Training: Dunston Staiths 8K

Third run in five days today. It's been a while since that last happened.

So yeah, today I opted to go for distance rather than speed and set off to find out what the far end of Dunston Staiths looks like — and hopefully to finally cross the River Team. Mission accomplished. ✅

The River Team looking a bit... silted and unappealing as it flows into the Tyne

Overall, it was an 8.1km run, once again ending outside Greggs on the quayside — and this time I did take advantage of that (though the vegan festive baguette thing I got was rank). The distance reported by Google Fit is questionable, mind. The GPS trace looks as suspect as ever near the start, as I crossed the High Level Bridge out of sight of half the satellites in the sky. Before that though, I got the run off to a crazy start by running down Dean Street and then straight up Dog Leap Stairs. I must've been in a sudden grip of masochism, but it wasn't actually as hard as I was expecting. The worst thing was that not all of the steps were the same height, so I occasionally stumbled in my ascent. Anyway, while it was over pretty quickly, it certainly got the heart going.

View from the High Level Bridge today, looking east to the Swing, Tyne, and Millennium Bridges

After passing the Black Gate and crossing the High Level, I just took the path down through the trees below Askew Road on the Gateshead side of the Tyne, aiming for any bit of path that I'd not yet run. After a few ups and downs, I decided I'd had enough of that (and the wind blowing in my face) and headed for the familiarity and relative shelter of Gateshead Riverside Park. (That linked page makes it sound okay, but really, it's a sadly neglected bit of scrubby copses full of shopping trolleys and discarded White Lightning bottles. Which is a shame. It could do with some friends to look after it.)

Eventually, of course, that brought me out into the Staiths South Bank housing estate. A quick pause to take a phonecall from my mam (apparently, I'd pocket-called her and she was just calling back) and I was off again, getting down to the staiths themselves and heading upriver again. Not long after that, I finally got to see the River Team as I crossed it on a pedestrian bridge. It felt momentous, actually; not for sight (it was pretty ugly), but more for the fact that I've run in this direction quite a few times, but never got so far. I carried on further to what I suspected was a dead end, as I stayed by the river rather stayed on the Keelman Way path. I was right as well, so paused at the furthest point for another photo:

You can just see the Redheugh Bridge in the distance here, which shows how far I'd gone

From there, it was straight back down the Tyne, this time with the wind behind me. And it actually was a decent wind, as I could feel it on my back. Often, I just match its pace, but it was genuinely pushing me today, which made the return leg fairly easy. One more brief stop for another photo of the staiths themselves and then it was just a matter of following the riverside path.

Dunston Staiths, once a key part of the County Durham coalfield infrastructure

Had I not been at work, I would've happily done a 10K today. That said, the longer I ran, the more I was getting weird feelings in one of my knees. To be honest, I can't even remember which it was now, but it was enough to make me concentrate on how I was landing my steps. It also made me wonder how my knees and feet would cope with a half marathon, should that happen in 2024. But that's for another time; for today, the 'feelings' didn't deter me from extending the run a little to pass the Glasshouse, the Baltic and head over the Millennium Bridge rather than the Swing Bridge. Really, I just wanted to make sure I got a purple mark (for over 7.5km) on my running calendar. 😁

All in all, it was a really enjoyable run. No pressure to get a fast time and no bother from my toe again. I could almost get used to this running thing.