Northumbrian delights lead the way for Garden City Runners

The prettiest and longest run of the week belonged to Kath Evans who was blown away by the scenery in the Northumberland Coastline Ultra.

Kath Evans of Garden City Runners in front of Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland. Picture: GCR (Image: Garden City Runners)

She said: "I certainly didn’t appreciate that the Northumberland coastline boasts some dramatic coastal scenery and I didn’t know about its sweeping sandy beaches, rolling dunes, high rocky cliffs, and isolated islands.

"It’s a landscape steeped in history and the sight of Bamburgh Castle and its expansive, exposed bay-side setting is pretty impressive.

"This trail route covered 28.5 miles of a beautiful coastal path, significantly enhanced by the kindness of the weather.

"With castles, sea air, sand dunes, mud and rock scrambling, it was a perfect natural assault course and Endurance Life put on another brilliantly organised event that facilitated a weekend escape with a little plod."

Eleanor Sage ran the Tarpley 20 mile race, starting in Bury St Edmunds and running around the nearby country lanes.

She finished 8th in her age category out of 29, with a chip time of two hours 43 minutes 53 seconds.

Closer to home again was the London Winter 10k which saw a number of GCRs in attendance.

The highlight of the club's runs was a PB of 53:17 for Maggie Wright with Sid Valentine (52:26), Claire King (54:32) and Helen Robinson (54:34) also among the finishers.

A total of 92 GCRs ran at parkruns with Chris Eland and Daniel Pudner achieving top 10 finishes for the men at Panshanger and Felicity Wadley doing likewise for the ladies.

Chris Baylis took second at Stevenage, where Jamie Rose was eighth man, and Matt Baker was seventh at Whitstable.

Kathryn McGuinness was ninth lady at Barclay and Robin Newby ninth at Dalby Forest.

Willow Gibson meanwhile completed her parkrun alphabet by completing the Knockbracken Reservoir event in Northern Ireland.