Scott shows his class – running around a car park in the dark
It was in the Birtley Cross Country Relays that Scott Armstrong showed what a promising athlete he is.
As a recent addition to Sunderland Harriers relay team, he surprised many with his superb leg over 3000m.
He said: “I was very pleased with my run and the overall team performance at Birtley. When finding out the Morpeth line-up I knew it was going to be a tightly-contested race and that it could be decided in the latter stages of my leg. Having ran a 5k PB in December and then spending a fortnight training in Spain over Christmas, I knew I was in good shape for the race but wasn’t sure whether my lack of cross country preparation would hinder my performance.”
He added: “Going into the last lap and seeing I had made inroads into Morpeth’s lead, I was confident I would be able to catch them at some point over the final lap, especially with a large group of Sunderland Harriers cheering me on.
“What surprised me was I caught the leader going up the last hill. Once I’d caught him, my focus was to extend our lead by as much as possible which I managed to do and be rewarded with a fast time.”
Armstrong joined Sunderland Harriers as he wanted to be in involved in their road and cross country relay teams.
Whilst training with Albert James at Sunderland he knew there was a strong desire from athletes at the club to be successful, so he joined up with the ambition of helping the club to place as highly as possible in competitions.
With the help of James he increased his mileage and started doing more sessions focused around building his endurance.
After a year under James’ guidance, he was able to get faster over longer distances and then he joined up with his current coach David Lowes. He has been with Lowes since 2019 and has set his PBs from 800m on the track to 5km on the road with him.
“David rarely sets the same session twice, so it’s hard to pick a favourite,” he said. “I enjoy short efforts on the track at 800m pace with a few minutes recovery, as it sets me up well for a race without experiencing an overwhelming bout of lactic acid. In the winter I enjoy 5k specific sessions on a flat loop where I can really get into a good rhythm.
“I can’t remember when I actually started running but I started regular training when I was about 16. My training was for shorter distances as I wasn’t naturally talented in long distance events. But as part of my training, I raced an 800m indoors one winter and found I wasn’t as bad as I previously thought.
“Winning races and running personal bests is the most enjoyable part of running but this doesn’t happen as often as you’d like. But that’s just the nature of the sport for most athletes. I take a lot of pleasure from the dayto-day training and 800m is my favourite event, but being a part of a relay team (cross country, road) and contributing to Sunderland’s success is really rewarding.”
Armstrong, who lives in Durham, runs between 40 and 60 miles per week, although he intends to focus on specific sessions to measure his progress rather than how many miles he has covered. “I do more endurance-based sessions in winter so my mileage is naturally higher than in the summer when I’m doing faster track sessions,” he said.
He has ran 1:53.72 for 800m, 4:04.55 for 1500m and 15:14 for 5km on the road. In the near future, his aim is to run under 15 minutes for 5k.
In the summer, he'd like to improve all of his PBs on the track in the distances he competes in.
"Judging from my 800m PB I should be able to run under 4 minutes for 1500m, although I’ve only raced the distance twice so far,” he added.
“Aside from the Birtley Relays, my 800m PB indoors in Sheffield at a British Milers Club meeting was a particularly good run. I won the B race with only the winner of
the A race posting a quicker time.”
Last week he recorded a 5000m road PB in winning the York 5k, clocking 15.14.
With parents as PE teachers and a brother Joe, also a talented middle distance runner, Scott will not be short on advice.
He works at a STEM specialist school for 14-year-olds. He is a marketing and student recruitment officer at UTC South Durham, which is a job focused on dealing with admissions and promoting the college to new students, which can involve anything from working on digital marketing
campaigns to delivering an assembly in another school. He is the enjoying the role.
“I’m aware that running around a car park in the dark after work probably is not everyone's idea of enjoyment,” he said. “But I do get a level of satisfaction knowing I’m doing something to better myself.”
*Junior Darcey Tullis from Jarrow and Hebburn AC's under-14 section surged to an impressive victory against senior opposition in the Newbiggin-by-theSea Park Run on Saturday. The promising youngster finished an impressive fifth overall in the mixed field of 118 and was also the first female home, 1.06 minutes clear of Elswick's Nina Nivens-Prior with a time of 21:06 for the 5km course. Elsewhere, Angela McGurk, also from the Jarrow and Hebburn club, won the Blyth Links Park Run on Saturday with a time of 20.00, which was almost three minutes ahead of Heaton's Ellie Clark, again over a 5km course. And Richard Harrison made it a Jarrow and Hebburn hattrick at the weekend when he won the Riverside Park Run on Saturday.