Les Allcorn 10K

[5th-May-2013]

A beautiful Tuesday night saw about a dozen Blyth runners make the journey North to a picturesque Hulne Park in Alnwick for the Les Allcorn 10k.
After registering and having a bit of a natter for 20mins we all made the half mile walk up to the start line where around 150 runners had congregated.
I'd already decided to treat this as a good training run and attempt to take it easier than I would normally - this would hopefully be made easier by the fact that Jake and Lee weren't running.
After a quick warm up and another natter it was time to start.
A first timer at this one I'd been told that the scenery was matched only by the course's difficulty and with a steady uphill for the first 2 miles and the legs still aching from the track on Sunday, I was finding it hard to appreciate the sights! Thankfully after the 2 mile mark was reached there was a fast, long downhill to enjoy - this led down to an undulating track running alongside the river - the varying terrain was a challenge, especially the loose stones. After struggling for about a mile I finally decided to run on the grass verge which seemed to be the best plan and with Julie measuring 6.13 miles on her Garmin compared 6.26 on mine, this was a tactic you could use to make up time!! Eventually the winding track reached the start line which meant only another half mile to go to the finish - knowing this seemed to give me a boost and I managed to pick up the pace, although not enough to catch the Morpeth runner who had led me around the entire course.
On finishing we were supplied with free tea's, coffee's and a selection of biscuits which Steve Walker took advantage of within seconds of crossing the finish line!

This was definitely one of my favourite 10k races and one I'll be back for next year.

Well done to Dan, Iain, Ian, Steven, Dave, Steve, Julie, Phillippa, Adele, Davina, Lindsey, Cath, Louise and Peter. Sorry if I've missed anyone!!

Jon

Full results can be found on the Alnwick Harriers web site by clicking HERE.