Pudding Run

Boxing Day - I’ve no idea what it’s about, or where the name even came from. I mean there’s at least eight derivations for it listed on Wikipedia, which although it may be a good source of general knowledge, isn’t actually the font of universal truth.

What I do know is that the North Shields Polytechnic Athletic Club holds its annual Boxing Day Pudding Run on the 26th December. This is a bank holiday in England, so there’s no excuse for most people to duck out of this. So four of us - Shana, her husband, Alan, Jason, and me all got ourselves up to the start line with time to register (£5 - for a good cause) before the ‘off’ at 10:30.

There were somewhere around 700 runners, of all ages, including some children. So Daughter, who was waiting just past the 2k point to provide cheering support for all of us, is now very keen on taking part next year.

It was a good race, though I wasn’t familiar with the course . . .so got caught out by the last MILE, which was somewhat unexpected

The race winner’s time was 16:05, which is 4:49/mile. Good grief, but that’s seriously FAST.

My overall time for the Pudding Run’s 5.3k course was 22:45, which I’m pretty pleased with. Shana, running with Alan (who before a bad injury a few years back was a seriously quick runner - like a 3:05 marathon in equatorial Africa) managed a very impressive 30 minutes or so.

And afterwards to make up for any good we’d inadvertently done, the four of us stopped off at the Rockcliffe Arms for a drink. I had a pint of some fearsomely strong porter (think: Guinness’ evil twin, on steroids, armed with a baseball bat), which was nice. And then when I got home, Wife had been busy preparing sausage & egg sandwiches . . . heavenly, and a sign of true love.

This was a really enjoyable way to spend Boxing Day morning, made even better by the the company, and the ubiquitous Start Fitness goody bag at the end of the race . . . containing an individual-sized Christmas Pudding.

“Pudding Run” - I guess the clue’s in the name!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 12/26/2007
• Time: 05:56:40
• Total Time: 00:22:45.00
• Distance: 3.29 miles
• Average Pace: 6:54.27/mile

Filed under: Friends, Run, Whitley Bay