Birtley A.C.

Charity man Chris does the triple

October 6th, 2011

One of our senior members has been using his love of running as a money spinner to raise some cash for charity.
Chris Tiffen ran for Birtley throughout his teens and like many, after a break, he couldn’t resist the lure of the sport. His comeback race was at the North Run after a 10 year absence. He then raced two very different events over the following two Sundays.
Supporting the Fire Fighters Charity , which is the UK’s leading provider of services that enhance quality of life for serving and retired fire service personnel and their families.
This is a charity close to Chris’s heart as he serves as a part time Fire Man based at the fire station in Pelton.

He completed the Worlds biggest half marathon event, the Great north run in 1hr 37mins 40 seconds on Sunday the 18th.

A couple of days later he jumped on a plane for a cross Atlantic flight to take part in the Tunnel to Towers run in New York. Ran in memory of Stephen Siller.
On September 11th, 2001, Stephen a New York City firefighter was on his way to play golf with his brothers after working an overnight shift in Brooklyn. He heard the first reports of a plane flying into the World Trade Center and returned to his firehouse to gather his gear. Driving towards the Trade Center he found the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel blocked by traffic, the 34 year old father of five abandoned his truck and ran through the tunnel with 35 kg’s of gear on his back looking for his colleagues. Stephen along with the rest of his squad perished that day.
The 5k retraces the steps Stephen took on that fatefull day. Starting near to where he left his truck it runs through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel into Manhatan, finishing near the sight of the World Trade Center.

To pay homage to Stephen, Chris wore his over trousers, tunic and helmet. Fire fighting gear that’s not designed for running, especially in the 70 degrees heat of the Battery Tunnel.

Chris said it was an overwhelming experience feeling so accepted by New Yorkers while representing the UK fire fighters.

A week later on Sunday 2nd of October Chris completed his fundraising trio of races by running the Loch Ness marathon.

No sign of Nessy Chris completed the challenging 26.2 mile course in a time of 3 hours 39 minutes 10 seconds.

After the race he said it was the hardest thing he has ever done. He felt strong all the way and was happy not have hit the “wall” putting his strength down to coach Tommy’s sessions.

Brilliant effort

The sponsor page is still open as there’s still time to sponsor at Virgin money giving or catch him on a club night.

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Tags: fund raising, Great North Run, Senior
Posted in races

A “Great” weekend for Birtley

September 23rd, 2011

Friday with the GB/USA teams

As many people were cramming down carbs in preparation to the big weekend 17 Lord Lawson pupils who are members of Birtley had the honor of training with some of Team GB’s elite runners.Jenny Meadows and Christian Malcolm were on hand to give the young athletes expert advice and photo opportunities as well as joining in with the warm ups. Main organisor John Mayock decided to hold a couple of 100m races to find the fastest girl and boy who would be invited back the next day to race in front of a capacity crowd. Birtley coaches Vince Taylor and Ed Lown were in attendance and the following athletes benefitted from the experience: Andrew Baxter, Olivia Bateman, Hannah Brown, Danielle Coulson, Danielle Graham, Robbie Graham, Emily Laws, Ben Lager, James Lawrence, Jay Madine, Callum McClean, Matthew Norton, Kieran Ryan, Jack Smith, Sophie Taylor, Kieran Taylor and Erin Wesley

Mini North Run

It’s called “mini” but by all means don’t let this word undermine the efforts of Birtley ‘s youngster’s. So that the North Run experience can be enjoyed by everyone the mini marathon is a 1.5k loop around the Newcastle and Gateshead Quayside for boys and girls 3 to 8. The event is ran over three races and Birtley had around 15 mini runners ranging from as young as 3. Well done and look forward to next year.

Sophie and James the sprint stars

Why take the people to the track when the track can be taken to the people? That’s exactly what North Run organisors did for the City Games. Along with pole vault and long jump pit, a temporary 150m running straight was built on between the Baltic and Sage. For a number of years this has brought “stadium” athletics to the heart of the city.

This year two of our Birtley athletes earned the right to race on the same track as team GB and USA. Racing against the fastest athletes from Fridays training Sophie Taylor and James Lawrence ran the 100m in front of the estimated 20000 spectators. Sophie finished 2nd and James finished 1st

Sophie said it was a “surreal experience” racing in front of that many people “having a mint day and I have come back with Helen Clitheroe’s, Christian Malcolm’s, Oyepitan’s numbers and David Oliver’s USA vest and Dwight Phillips’ spikes”

Junior North Run

A change to previous years the girls and boys races ran separately. Within each race runners were staggered in waves from Blue Numbers (15-16 years) Red Numbers (13-14 years) Orange Numbers (11-12 years) Green Numbers (9-10 years). Each wave with 1 and a half minutes between.

The course was 4k taking in the mini loop plus an out and back along the Newcastle side of the river.

Being part of the biggest half marathon in the World and a major part of North East heritage, Birtley has always supported the North Run. We have produced several Junior Champions over the years. This year we have had 4 podium finishes. Sophie Forster finished 3rd in the 15-16 range. She also picked up the prestige’s Stan Long cup which is given to the first North East Athlete. In the 13-14 year olds last years defending champ Lydia Turner managed to retain her title recording the fastest leg of all runners, closely followed by Anna Fawcett in 2nd. Olivia Bateman had another impressive run in the 11-12 year old range. Like Lydia she was defending her first place from last year, which she did in style. Well done.

15-16 Girls 3 Sophie Forster 7 Paige Gilhespy

13-14 Girls 1 Lydia Turner 2 Anna Fawcett 18 Danielle Coulson 30 Danielle Graham 71 Sarah Karen Murray 94 Emily Laws

11-12 Girls 1 Olivia Bateman 37 Laura Kelly 42 Grace Turner 43 Jessica Morgan

9-10 Girls 14 Martha Laws 21 Amelia Bateman 40 Macey Bradshaw

15-16 Boys 7 Chris Peverley 11 Adrian Bailes 75 Sean Ridley

3-14 Boys 21 Lewis Morgan 139 Robbie Graham 208 Lewis Kelly

11-12 Boys 26 Luke Kelly 29 Jamie Johnson 59 Adam Ridley

9-10 Boys 140 Joshua Harvey 343 Jonathan Butchart

Well done Everyone

Great North Half Marathon

Sunday was the day of the half marathon main event. Those who watched the BBC coverage would struggle to miss Darren Purvis with his toe almost on the line at the start of the elite men’s race, proudly showing the Blue and yellow of Birtley AC to the World. Well done to all the seniors.

DARREN PURVIS 1:12:30 PETER FARNIE 1:21:56 Josh McEnaney 1:22:38 Michael Keenan 1:30:46 Andrew Hailes 1:31:36 David Coulson 1:35:17 Christopher Tiffen 1:37:40 GERARD MURRAY 2:19:5 Andrew Murray 3:02:42

Officials at the finish line

It’s not just the runners who deserve a pat on the back. Without spectators and volunteers the race that has grown to be the Worlds biggest half marathon would not take place. For the past 20 years Birtley has been involved by providing officials at the primary finish. This year we had 22 members

giving up their Sunday to help this event to take place. This is viewed as a developmental opportunity for some of our young athletes to see the event from a different perspective. All agreed that it was an exciting way to round off what had been a fantastic weekend of athletics.

Thanks to: Danielle Coulson, Grace Turner, Robbie Graham, Kersha Russell, Lesley Russell, Margaret Hopkinson, Katy Wilson, Lydia Turner, Paige Gilhespy, Val Baxter, Susan Wilson, Alex Flowers, Sean Ridley, Emily Laws, Bethan Oakes, Carol Ward, Rachel Ward, Chris Peverley, Anna Fawcett, Sophie Forster, Adrian Bailes and Ed Lown.

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Tags: Great North Run, road, Senior, Volunteer, Winners
Posted in events, races

Great North Run – big un’s race

September 25th, 2010

After my warm up with Erin on the Saturday I couldn’t wait for Sunday as I had been pretty nervous about it all week as I knew I was pretty fit and wanted a decent time. As usual the night before the GNR, I had about 2 hours sleep all night, full of nervous energy and I was glad when the alarm went off at 7:30am. We were meeting another friend who was also running and drove through in traffic that was a lot busier than usual, so we got dropped off at the Redheugh bridge. We walked up taking in the atmosphere that you only get from this great event and said our goodbyes and I went into zone A with the fast lads. As usual in zone A there was plenty of space to warm up, no getting squashed like a sardine for me. I saw poor David DanieIs (Wallsend lad) squashed in zone B and he had been there since 8:00am. As I was warming up I could feel my trainers rubbing the back of my heel and I started flapping as I could feel a blister starting already and hadn’t raced a metre yet! I was thinking to myself “I knew I should have bought the 40 quid ones, instead of the cheap ones on the rack outside of Start Fitness, you tight g*!” . Fortunately, I saw Martin Slater (Gateshead lad) smearing some Vaseline in some unmentionable area and asked him if I could pinch some for my heel. Darren (Birtley lad) and Keith (Chester unfortunate ) turned up and we were soon jostling for a position and I lined up alongside John Donneky (Derwentside lad). The elites were introduced and there was a wonderful response when Haile Gebrselassie was announced and then we were off and as usual it was a fast start. I ran with Keith for the first couple of miles and then I lost him and I managed to hang on to a couple of lads. 5K passed and I looked at my watch and I thought “Woo that’s a bit quick” and kept going as I felt OK , 10K came and I looked at my watch and thought “P.B.!!!”. Miles 7 and 8 went round without any problems, but then the wheels well and truly fell off at mile 9 ( 6:20 minute mile ) as I started to pay for the earlier quick miles. Fortunately, Keith caught me up at this point and dragged me round for the last few miles tapping out a steady pace and I just hung on to him until we dropped down to the last mile where he picked it up a bit and managed to get some space between us while I was pouring a bottle of water over my head! That last mile doesn’t get any easier and I knew I was pretty close to P.B., but not quite quick enough so I decided to try and catch as many people along to the finish and I knew Martin was getting closer to me so I went for it and with about 30 metres to go I managed to sneak past him and finish on the road, 45 seconds slower than my P.B, completely wrecked and hanging onto the metal railings for at least a minute trying to get my breath back after my last ditch sprint for the finish line.

Strong finish for Darren

Strong finish for Karl

Once I finally recovered and had a chat with the some of lads at the elite finish I made my way to the exit to collect my t-shirt and bumped into Drew with his Birtley vest on, which was great as I hadn’t seen him for a good few months and he’d obviously been still training as he had a great run.
Well that’s was another GNR done for me and I hung around to watch a couple of friends finish and then off home to eat cake, a midweek massage and enjoying an easy week recovering, however that didn’t go to plan but that’s another story!

Shout outs

Thanks Keith for helping me through those tough miles.
Sorry Martin… I know how annoying it is to get caught like that and you know you are normally a lot quicker than me anyway.
Well done Darren, awesome time.
Well done Drew and Dave, see you for the XC ?
Anybody else who ran wearing the Birtley vest.
Thanks Dave for sorting my legs out.
Big thanks goes out to Karen, my loyal supporter on the day and always.

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Tags: Great North Run
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Great North Run – A day at the seaside

September 24th, 2010

This was no ordinary Sunday visit to South Shields for twenty of  Birtley’s members. For the last 15 or so years Birtley Athletics Club have been invited to help officiate on the primary finish at the end of the Great North Run. A mixture of young and older members of the club arrived before 8.00am in eager anticipation of what was to follow. Welcoming cups of hot tea and coffee were provided in the officials tent and were much appreciated on a rather cool damp morning. 24 hours earlier most of us had been swathed in warm sunshine on the quay side in Newcastle watching the Junior North runs and the street athletics. As the atmosphere built around the finish area with the mass media,spectatators, announcers and the “big screen” keeping us informed of what was happening on the start line in Newcastle, we were given our instructions for the day. The main objective of working on the funnels is to make sure that the runners keep moving once past the line and also collect the all important microchips so that their times can be recorded. This is much easier than it used to be when we had to tear off  bar codes from numbers and stack them on pegs (in the right order). The other important task was to spot any runner who needed medical attention and get the medics there quickly. Once the duties had been allocated we had “free” time to stand at the head of the funnels and cheer on the first 2oo finishing athletes on the road before the masses were routed onto the grass and into the funnels. Soon after the funnels were opened streams of athletes started to run into the funnels. This is an amazing experience and gives a unique insight as to the organisation  involved to get all the runners over the line safely and out through the system for their medals and trophies (all 38,000 of them).  Athletes of all ages, shapes and sizes displaying a full range of emotions as they cross the line, sweaty ones who want to hug you, others who want to vomit over you, others who need you to keep them on their feet before they collapse with  exhaustion or cramp. Fortunately this year beacause of the rain and cooler conditions most of the problems seemed to be athletes suffering from cramps. 5 hours later and most of the runners were through and the funnels were closed one by one. Another 2 hour wait on the Leas before we could get our cars out and head off home. Another excellent GNR weekend – roll on next year. A big thanks to all who volunteered to help from Birtley AC. Margaret Hopkinson, Steph Hopkinson, Susan Wilson. Katy Wilson, Jessica Wilson, Tommy Millmore, Vince Taylor, Janet Taylor, Sophie Taylor, Kieran Taylor, Natalie (our friend from Hamburg who is with us for a year), Lillyanna Turner, Lydia Turner, Grace Turner, Matthew Norton, Sean Ridley, Paige Gilhespy, Alex Flowers, Sarah Murray and yours truly Ed Lown.

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Tags: Great North Run
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Mini and Junior North Run

September 21st, 2010

The sun shone brightly on the Newcastle and Gateshead Quayside for this years Mini and Junior Great North Runs, Saturday 18 September 2010. Thousands of youths of all abilities enjoyed an action packed day of racing and athletics cheered on by encouraging spectators.

Saturday’s races are a prelude to the Sunday’s 13.1 mile race and play host to a whole day of competition including the Great North City Games which has elite athletes from England and Australia battling it out. 

The first Birtley runners to compete were in the Mini North run which catered for youngsters aged 3 to 8.

The mini run is a distance of one mile which starts on the Newcastle quayside and heads out up river underneath the Tyne Bridge. The route then turns left crossing the Swing bridge up a slight hill to pass in the shadow of the Sage music centre then crossing back over the Millennium bridge for a the flat fast run into the finish, back on the Newcastle side.

This race was spilt into three waves, one starting at 11.00, 11.30 and 12.00. Many of the Mini North runners have siblings or relatives in the club and it’s great to see so many keen runners for the future generation of Birtley AC.

The spot light turned onto the elite athletes from Aus and England (England beat Aus 5-4) until 2.20 when it was the turn of the 9 to 11 year old boys and girls.

After a nervous wait our 9 to 11 year old athletes got under way.

Their route initially took the same course as the mini run. On the Gateshead side of the Swing Bridge they turned right running out of sight for around 1 mile doing a U turn back on themselves to join the route again from the swing bridge which in total was is distance of 3 miles

Some Brilliant races with Olivia Bateman coming in first girl adding another trophy to the shelf after last weeks track grand prix victory.

Birtley AC results boys and girls aged 9 to 11

Concluding the day’s races at 3.10 Junior Great North Run for boys and girls aged 12 to 16.

Running the same 3 mile route as the 9 to 11 year olds we had another winner Lydia Turner improving on last years 3^rd by two places for the win.

Birtley AC results boys and girls aged 12 to 16

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Tags: Great North Run, mini athletics, road, Winner, Winners
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Great North Run Officials needed.

August 31st, 2010

Red Arrows over the Tyne Bridge

For over 15 years Birtley AC has supported the Great North Run by providing officials to help with the ushering of over 40,000 people at the finish line at South Shields.    

Without the help of volunteers I’m sure our sport would struggle to host such “great” events.

We have again been contacted and have been asked if we can supply 20 eager marshals for this year’s main event being held on Sunday 19 September 2010.

The Great North Run is the biggest and most iconic half marathon in the World and this is your chance to be part of it. Who knows you may spot a celebrity or even get yourself on TV.

If you are interested or would like further information please see Ed Lown on club nights, but hurry because places are limited and going fast.

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Tags: Charity, Great North Run, Volunteer
Posted in events