Coastal Run

[Tue 20th Jul 2010] Following on quickly from the Tynedale 10k, the sixth race of the 2010 Grand Prix was the Alnwick harriers hosted Coastal Run held on Sunday 18th July. This multi-terrain race was as popular as ever with a total of 805 finishers of which 30 were members of Blyth Running Club. As the runners left the car park at Beadnell to cross the dunes for the start of the race an audible groan could be heard at the sight of the beach, or rather at the sight of the lack of beach, as the tide was almost fully in and had in fact only just turned. This makes the first section of the race along the sands of Beadnell Bay somewhat longer, most GPS's recorded a race distance of approximately 13.5 miles as opposed to the normal distance of about 13.2 miles, the high tide also made the crossing of the burn after half a mile rather tricky with some runners going through at waist height. The longer race distance together with the strong head wind resulted in the times being slower than normal.

First back for Blyth was Peter in an excellent 9^th overall with a time of 1:28:15, followed by Robbie with 1:33:56 in 31st place. First lady back was Heather Christopher, clearly not affected by the conditions, with a time of 1:49:46 for 171st place overall and 18th female.

Full results are available on the Alnwick Harriers web site. Some photos from Dave K.