Gosforth Summer Relays, 2nd August 2026
As it says in the title, it was definitely summer in the Great Park, with clear blue skies and the sun beating down on the assembled throng. We should be getting used to it by now, but I think most of us would have preferred it to be a few degrees cooler while we were actually running!
This race has a mixed start with the male and female teams setting off together, so there were seven Claremont teams on the start line. The course has had a couple of reconfigurations over the last few years, but the ‘out-and-back loop’ of last year had been abandoned, with the newish loop onto the ‘new’ road and the finish on the grass next to the path had been retained, So this made for a loop of about 2.1 miles (3.4K), almost entirely on tarmac paths, south(ish) to KIngston Park Road and back.
There seemed to be a few more teams than normal, but the field had soon spread out with Peter Noble having a good run to get the Claremont men off to a decent start, before handing over to Laurie Johnson. Not far behind Peter was Heather Steel running the first leg for our female ‘A’, and Sarah Kerr was sent on her way. Sarah had her usual solid run, but was overtaken by the fastest Claremont Road Runner of the day, Roberto Marzo. Roberto had taken over from Dave Roberts, and handed on to me, now ahead of the ladies team. Catherine Young did her best to catch me, but couldn’t quite make it to finish 1 position and 2 seconds behind. However, the ladies ‘dream team’ had done enough to win a prize for 2nd place in the female veterans race.
There was more success for the Claremont ladies, with Julie Cross winning the prize for being fastest in her age group.
A nice course, lovely weather, friendly competition and Claremont success – what’s not to like?
| Position | Runners | Time |
| 22 | Peter Noble Laurie Johnson Paul Robinson Team Time | 13:05 13:06 13:35 39:46 |
| 25 | Dave Roberts Roberto Marzo Tom Tinsley Team Time | 13:56 12:46 14:27 41:09 |
| 26 | Heather Steel Sarah Kerr Catherine Young Team Time (2nd Vet Female Team) | 13:34 13:53 13:44 41:11 |
| 52 | Mark Flynn Alex Oliver-Evans David Lydall Team Time | 15:01 17:41 15:12 47:54 |
| 54 | Nicki O’Brien Lucy Keating Julie Cross (1st F60) Team Time | 15:01 17:07 16:06 48:14 |
| 73 | Katherine Bell Catherine Robson Sarah Williamson Team Time | 19:46 19:59 17:17 57:02 |
| 77 | Jenny Roberts Gill Milne Becky Webster Team Time | 16:50 19:24 21:55 58:09 |
