North Tyneside Trail 12k, 8th March 2026

A couple of reports of coastal enjoyment for this race. Firstly from from Lynne Cornell:

“Despite Lucy’s ‘alarming’ report about last year’s race and having endured it myself, I was still tempted back this year.

The original date for the race was 4th January but it was cancelled as they felt the course wasn’t safe due to icy conditions. So 2 months later than scheduled there we were – polar opposite conditions to last year.

The other green goddess and I arrived at Whitley Bay with plenty of time to inspect what was left of the beach after the recent storms, and thought ‘hope we’re not running through all those pebbles/stones’. Very little sand, although we did hope the tide would go out and leave us a nice clear beach.

Then to North Shields Poly to collect our numbers. There we bumped into Peter and Tara. Peter had asked if I’d done it before and I said just once and it certainly hadn’t made it to the favourites list!!! The walk up had felt cold and I decided to swap shorts for 3/4 length – error!!!! Must learn to ‘man-up’! Then walked onto the beach, carefully treading over the pebbles to the clear stretch of beach that was waiting.

We were warned our feet would get wet, but in comparison to the Coastal Run it was but a mere trickle. Then we were off – the first 2 kilometres on the beach in glorious sunshine. No huge step to climb us like last year at the end of the beach. Then on tarmac to St Mary’s Island, then track to Old Hartley and finally into Seaton Sluice. 5k done -7 to go! Then the descent onto Holywell Dene – so much better this year with no icy patches. Muddy but not really a lot. Then the choice of Hill Now or Hill Later. I opted for Hill Now – might try later next year. Then the final 3k long the waggonways back to the start -so much different to last year. Again muddy but not icy.

As I came round the track I could see Peter taking photos. Then I collected my buff, had a welcome drink of water and into the club house for tea/coffee and home baked goodies. They don’t record times for this run, but the club had 6 members running – Sheelagh, Tara, Peter, Sarah, Susan and me. Well done to everybody -hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. It could become a favourite after all!”

And then from Susan Hillman:

“The North Tyneside 12k is a multi-terrain course which starts with a stretch on Whitley Bay beach, and subsequently takes in road, trail paths, waggonways, and finishes on the pristine running track of Churchill Playing Fields. The event had been rescheduled from January 4th when it was called off due to ice, so the field of around 600 runners were likely hoping for a beautiful spring day rather than the bleak midwinter experience they originally signed up for.People who have entered this and other North Shields Poly events will know that the entertainment begins weeks before the actual day with a stream of expansive emails and Facebook posts from the Race Organiser. These touch on a wide range of
subjects, including musical preferences, plus a few snippets of information about the upcoming event. The most alarming thing in these communications for me (apart from discovering there was a band called Collapsed Lung) was that ‘… someone has stolen a lot of the sand from the beach and replaced it with rocks and pebbles …’. Eager to assess the extent of this transformation, Lynne Cornell and I conducted a survey of the beach early doors on race day and confirmed that we would indeed be lucky to complete the beach section with anything less than a twisted ankle. It
was also still pretty cold with the sun struggling to burn off the thick layer of fog that had shrouded our drive from Newcastle.

An hour and a half later we were assembling on the start line and things were much improved: the sun was breaking through and the tide had receded leaving a decent strip of clear flat sand to run on. This unexpected boon meant that surviving the first 2k with just an energy sapping plod on wet sand with intermittent icy footbaths felt like a win. And there was more good news! People who did the race last year will remember there was an almost unsurmountable step to get off the beach at the end of this section, and some of us had to gratefully accept a hand-up from a volunteer to make the transition; but shifting sands (literally) meant the situation was much different this time and we only had to negotiate a modestly sized field of stinking, rotting seaweed to make an easy step up to continue our progress.

From here we made our way along trail paths and road to Seaton Sluice, and into Holywell Dene. Here runners are faced with choice of routes: ‘hill now’ or ‘hill later’. I resisted the temptation to get the hill done and out of the way and opted for ‘hill later’, which I think was the slightly less popular choice. It turned out to be a lovely run along Seaton Burn, and when I merged again with the ‘hill now’ runners we were onto the waggonways for the final 3.5 km to the finish. I’m definitely a convert to the ‘hill later’ route.

Support all along the course was excellent from the volunteers, and there was a very appealing selection of home-made cakes to be had for cash donations in race HQ at the end. By the time I wearily crossed the finish line it was seriously sunny and any feelings of chill were long forgotten. So we did get our run in beautiful surroundings
on a beautiful spring day!”

_{Mote photos to follow…}