Newcastle parkrun 26/01/13

By Lorna Pearson

Well on a morning of bright blue skies and crisp winter’s day; it is hard to believe Newcastle parkrun was cancelled on the moor. Alas it was, as the beautiful snowy conditions of last weekend have turned into deep rutted ice on the paths. The snow last night wasn’t predicted to be heavy enough, to cover this safely enough and the sleet would have made it worse.

So for only the second time in 3 years, the weather had the better of us. A brave but sensible decision by Ian last night, meant toon runners could plan an alternative.

I for one sadly stayed in bed, as other runs are harder to reach. I would have had to have been on my way before confirmation Whitley Bay or Gateshead were on. However by facebooks, they both had a few extra parkrun tourists this morning swelling their ranks.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Sumanth on reaching his 50th parkrun last week on the anniversary; joining the red t-shirt brigade. This is well earned, as he volunteers more than he runs; marshalling and as a race director. As our usual parkrun correspondent he was too modest to mention it, so I thought I would slip it in today. He was going to wear the cow costume again in celebration but with all the snow; he thought you wouldn’t see him as he would disappear into the background.

No doubt when Sumanth posts the results later on, we will see which brave (mad) clarmonters turned out this morning.

Finally I agree with one post on facebook last night; as we are the fourth biggest run, we should at least have underground heating installed for us!!! Me I would quite happily have a few patio heaters to keep us warm before and after; either that or move to near a large expanse of salt water, so we weren’t affected so severely by icy conditions. Maybe we could convince the moor to invest in a mini snowplough.

Gateshead parkrun:

27:52     Dave Manners