Run backhome
Entries on the day were down on last year (120 against 152) which made the late entries a little less hectic. I assume more people pre-entered which is what we would prefer as it's easier to plan for when the numbers are known in advance.
The only problem I'm aware of here is that numbers 1001-1100 were overlooked and late entries started from 1101 instead. This caused a little panic when we were running out of numbers and there was still a constant stream of people wanting to enter. The problem was solved by rummaging through a box and finding the other batch of 100 numbers!
We were really lucky with the weather. The forecast 4 days in advance was terrible, heavy rain and 25mph easterly winds. It would not have been pleasant especially for those that arrived early and would need to hang around in South Shields car park without any shelter.
But it turned out the forecast was way out and it ended up being a pleasant and sunny day although the 10mph breeze from the South was against the runners the whole way. This was reflected in the relatively slow times this year.
Bus transport went well from 8:15 until 9:45.
The last busses left the finish at 9:45 heading for the start and they were not full and there were no runners waiting.
The 3 hired drivers assumed all runners had been transported and headed home. The 2 Stroller drivers remained at South Shields to help transport baggage and officials from the start to the end. They arrived after 10:00 so didn't really have time for another round trip anyway.
However, about 10 people then arrived late at 9:50-9:55 looking for the busses. This included 2 Strollers who really should have known better!
Some of these were transported by one of the marshals in a car and one of the busses that was heading home was called back to do an extra run and take the remainder of the late comers to the start.
The bus left about 10:15 and arrived at the car park just as the race was starting so the handful of runners on that bus missed the start by a few minutes and had to chase the pack up the beach.
In future, please try to be there in a reasonable time to get the bus.
There were 1 or 2 issues with the race itself. The main one is that we have had reports of "lots" of runners choosing to head for the main road and run along the footpath/cycle path adjacent to it. This is out of bounds as specifically stated in the race information sheet.
The reason for this is that the road and footpath are classed at "public highway" and to organise a race along there involves the police. The police will see "1,000 runners expected" and will panic and advise the road be closed. If the road is closed we'll be charged £3,000 and if we choose not to take the police advice then we are no longer covered by the England Athletics insurance. In future we will probably place a few marshals along the problem area to direct runners back toward the coast before they get too close to the road.
Some runners chose to leave the start line and immediately run over the sand dunes to the promenade. This has happened in previous races and is within the rules. When the tide is out there is little advantage to running for the promenade as it's 200m further over soft sand dunes compared to the firm, wet sand on the beach. But when the tide is high, as it was this year, then there is no firm sand to run on on the beach and the start line is further up the beach and closer to the promenade so there probably is an advantage.
We expect to leave this part of the route choice up to the runner but we may need to tape of a little bit of the beach so the heading to the promenade takes place after 100m istead of at the start line as lots of folk in a crowd running in different directions may be hazardous so giving them a short time to spread out may be safer.
The expected diversion at the Cat and Dog steps, about a mile before the finish, was not needed as the tide receded in time so there was clear sand by the time the front runners arrived.
The results went well for the first 200 runners but then a minor problem caused the times of the main bunch of runners to appear in blocks of 20 or 30. This was caused by too few spot times being written down and typed in.
All of the problems should now have been sorted and the final results can be found HERE.
We were intending to upload them to the website as they were produced but a minor technical difficulty meant they didn't reach the website until 1pm.
The jackets went down well but, again, the sizes were a bit of a problem with there being too many larger sizes and not enough smaller ones. We'll look into it if we have a similar prize in future.
Otherwise, as far as we're aware, things went well and the majority of the feedback has been positive.
See you all next year!