Newcastle Winter Warmer, 3rd February 2024

Mark Anderson tried not to get dizzy running around the Town Moor today:

“The Newcastle Winter Warmer is a peculiar event. It combines a half marathon, 10k and 5k on the Town Moor, but no UKA accreditation and attracts quite a crowd of non-club runners. This was the second year I have entered the half marathon – you might think four and a bit laps of the Town Moor (pretty much four circuits of the original Newcastle Parkrun) is a bit tedious, and you’d probably be right, but, as it occurs at the very beginning of February, it’s ideal for gauging progress and fitness for April marathons, and so, with London less than 12 weeks away, I returned. I was joined by Kim Metson, also prepping for London.

Last year’s course incorporated a recurrent 6-700 yard stretch of actual moor, so given the recent inclement weather I opted for trail shoes, only to be informed on arrival that they had altered the route to send us out onto Grandstand Road instead, meaning my footwear was not quite ideal.

However, the sun was shining brightly as we were started on our way by a man dressed as a penguin (I told you it wasn’t as serious as some half marathons), but we were rapidly heading uphill into quite a gusty wind – well, what else can you expect from the moor. I managed to manoeuvre myself into second position before being overtaken at about 3k by a Ponteland runner and from then on it was a lonely 18k in 3rd place. Kim and I exchanged a smile and a whoop as we passed in opposite directions at the end of the first/beginning of the second lap but apart from that I was on my tod until the massed hordes of 5k and 10k runners started an hour afterwards and there was a fair amount of weaving to be done. I managed to reel in the Pont runner but wasn’t quite able to get close enough to nick second place.

Despite complaining about her performance, Kim finished 3rd lady, so it was a pair of podiums for Claremont. A medal and Penguins (of the chocolate variety) aplenty at the end – and home almost as early as I am after Parkrun!”