Another week of the fair on the Town Moor meant another week of no Newcastle parkrun, so Geth and I took ourselves off to the coast for Whitley Bay parkrun this morning.
I’d done Whitley Bay once before, last summer, on a morning where it was pouring with rain (and of course we arrived forty minutes early and had to shelter against the wall of a tiny hut near the start). Geth had just come along for support on that occasion, as he was recovering from a broken toe, so today was his first parkrun at Whitley Bay. For me, meanwhile, while it was my second run there, the course this summer is so different that it was like running it for the first time again.
This is largely because last summer, the front at Whitley Bay was mostly taken up with works, and so large parts of it were closed off. As such, the finish funnel is now in a completely different place, and you get a straight sprint finish along the front – unfortunately, if you’re not familiar with the course, it’s difficult to time when you should start sprinting! I’ll know better next time. Hopefully they won’t move the finish again.