in the shade and then take part in a Striders group shot.

Striders at the seaside.

I decided to start way down the beach to find a line through the first lot of rocks and to get my feet wet early – there’s not much more fun in running than splashing through the surf! For those who don’t know the race – are there any Striders left who don’t? – the Coastal Run starts on a beach, ends on a beach and is a real multi-terrain race in between. It’s relatively flat but has a few telling little climbs once off the beach. But on Sunday the biggest challenge was the heat! A clear sky and an afternoon start provided the hottest run I’ve done for a long time. With a pretty much total lack of shade there was no escape.

By Craster I was completely shot and started to slow, I certainly felt I was being passed more than I was passing. By the third and final water station I was feeling so bad that I had to stop and stand just to get enough water down. The last couple of years I’d had pretty bad Coastal Runs where I haven’t performed anywhere as well as I thought I should have. At the water station, as I stood at the side of the road watching others run past, I guessed this one was going to be even worse. What the heck, I still had to get to the finish so I plodded off along the road looking forward to at least a bit more soft beach running.

Louise keeps smiling in the heat.

As I jogged those last couple of miles I was passed by so many people I was pretty much expecting to come last. The odd thing was that looking at my watch I couldn’t figure out how it was going to take over 15 minutes to get to that finish flag just over there! For some inexplicable reason as I finally crossed the line I found I had taken 12 minutes off last year’s time and even managed a PB! Heat, what heat?!

Results

Pos Name Club Cat CatPos Time
1 Kevin Jeffress Sunderland Harriers M 1:18:57
34 Debbie Appleton Havering Mayesbrook AC FV40 1:31:21
90 Michael Tait M 1:39:53
102 Graeme Walton MV40 1:40:42
120 Jon Ayres MV40 1:42:14
137 David Gibson MV40 1:44:09
139 Katy Walton F 1:44:19
163 Rachel Terry FV40 1:46:21
220 Matthew Crow M 1:51:15
242 Alister Robson MV40 1:52:30
258 David Brown M 1:53:30
263 Mandy Dawson FV40 1:53:48
265 Colin Blackburn MV50 1:54:01
272 Juliet Percival FV40 1:54:24
288 Michael Bennett MV60 1:55:25
361 Lesley Charman FV40 2:00:19
386 Stephanie Walker FV35 2:01:56
433 Megan Bell F 2:04:44
439 Nicola Whyte F 2:05:01
456 Mark Dunseith M 2:06:31
464 Kathryn Sygrove FV40 2:06:53
469 Lucy Cowton F 2:07:02
472 Camilla Lauren-Maatta FV40 2:07:16
477 Fiona Jones FV35 2:07:39
502 Melanie Hudson FV35 2:09:32
511 David Spence MV60 2:09:46
527 Anita Clementson FV40 2:10:46
538 Paul Beal MV50 2:11:24
595 Sarah Fawcett FV50 2:15:14
611 Dave Robson MV60 2:17:13
634 Barrie Evans ? MV60 2:18:32
685 Ian Spencer M 2:24:18
724 Louise Billcliffe FV50 2:27:48
733 Jacquie Robson FV35 2:28:43
758 Karen Anne Chalkley FV50 2:31:10
761 Debbie Mcfarland F 2:32:01
781 Anita Dunseith F 2:35:32
799 Brian Ford MV40 2:39:43
819 Kirsty Anderson FV35 2:43:39
823 Sue Jennings FV40 2:44:36
827 Kelly Collier F 2:45:52
828 Helen Allen FV40 2:45:52
832 John Hutchinson MV50 2:50:24
846 Christine Farnsworth FV60 2:59:00
847 Maggie Thompson FV60 2:59:00
850 Robert Clark M 3:03:09

857 finishers

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