Pier to Pier – race report

I arrived at the Pier car park in South Shields to be greeted by four fellow Wallsend Harriers Tony, Jeanette, Mick and Lyndsey. So this was the green and gold contingent for the Sunderland Strollers’ Pier to Pier race. Small but select. The sun was shining. This was going to be hot.

I hadn’t enjoyed my last two races. Those last two miles of the Sunderland Half Marathon and the second lap of The Clive Cookson almost put me off running further than 5k ever again. So I decided to do this differently. I decided to enjoy the run and not worry about the race.
For those of you who don’t know, Pier to Pier is an amazingly beautiful run. There is no fixed route. You start at one pier and make your way to the other by whatever route you choose, avoiding the roads. Almost 1200 runners gathered at the start. There was a real buzz as
people congregated in their different coloured tribes. This was not a conventional start to a race where everyone is funnelled towards a starting line as we had the whole of the beach ahead of us. The five of us were somewhere in the middle of this pack and then all of a sudden we were off.

It was a slow start, but that’s what I wanted. But then I couldn’t resist weaving my way through the crowd until I got to a pace I was more comfortable with.  It was nice to chat to the runners around me, something I never do when racing, mostly apologising for splashing as I ran through the puddles. There was good cloud cover so I knew the heat wasn’t going to be a problem.  And before I knew it we were climbing up the soft sand to leave the beach for tarmac paths which quickly lead us to a grassy area (The Leas?)
And there before me were two multi-coloured snakes, each comprising hundreds of people, one hugging the path next to the coastline the other the path next to the road.  Which way to go?  I decided to just follow the runner in front of me and ended up by the coast.  But the pace still seemed a little slow so I started to ease my way past runner after runner.  This was new.  I’m normally the person getting picked off from behind.  It was fun because I had to leave the narrow path and run on grass every time I passed someone.  And then I noticed a group of Saltwell runners cutting across the long grass and switching to the path
by the road.  I decided that they must have some local knowledge and so I followed.
I first looked at my watch at 15 minutes.  That was odd because I usually look every 4 to 5 mins. But I was enjoying this run, enjoying the scenery. My breathing was good, my legs were good and I was still picking people off. I never felt uncomfortable throughout the whole of the race and when I hit the promenade at Sunderland and could see the finishing line I picked up my pace. But there was one last twist…I could see the runners ahead of me running down the slope to the beach and then following a curved route to the finish.  But there were steps to the left and then a shortcut directly across hard sand to the finish. I took the steps (to shouts of ‘Cheat’) and put in a sprint finish that saw me all but catch one of only two runners who passed me all race.
It was a good Goody Bag. Good camaraderie and a great run. Everybody seemed to be happy with their run. If you haven’t done this before make sure that you do it next year.

Alan Heslington