Newcastle Winter Warmer, 1st February 2025

A couple of Claremonters took part in the Winter Warmer on the Town Moor today, which encompasses a 5k, 10k and Half-marathon race. Harry Mawdsley did something rather special:

“I signed up for the Winter Warmer after an evening in the pub. So I’m not quite sure why I wanted to pay for the privilege of running around the Town Moor on a Saturday morning – probably it was the 10am start and an extra hour in bed compared to my usual parkrun routine. The event itself combines a half marathon, 10k and 5k. I signed up for the latter, so it would just be a single lap of the course for me. 

There was a good buzz at the start line. The Winter Warmer doesn’t take itself too seriously. This was a nice change of pace from some of the other events I’d done recently. To get us in the mood for racing, a man in a polar bear costume pranced around to pop classics blaring out of a sound system. The race announcer was dressed as a penguin. It was all quite surreal.  

I was told beforehand that the Winter Warmer doesn’t attract the fastest field, because it lacks UKA accreditation. So I was surprised to see several serious-looking club runners line up alongside me. ‘Okay, forget the polar bear and penguin; things just got real’, I thought to myself.  

Once we were off, I manoeuvred myself into second place. The lead runner had started very quickly, and I struggled to keep him in touching distance. However, by the second kilometre, he was visibly slowing, and I began to reel him in. Meanwhile, a trio of runners had closed me down. They moved past me, but I was still feeling pretty good, so I went with them.  

After skirting around the edge of the Moor on the gravel path, there’s a small section along Grandstand Road, before you duck back on to the Moor towards the crossroads – essentially, the parkrun route in reverse. By this point, there was only two of us left in the lead group. As we started the final kilometre, my rival began to pull away from me. I hoped I could maybe catch him in a sprint finish, but mentally I’d already resigned myself to second place… 

But there was drama to come! As we reached the very final stretch, the lead runner turned off to start a second lap. He was doing the 10k! I suddenly found myself in first place for the 5k and I crossed the line not quite believing what had just happened. The sense of surreal intensified again when the man dressed as a penguin began interviewing me.   

So, overall, it was a very successful morning. A nice medal and even a snazzy trophy to take home. This was the first race I’d won since the Aberdaron under 16s road and fell race in 2007, so I was properly chuffed. No PB, but according to my watch the course was at least 150m long. I suppose you can’t have it all! There were impressive winning times in the 10k and half marathon, so maybe the Winter Warmer is no longer just a ‘fun run’. I may well be back next year.”    

5k
Position	Runner	Time
1	Harry Mawdsley	17:30

Half-marathon
Position	Runner	Time
80	Holly Porter	1:57:06