North Shields Poly Grand Prix, 4th March 2025

For the second Grand Prix in a row, the course had to be re-routed due to ongoing works. This time, with works on the new cycle path blocking access south of the Spanish City, instead of a mostly out and back route, we ran two laps of the links road and promenade. Most runners seemed to prefer this, and I don’t think many of us missed the scary dark bit by the sea, nor the steep climb out of it back to the road!

Injury, holiday, childcare commitments and pancakes (yes, you read that correctly – pancakes!) meant that it was a slightly depleted Claremont turnout on what was a dry, fairly mild night with a bit of a breeze (isn’t there always a breeze at the coast?). So not a bad night for a run. In fact, the combination of the weather and revised course meant that there were some fast times with a number of sky blues claiming Grand Prix PBs – but is it a PB if the course is different?

Lena Lou was first Claremonter over the line, as she continues to bewilder anybody trying to set her a handicap, progressing from 2nd last in February to 2nd overall this time out. Lena was joined in the top 10 by Niamh Garratt and Chloe Glover, 6th and 10th respectively.

Harry Mawdsley continued his recent impressive run of form, clocking the 3rd fastest time on the night – an incredible 18:08 over a course just slightly short of 5.5K (according to my Garmin). This follows his 17:09 at Leazes parkrun on Saturday – impressive running indeed!

Unfortunately injury has kept Rose Hawkswood out of the last 2 races, but even so, she still ranks 10th in the overall individual competition. Niamh and Lena Lou have both gone ahead of her in 6th and 8th places respectively. Two other absentees from last night, Zoe Jukes and Eddie Smith, also dropped out of the top 10 but are still handily placed in 11th and 18th.

With just one fixture left, it is looking good for the True Blood Blues. They have a commanding lead of 251 points over 2nd place, so a good turnout on the 1st April is hopefully all they need to ensure that Claremont retain the trophy. It will be difficult for our other teams to get amongst the prizes, Rock’s Stars are 6th, The Full Claremonty 15th and The 3rd Wheelers 25th.

Position	Team*	Runner	Race Time	Actual Time
2	RS	Len Lou	38:24	28:34
6	TBB	Niamh Garratt	38:56	27:46
10	T3W	Chloe Glover	39:04	24:54
25	RS	Tara Hipwood	39:32	26:22
29	TBB	Harry Mawdsley	39:38	18:08
57	T3W	Julie Cross	40:02	25:12
59	TBB	Jenny Roberts	40:02	27:12
70	T3W	Luke Woodend	40:09	28:39
79	TFC	Roberto Marzo	40:12	20:02
82	RS	Holly Porter	40:13	24:03
83	T3W	Cate Walker	40:14	26:04
94	TFC	Nicki O’Brien	40:19	25:09
96	RS	Luke O’Neill	40:19	23:09
101	TBB	Dean O’Brien	40:23	24:53
108	RS	Paul Robinson	40:28	21:58
113	TBB	Ann Smith	40:33	34:29
119	RS	Mark Anderson	40:36	19:06
129	T3W	Jim Crinnion	40:44	23:54
138	RS	Nina Jensen	40:55	25:05
154	TFC	Alex Harding	41:08	26:18
169	TFC	Tom Tinsley	41:37	24:07
177	TBB	Janet Palmer	42:12	32:02

* TFC=The Full Claremonty, TBB=True Blood Blues, RS=Rock’s Stars, T3W=The 3rd Wheelers