Midweek run: the 5th bridge

Another week, another missed parkrun. Morpeth didn't happen on Saturday — was looking after daughter #2, who was ill — so I grabbed the opportunity for another lunchtime run around the city centre today instead.

Despite saying I should venture south into Gateshead, I hadn't really done my homework on possible routes and, if I'm honest, couldn't face the uphill run either, so... I settled for grazing Gateshead instead. Since doing the 4 bridges run the other week, I'd been thinking about completing the set of pedestrian-crossable bridges by taking in the Redheugh Bridge as well. A quick play on onthegomap.com to check that it wouldn't be too long a route and I was off.

The Redheugh Bridge is a pretty ugly, utilitarian bridge that's really just meant for motor vehicles (2 lanes each way), but which has a footpath too. It's probably best known in the local area for featuring on traffic reports as being "closed to high-sided vehicles," which gives a clue as to how windy it gets. That means it's pretty high above the river (as is my office) and so to avoid undue climbs, I opted for one of the higher bridges (Tyne Bridge) on the outbound leg, followed by a high-level traverse of Gateshead, and then a return via the Redheugh Bridge.

I set off with a quick start in mind today, but I was soon paying the price, feeling every one of my 47 years, and more besides. It's weird: I'm finding myself feeling my age more add more in recent runs and it's not much fun. By the time I'd crossed the Tyne Bridge, the slight climb along the A184 was truly punishing and my pace dropped from a reported 4:56/km to more like 5:30/km. As ever, thoughts of cutting the run short ran wild through my head. The shortest route back to the office would make a total of about 3.5km. The only thing stopping me doing that was pride.

By the time I made it to the Redheugh Bridge, I was wishing I'd at least chosen a prettier route. This one felt dominated by speeding traffic and even the views up the Tyne valley from the bridge weren't enough to dispel the rushing of cars and lorries. At least the winds weren't as bad as I expected; a little gusty, but never really felt like a headwind that I had to lean into.

On reaching the Newcastle side again, the slog up St James's Boulevard was kept interesting only by the need to keep a keen eye on the pelican crossings as I approached them. All told, I got pretty lucky with the timing of the lights and didn't need to break my rhythm more than once. Finally, I made it to Gallowgate and entered the usual mêlée around the Percy Street junction, getting completely blocked by one group of people who were dithering. I need to make sure I avoid this area of town in the future; it's an absolute nightmare to pick your way through the pedestrians while not getting flattened by buses or taxis. Even Blackett Street and the Monument aren't as bad.

The final stretch thereafter was almost all either flat or downhill, which gave me a chance to pick up the pace again as I waited for my phone to blurt out "Distance: five kilometres". That arrived at the bottom of Pilgrim Street, but knowing how generous Google Fit is with distance, I kept going a few hundred yards further before returning to work.

I'd actually also been trying out another running app today too: Pace Control. Originally, I'd downloaded it to help daughter #1 pace her junior parkruns, but it's not really lived up to my hopes. I was looking for something that would show me very simply whether we were hitting a target pace, and maybe advise us to speed up or slow down.

While it does show your pace, it's not really as at-a-glance as I'd hoped and it doesn't seem to have a target pace option. Also, its commentary as I ran today was drowned out by the traffic noise, while I could actually hear that from Google Fit. Maybe its best feature, however, was the fact it reported a much more believable 4.95km having been run, compared to the 5.29km that Google reported. I'll keep trying it, but it's unlikely to be the coaching companion that I was looking for.

Next outing: probably another lunchtime run around town later this week, but this time I might aim for somewhere green. 🌳