LGBT 5K 2015

[Mon 20th Jul]

After great reports about the 2014 version of this race, 35 Blyth runners were sufficiently encouraged to turn up for the 2015 edition, held on the Town Moor as part of the Newcastle Pride Festival weekend. OK, maybe half of these runners were also motivated by its inclusion in the 2015 Grand Prix as the shortest race of the season.

For those familiar with Newcastle Parkrun, some – but not all - of the course is the same, only the LGBT runs anti-clockwise rather than clockwise. On an extremely windy evening for mid-July, this meant that we were faced with a powerful gale in our faces for a large part of the fourth kilometre, which was not going to help anyone in search of a PB. Still, at least it was dry and temperatures were reasonable enough.

On quite narrow paths, most of us were grateful enough that many of the 500+ participants were there for the fun of it rather than to race, and there was soon plenty of elbow room to be had and 12 of our 35 runners finished inside the top 20% of the field. In a tight fought battle, Jon French managed to pip Sam for first Blyth finisher, and Lauren Barrett was first Blyth female. However, neither of these two is in this year’s Grand Prix, so it was maximum points again for Sam, Ian, Dave and Leanne, with the Division 4 points being taken for the first time by Michael McKenna in only his third Grand Prix race.

Overall, this was a well-organised and very sociable event, and one that has grown massively in its short existence. In better weather, the course would be a lot faster as well, and I am sure that many of our runners will be back for future editions.

The full results can be found HERE

Dave