"Wi divvent see many Quakers up heor in The Toon git offan."

A few months ago, I was introducing a friend to the concept of fell running. Upon arrival in a field in the middle of nowhere he commented how the runners present weren’t like the usual runners that he’d seen at races like the Darlington 10k or the Park Run in Middlesbrough – fell runners look slightly deranged with sensible shoes, lots of warm layers and carrying lots of bags, wraps and hats.

Today was another one of those days when you see lots of runners you don’t normally see. These runners were proper runners, youthful looking and skinny. They all wore funny shoes and were doing impressions of John Cleese’s Ministry of Funny walks (I believe the technical term is dynamic stretching). They all looked horribly fit and fast. “Welcome to Newcastle” I thought to myself.

I digress, today I had the pleasure of driving north with Darren and Mark to the Heaton Harriers Town Moor Memorial 10k. Today’s race was the final race in the 10k leagues and I expected to see lots of Quakers eager for the final 200 points. However, when we arrived there wasn’t a familiar vest in sight; no NYM black and yellow, no New Marske blue and yellow and no Billingham red and black. This was “up north” and I realised how rare it is, as a Quaker, to venture further north than Newton Aycliffe. So it was a treat to go North, rather than into Yorkshire or Cleveland.

This race takes place around the Town Moor, a very large and slightly undulating field. The Newcastle Park Run also takes place around the same route so I thought it’d be a good preview of trying another park run.

Arriving at the race in good time, we got a parking spot quite easily although from the looks of the surrounding area I’d imagine parking being hard to come by for late comers. We collected our numbers and started to limber up, I was tempted to do some of the silly things the fast looking people were doing but I ended up doing the same thing I always do – a jog and a few half arsed stretches.

We met a few Quakers and then took our place on the starting line, there was a massive amount of runners – almost 500 – and amazingly when we all stopped for the two minutes silence they all fell quiet. It was a sombre moment remembering all those who’ve died in service of our armed forces and many runners held poppies and a few men wearing help for heroes vests stood together.

Then the race started, although the first gun had a slight misfire! We all set off an ran along a straight path and the runners quickly spread out leaving lots of room for diving between people and quick overtaking. This race was never going to be a scenic one, nor is it meant to be. It was a fast paced 10k with only a few slight undulations and bumps. The scenery was restricted to the bottoms of those runners in front and some wet, muddy leaves – a contrast well worth thinking about! It was nice to get a drink at the water station at 5km just to see something different!

After one quick lap, we went around again and did another lap. The mashalls didn’t do much encouraging whilst out on the track and the supports cheered mainly for those runners they knew. I don’t know if it’s because the Quakers are a much more prominent club “further south” but it’s always nice to hear someone yelling “Come on Quaker!”.

At the end of the race we filed up a quick slippy bank, onto the home straight and into the finishing funnel. There wasn’t any goodie bag or water at the finish, which was a shame – most races at the very least have some water! I waited for a couple of Quakers and cheered them in. All of those running, myself excluded (by 2 seconds), managed to score personal bests. So well done to Mark, Andrew, Scott and Rob! (I didn't see where Susie finished, sorry Susie! )

This race was a quickly paced 10km race with very little pretentions to being anything else (which is why this race report had a nice little tale at the beginning ). It wasn’t scenic, overly challenging or pretty. It was nice to run a “normal race” without any major life changing views or challenge, which seems to be the norm at the moment for most Quakers. I’d certainly recommend this race next year to anyone wanting to judge their 10k improvement since the start of the year – but bring your own water for the finish.