What a difference a week makes. Last Sunday’s Great North Run started with scorching sun, before unleashing floods, thunder and lightning. Today the north east was treated to a decidedly cooler, persistently wet morning.
Clearly aware we were in for a damp one, a couple of our runners fled to Europe, where the weather was a bit more clement. Cate Walker followed a path that is becoming a well-trodden one for Claremonters, enjoying the sights at Caffarella in Rome. Kimberly Metson’s travels found her near the Germany/Luxembourg border, running laps of the Mattheiser Weiher (St Matthew’s Lake) in Trier, where she achieved the double-whammy of first lady and a parkrun PB!
Slightly closer to home, Lucy Keating was still all the way down on the Suffolk coast in Lowestoft, where the weather also looked a bit better than up north. She sent us a lovely report of her experience.
Chris Jones finished 3rd up at Ashington Community Woodland, at what was only their 9th event. A bit further north, Tom and Gill celebrated the imminent return of cross-country by getting in some practice in the shadow of Alnwick Castle. Back in Newcastle, Izzy Neatrour added another first lady finish at Jesmond Dene.
Despite her UK parkrun farewell at Leazes last week, various timings conspired to allow Maria Dueñas one final hurrah before she leaves for Australia. She probably wished she hadn’t bothered, joining a number of Claremonters (including a trio of Dave’s) at Town Moor for a rain-soaked mud-bath. One ray of sunshine to pierce the gloom, Jason Tipples clocked a course PB, only 5 seconds off the one he set at Leazes last Saturday.
