Gosforth Summer Relays, 4th August 2024
With the relays occurring in the middle of the school holidays, this event always has fewer entries than the other relay races, but in many ways that adds to its charm, with a smaller, friendlier feel. It is an event that I always enjoy, and it seems that many other sky blues do too as we fielded an excellent 7 teams – almost 10% of the total.
Although it starts and finishes on grass, the course is mostly on tarmac as it heads slightly downhill through the Great Park, crossing the Ouseburn before passing through the middle of the reed beds and looping back over the Ouseburn to return along the same, now slightly uphill path back. Although it is not flat, there are no hills to worry about and some fast times can be obtained.
Another novelty is having the men’s and women’s teams starting together, so I lined up for the 1st leg with 6 other Claremont “A” leg runners. We let Harry Mawdsley start near the front, but the rest of us took up our places a bit further back in the pack, happy to let Harry disappear into the distance with the other fast lads. I started with Jim Crinnion and we kept each other company virtually all the way around. I tried to push on ahead of Jim as we turned to head for home, but he stayed on my tail and overtook me, and one other runner, as we were rounding the football pitch at the end of the leg. I knew he would, the lack of a sprint finish is nothing new for me! I was happy with my time though, and equally happy to hand over to Howard MacLennan. Our “super-vets” team was completed by Kenny McCormick and although we lost a lot more ground to the rest of Jim’s time, I think it is fair to say that we were giving them a few years!
We’d had great support along the way and not just from our fellow runners. Lena Lou, Gill Milne and Cath Robson had all turned up to encourage us, along with several family members, but the most enthusiastic support definitely came from the young Hurdman lads! Hopefully they enjoyed it and, maybe one day, we will see them running for the club too.
Our “A” team did us proud with a very creditable 12th place and it was great to see Catherine Young getting back up to speed as she led the first Claremont ladies team home. Despite some good performances, there were no individual prizes for Claremont this year, but that didn’t detract from a very enjoyable morning’s racing.
| Position | Runners | Time |
| 12 | Harry Mawdsley Daniel Orlopp Laurie Johnson Team Time | 10:02 12:10 10:51 33:03 |
| 25 | Jim Crinnion Aaron Mansell Anton Mirafsari Team Time | 11:41 12:37 11:08 35:26 |
| 43 | Catherine Young Aoífe Monaghan Sonja Fenske Team Time | 12:16 13:14 13:17 38:47 |
| 51 | Jenny Roberts Lucy Keating Julie Cross Team Time | 14:15 14:05 13:53 42:13 |
| 56 | Tom Tinsley Howard Maclennan Kenny McCormick Team Time | 11:45 13:28 18:54 44:07 |
| 63 | Tara Hipwood Joyce Zhao Lucy Ward Team Time | 14:40 17:38 14:30 46:48 |
| 64 | Rachel Hurdman Helen Gavillet Anna Round Team Time | 14:49 18:31 14:26 47:46 |
