The Mark Ellis Blog

I've done a few different 10k's around the North East and a few other races in other places too, but there's fewer better races to take part in than the Tees Pride 10k.  Today was my 2nd running in the race, having pondered doing it for a few years and always being persuaded by the Management (aka the Mrs) that it was too close to the Great North Run. But last year I ignored her and I was glad that I did - I had a brilliant run and got my 10k pb at 63 mins dead.  It was the ideal warm up race ahead of the Great North Run as its usually just a week before the big one. There's no doubt that Middlesbrough puts on a good show -  the organisation of the race is spot on, easy entry on line, pack sent out in good time, all the info you need on where to park etc in a useful book and all at a great value price in comparison to others.  On the day is great too as its easy to find where you need to be and at what time plus there's plenty of facilities for when you need the...

After my experience yesterday with one of the coaches at Chester-le-Street Athletics Club, I thought I'd blog about my experiences as a parent, sort of athlete and recently qualified coaching assistant. We've had an involvement with the club for a number of years as Dominic has trained there since he packed in football just over 4 years ago.  When he first joined he was getting info on competitions and competing, but he wasn't great and soon the mentions of competitions stopped.  However, it didn't put him off and he kept going, with a number of different coaches, some of whom didn't turn up regularly and he seemed to be passed from pillar to post until he settled in Brian's group. Once she reached the right age, Philippa also joined and she did really well in her first few events at Quadkids at Gateshead.  She really enjoyed it and progressed even further in the second year at Quadkids, where she came 2nd.  Unfortunately though, she seemed to be overlooked ...