65 FOR IZZI: Spooky GPS Readings In My Home Town, Sunderland

Race No. 62 Siglion Sunderland 10K

The official route

For my third race of the week I was back in my hometown, for what, strangely, was the first race I have ever ran on Wearside, the Siglion Sunderland 10K.

I found it quite an emotional experience, bringing to mind an enormous number of memories. The first was one of those "if only" questions. This one being ,' if only I had put the slightest effort into a school cross country trial over fifty years ago'. Had I done so, I would have ran in a county cross country event and who knows I could have been a runner in my teens, instead of leaving it to my late thirties.

Another memory, or maybe realisation, came to me as I parked at the Sunderland University before the race. My mother (shown below on her wedding day) was born not 100 yards from the where the Uni. now stands.

As the course of the race crossed Wearmouth Bridge and dropped down to the river, I could only marvel at the changes. What in my youth had been shipyards, was now more university buildings and the Nation Glass Centre. My late father, Ronnie, had actually worked in these shipyards when World War 11 broke out. As a skilled worker in a vital industry he was not allowed to 'join up'. Every Saturday however, he plagued the Recruiting Sergeants until finally, he was accepted into the RAF.

I have his certificates for working on Bomber engines and could never figure out how he ended up as a tail gunner in a Lancaster Bomber with that skill. It is only in recent years that I realised at that time in 1944/5 they were literally running out of gunners, so high was the mortality rate.

Proving the Graham luck, Ronnie was so late into the role, that soon after his crew were to go operational, the war ended. That is definitely another 'if only'.

Now the race was down onto Roker Beach and soon turned into Roker Park -yes, the old Roker Park Football Stadium was just along the road. This was the locale of my late Father in Law, Bob Wood Jnr. Bob was involved in football all his life. First as an excellent player, representing his country as a young amateur. Having been forbidden by his father to sign as a professional (unbelievable now, but these were the days of a maximum wage), he played local football before becoming a referee and getting to the top in that field. All of this whilst working full time as Works Manager at Reyrolles, Hebburn. In fact, not only this, but he and his father before him served as Secretary for the Wearside League for a combined 99 years.

Out of the Park and onto the seafront it was time to concentrate on the race and I was going well. Heading for the return over Wearmouth Bridge it was looking as if I could manage a 45 minute 10K. Over the bridge and with the finish in sight it looked to be on. Then the final push to the line, but the overhead clock said 46.10 with metres to go, "damn" I thought , not realising that it was the timing chip in my number which counted, not the finishing time. After the race I found that I had actually finished in 46.01. I could so easily have knocked a couple of seconds off, if I had but realised.

The results also showed that I was 202nd finisher from a field of 1809 and 3rd V60. In a race of this size I thought that there might have been more categories and something for an old timer , but it would appear not.

Back at my car I realised that the family church, Bishop Wearmouth, was in view- you can just see the tower in the image of me. In the old days when families attended church regularly this was ours. My folks were married there at the end of the war, I was christened there and I have actually mentioned one of their Sunday School treats, a trip to Saltwell Park, in my blog on the Saltwell 10K (Race no. 42).

Yes, an emotional day for me. Maybe this explains my GPS signal going haywire. If you look me up on Strava you will see that my Forerunner has me running 6.58 miles to take in the Stadum of Light. I don't thnk that I did that, well maybe in spirit only!