Looking for my other runs? They are here: Running Index.
Sunday 16th September 2012
The Great North Run. Is Great the correct word for it? In many ways it's more than that simple word, it being the largest Half Marathon in the world. With 55,000 entrants (but only 40,000 starters for some reason), it was certain to be busy and generating the warmth and fun that all of these types of events do.
Yes it's Nigel and yes the stick is real. As real as the stick I gave him that is!
Why do I trek all the way from London to Newcastle for this? This text is sandwiched between the two reasons. On the left is my knackered running mate, Nigel, who went to Uni there. On the right is my lovely Mum and I was running for the Alzheimer's Society this year and she has that condition. I set up a sponsor page although only quietly publicised it and you lovely kind people genrously sponsored me for over £600. Thanks so much!
The first year Nigel told me that he and all his mates run it and I should come along. It wil be a laugh. However, there were just the 2 of us but we still had plenty of laughs. And this year he had a bad knee so couldn't run. How funny is that? Yeah, not very. Fortunately in recent years he managed to find 1 friend, Tony, who joined in...more of which later.
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Hello Mum! Sadly, Mum passed away on 10th November 2013 aged 89
The Mobot himself, Mo Farah!
(He's behind his minder)
We travel up on the Friday and it has to be said that the last minute preparations are pretty hopeless. We start "celebrating" as soon as we get on the train and it's all down hill from there. I'll spare you the unpleasant details.
On the Saturday morning, I took Care in the Community, I mean Nigel, out for a little stumble around the town and to see some of the mini-games. It was a glorious day and, around midday as we were having a little sharpener at the Quayside pub, we were extremely lucky to have Mo Farah run past us whilst warming up. He has the biggest and sunniest smile in the land.
He ran a 2 mile race around the streets of Newcastlwe and Gateshead and the free and easy access there enabled us to get a great view and this shot of Mo moving through the field.
More Mo
The race
Lounging on the bed in my hotel room on Sunday morning watching The Andrew Marr show, the clock ticked round to 9:30 and his show ended early. The announcer then said they were going to Newcastle to cover the Great North Run. I think I was pretty laid back about the timing but there is something unique about seeing coverage of a live event that you are meant to be participating in appearing on TV. It certainly got me out of there quickly.
Nigel bravely walked with me up to the start and we met Tony outside The North Terrace. The fact it was a pub was a complete coincidence and no, we didn't see if they would serve us. Nigel then bravely went and read the paper, swam, went in the steam room, jaccuzzi and sauna.
We were a little later than usual and, after passing away the pre-race nerves using the public facilties (gents behind bushes - appropriately I was standing next to someone with a kidney research T-shirt on - ladies queuing for the offical facilties for more than 100 yards) we went to get into our starting pen. It started to drizzle. The place was rammed and we also had Mr Misnamed Motivator jumping up and down trying to get us warmed up. With quite a nervous delay we eventually squeezed in and got ready. On the the big screen was the Mobot - what a cheer for that great guy. The Red Arrows soared past then we were away.
Ahead of us were the Toon army guys in black and white speedos and little else. Very brave but you do get a lot of encouragement if you wear that sort of thing. Although I think I would just get some pitying glances and shaking of heads. They queued to high five the Olympic athletes just after the start. However, I didn't want to wait and surged past. Early on you cross over the main bridge and the Red Arrows roared overhead once again. What a great feeling albeit over so quickly. You might know what that's like. I really wasn't looking to do a personal best (PB) (1:42:08) but, as the excitement of the day started to take a hold of me, I knew I should do a decent time of about 1:46. Tony ran with me doing just inside 8 minutes miles for a couple of miles but unbelievably he had to stop for a pee break, on a bridge of course(?), so I carried on.
Running alone, it's odd what goes through your mind. For example, here's a handy tip. Petrol gets cheaper the further from Newcastle you run, I mean drive. The bands were great and, as per usual, Elvis was at mile 11 still singing the same songs after all these years. One day I might go back to see if he does it every day and not just for the run. I like to think he does. We had started so far back that I found it hard to keep a good pace and had to zig and zag around lots of runners. I had set my running watch for 8 minute miles and kept comfortably inside that. I checked it at the halfway mark and I was just on 51 minutes - so matchng my PB was on! There is a 3.5 mile hill starting around mile 8 and that took it's toll as well as the difficulty in passing. I put in a 7:10 minute last mile (last year it was exactly 7 minutes for the same mile) and came in with 1:42:57 - my second best time and a pleasing result.
Other stats include the fact that the race was, on average, 2 minutes faster for runners this year so that takes the edge off it a little. Also, I came 4,423rd whcih was a huge 1,100 places lower than 2011! I was 204th in my age and gender group and only 18 women beat me in that group. You can see the results on the Great Run Website.
Next year I hope that Nigel will be running. I will also be running for the local (to Newcastle) charity the Percy Hedley Foundation as Tony has a personal reason why he runs for that. I am also doing the Brighton Marathon or the London Marathon so prepare your inboxes!
Grahame
Looking for my other runs? They are here: Running Index.