Blyth Links parkrun

Saturday 18th May

After a glorious week exploring the Shropshire Grand Union and Llangollen canals, Becca and I decided to venture north into Northumberland to take on one of the newest parkruns in the North East: Blyth Links parkrun. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t as good as we’d had on holiday, but a little drizzle actually made for quite a pleasant morning at this coastal parkrun. Considering this was the 5th parkrun here, there was a very decent turnout of 192 runners.

After a week of pure indulgence on holiday, and a slight pull in my hamstring, I was in no position to do a personal best for this parkrun. I was way too full burgers, ice-creams and ciders! It was difficult to not sprint finish and watch someone who tail-gated me for most of the run (is that a thing in running?) overtake me right at the end, but it was the right decision to avoid any further injury.

My stats:
Time: 25:07 minutes
Position: 72 / 192
Female position: 15th
Age category position (SW25-29): 4th
Age-graded score: 58.93%

Course location: 4 / 5

It was super easy getting up to Blyth from Gateshead (only 25-30 minute drive) and finding the start location for the parkrun. And with plenty of (FREE!) parking at Mermaid car park, there was no worry at all that we wouldn’t be able to find somewhere to park up. It was immediately obvious where the ‘newbies course debrief’ was and very helpfully where the toilets were – perfect for those who need a pre-race nervous pee (yes, I get these…even for just parkruns!). The start line was a few minutes walk down the road from here, but I think everyone just followed the marshals for this.

This parkrun reminded me very much of the first parkrun we did this year for this challenge at Whitley Bay (can’t believe that was over 5 months ago now!). Which makes sense really; they’re both coastal parkruns. But it was a similar sort of set up too, with 2 large laps of the Blyth Battery/links and finishing on the promenade.

The route starts on the side of the main road, and heads south and then east into the coast before running up north through the links/battery and on to the promenade. The route continues north, past the beach huts and up to the Bandstand, where you run back to the main road and south to the start again for the second lap. After the second lap, you do start a 3rd, but this ends on the promenade just past the beach huts. I would recommend the beach huts are a good point to start your sprint finish (just depends how much you’ve got left in the tank… provided you had a tank to start with!).

It was a little miserable on Saturday morning, but had the weather been a bit brighter, there would have been a lovely view of the sea and northern pier.

Course difficulty: 1 / 5

With a total of 20ft elevation gain, I think this was one of, if not the, easiest parkruns yet. I am a little worried that I’m getting too used to the flat parkruns, and when we eventually take on Gibside or Blackhill, they are going to destroy me! Some serious hill training will be needed for those I reckon.

The only down-side to this run? 2 laps. I will never love lapped parkruns. It’s that thought of when you’ve completed one lap, and know you have to do the whole thing again. And also running past the finishing funnel, knowing that you’ve got another lap and half to do before then, wondering if you suddenly sprinted REALLY fast, you could make it look like you’re the first finisher. Or is that just me?! But I will take 2 laps over 3 any day (ahem Windy Nook *shudders*). And this does mean that fewer runners get overtaken by the stupidly fast ones.

I can only imagine that this parkrun would be tough in the winter months, with some strong winds from the North Sea battering runners trying to run along the promenade. Good luck trying to sprint finish in those conditions!!

Course enjoyability: 5 / 5

Who doesn’t love a run along the beachfront, without actually running on the beach and getting sand in your shoes? It is an enjoyable and interesting course. And particularly on Saturday too, when there was a WW2 re-enactment being set up ahead of D-Day’s 75th Anniversary on June 6th. The were some lovely smells coming from some of the food tents, which were only mildly distracting (always motivated by food!)! This of course was a one-off, but it certainly made for an interesting parkrun setting.

I know the running community is a friendly one, but I did find that there were a few particularly friendly runners on this parkrun. I got a high-five and handshake from two different individuals just after crossing the finish-line, which I really appreciated. They were probably twice my age and ran it twice as fast, but I liked the sentiment. There were some nice photos taken of runners by a very enthusiastic 5 year old girl too. Kudos to her!

Overall rating: 4 / 5

This was a really lovely scenic course, which was super flat (possibly not as flat as Hartlepool – still to come, and cannot frigging wait!) and had lots of amenities (free parking, toilets, huge american-style diner/ice-cream shop – you know, the important stuff). I just think if it had just been one large lap, I might have given this the elusive 5/5.