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Ultra North 55km Race Report by Sue Walker

I was looking for an early summer ultra a couple of months ago and none of the ones in Scotland fitted in with the dates I had free. I looked a bit further afield and found Ultra North, a nominal 55km on trails around Newcastle. As Newcastle is Ken’s hometown, it didn’t take much to make the decision and enter. The plan was that I would run and Ken would do a tour of his old haunts.

There’s lots of accommodation in Newcastle but in order to fit in visits to Ken’s family in Hexham, we chose to stay out of town and I took the 6:09 train from Hexham to Newcastle. It was only a 10 minute walk from the train station down to the 1878 swing bridge which was the start and finish area for the race. We picked up race numbers and a gps tracker from the River Brew Co’s grounds on the Gatehead side of the Tyne. The brewers also opened up their toilets so there were no toilet queues!

The races are popular with more than 300 signed up for the 55km and over 200 for the 25km. The events encourage runners and walkers to enter and with very generous cutoffs, it is a popular first ultra marathon for many. Runners were set off from 8am in waves of 50, 5 minutes apart to avoid congestion on the route. The route is essentially 10 miles heading west on the north side of the Tyne to Wylam bridge. Then 5 miles on the south side heading back east, and all of this is dead flat. After that, the ultra runners head south on a route into the Derwent valley which was pretty hilly. The southern section was about 15 miles in total, leaving a final flat 5 miles back to the swing bridge finishing on the Newcastle side. The total distance was 35.3 miles, or 56.8km so a bonus mile was thrown in to add to the fun.

The race was mostly on traffic free tracks and trails. Given the city centre start and finish, it’s inevitable that the first and last few miles are around industrial estates or business parks but overall, the course was very scenic. The first 10 miles included a section on Wylam waggon way, a former railway now cycle path. This took you past the birthplace of George Stephenson. On the south side, you went past the Blaydon race course before going into Derwent country park. Finally, you ran past the metro centre before reaching the swing bridge.

I wore trail shoes as I interpreted traffic free as off road. There was quite a bit of off road on the south side but road shoes would have been fine.

There are three checkpoints on the course with a generous amount and range of food so no need for drop bags. As well as ‘conventional’ runner food like energy bars, they also provided fruit, crisps, sweets and vegan and gluten free options were readily available too.

The weather on Saturday was miserable (worse for marshals and photographers than for runners though) which meant I didn’t get to appreciate the scenery as much as I would have liked. The section through the woods in Derwenthaugh was lovely!

There were no difficulties with navigation at all. The organisers had provided a gps of the route and the course itself was very clearly marked. There were marshals at the few road crossing and photographers were out on the course. At the finish, they swapped the gps tracker for a beer token so they had no problem with getting the trackers back! Ken was able to use the tracker throughout the day and popped up to see me in a couple of places. He also visited the Ken Walker birthplace, the Ken Walker primary and grammar schools, and the sites of the two Stella power stations (since demolished) but both built by Ken’s dad. He had a good day out despite the rain!

I’d certainly recommend this race if anyone fancies a race that is easily doable without taking a car. It is possible to get a train from Edinburgh to Newcastle arriving in plenty of time for registration without the need for overnight accommodation at all. Next year, rather than a mid July date, it will be on the last weekend in April under a new brand of Beyond Trails.