The weather and a difficult, twisting course conspired against fast times in the Sunderland 10km and Half-Marathon races on Sunday, but that didn’t deter a healthy turn-out of royal blue vests on a less than ideal day for racing.
Sunderland’s newest Olympian, Alyson Dixon set the runners on their way from Keel Square, the £11.8m development in the city centre that celebrates the city’s rich shipbuilding heritage. Sunderland was once the biggest shipbuilding port in the world and the names of some 9000 ships built on the Wear feature on the 291m ‘Keel Line’ that bisects the square, but having crossed it the Half Marathoners still had another 20,806.5m to negotiate, winding past many historic Wearside landmarks, such as St Peter’s Church, Monkwearmouth dating back to AD674, and a more recent place of worship, the former Roker Park, site of countless disappointments and the occasional highlight during its century as home to Sunderland AFC.
Kevin Jeffress led the way in the Half-Marathon, finishing a battling fourth, but first Over-35 with a wind-slowed time of 73:30. As eventual winner Tadele Geremew Mulugeta of Elswick forged an unassailable lead, Jeffress worked together with local rivals Conrad Franks of Gateshead, and South Shields’ Luke Adams for much of the race in a battle for the minor placings, but found the going tough in the final two miles when he had to let the others go and settle for fourth.
“It was great to have three lads from north-east clubs grafting together.” he said afterwards, “We didn’t get the times we wanted, but we gave it everything.”
A lot of the athletes in the longer race found the conditions testing, but a total of 18 royal blues made it round in one piece.
Mark Hood and Tim Field were the standout performers amongst the 28 Harriers to contest the 10k, won comfortably by Morpeth’s Jonny Taylor in 29:55.
Hood continued his encouraging, and more importantly injury-free, return to competition with eighth place overall in 34:43, some way down on his best but with signs of a lot more to come, whilst Field was runner-up in the Over-50 category, clocking 37:01 for 18th on the day.
Vikki Cotton and Vicky Younger both ran well to crack the top twenty in the women’s race, and there was a smattering of personal bests throughout the 1,809 finishers, highly commendable running in the conditions.
Despite occasional murmurings of discontent from some quarters about the serpentine nature of the course and the depth of quality at the sharp end, the weather couldn’t dampen the spirits of those who competed hard on the day, and fingers crossed, there will be faster, and sunnier days ahead to enjoy.