Elspeth Lawson sends in this report from yesterdays NEHL meeting at Blaydon.

Blaydon NEHL Sat 26th Nov

Elspeth Lawson

I got up on Saturday morning pleased to see that it was neither raining or as cold as I had feared it would be. There were rumours of a high wind when I logged into TBH Facebook group but I didn’t let that worry me! I also read the Facebook posts from the guys saying it was a really important race for the ladies and we had a great opportunity to get promoted to a better spot so with that in mind I knew we all had to run like the wind!

My pre race preparation consisted of cleaning my entire flat from top to bottom and then realising it was 1pm and thought “yikes” I had better go or I would miss the men’s race!. I arrived just after it had started – sorry guys but I was able to watch and cheer you all on from the top of the zig zag hill!

I didn’t see any of our girls until I got to the “Hospitality Tent” and found a beautiful batch of pink cupcakes awaiting us! (Thanks Emma Moir!)

The team was Catherine Willis, Jude Smith, Emma Moir, Lisa Walker, Kerry Reed and myself. Denise braved the cold…. with her bad cold to cheer the ladies on and I heard her shouting us on.

Having ran this course before, I knew it was pretty flat except for the silly zig zag hill which is a killer at the end so I knew I had to save a bit of energy for that! I also did not want to set off too early as per the last race where I totally hit the wall after the first lap.

As we lined up at the start there was the usual high pitched chat from all the ladies, the race starter had to hush us all up to explain the number of laps! We set off and I tried to keep steady but get up front and settled into my pace just behind Catherine W….which I though was probably too fast but managed to keep it up. I was feeling really strong as the first lap came to a welcome end!

I knew I could push myself a bit more now and decided to just go for it! I kept chasing Cath and managed get past a good few runners as I got to the dreaded zig zag hill which was looming, I dug in and tried not to think about it as the cheers from the crowd were deafening but really helped! As I came up the last hill I could hear Sean K shouting “all the way up” so I just kept going and knew the finish was just down the hill so went for it!

Everyone ran really well yesterday and pushed each other on and what’s it all about really, well done everyone!

Anyone who hasn’t attempted the x country should really give it a go….. its fast, exhilarating and great fun! Can’t wait for the next one!

p.s
It wasn’t until after I crossed the line I noticed the pain in my left heel, on taking off my shoe I found I had lost half my heel on the way round…which was nice! I managed to get a plaster from the first aider but it looks awful…will spare you all the pic! It didn’t stop me donning my 5 inch wedge heels 3 hours later to head down to Nancy’s for the TBH social though! No pain no gain!

Elspeth

Full Tyne Bridge Harriers Results to follow