Great North Run - Half Marathon

This is the shortest time it’s taken me to get to an event for a number of weeks. Flying from Southampton to Newcastle was a pleasure – just over two hours and I was particularly grateful since I’d only landed at Heathrow from Sydney that same morning!

We’d begrudgingly spent a fortune on a hotel, mainly because there were no other rooms left in the whole of Newcastle due to the popularity of the event. On arrival though we realized why we were paying so much – we were staying next door to Paula Radcliffe and all the other elite athletes in town to participate in the largest half marathon in the world!

Now as many regular readers will know, I’m very fortunate with my weight to food consumption ratio and during a recent week long event lost another ¾ stone. Yet alongside these elite athletes, I can honestly say, for the first time in a while, I felt I was definitely one of the hotel’s heavier built guests!

This was the first time I’d taken part in the Great North Run and I was impressed with the pre-race information pack. Sadly I made the mistake of attempting the pre race expo, which was a less than positive experience with hundreds of people queuing – and wait for this – nobody even knew what they were queuing for! We didn’t hang around, deciding we’d rather purchase a bowl of pasta elsewhere, than queue all afternoon for the pasta party.

Race day arrived all too quickly. With 50,000 other runners expected at the race, we arrived very early to avoid getting caught up in any congestion. We weren’t alone and the atmosphere and the build-up, even at this early hour in the morning, was superb. The charity turn out was amazing, with people dressed up as Shrek, red devils and various Indians and French waitresses (male runners!) it made for a great atmosphere with smiles everywhere.

It was in the early hours that we met a great charity runner, Steve, who was attempting the run, which he is following this weekend with the Chicago marathon, dressed as Yoda. He looked great and it took us nearly an hour to walk with him from the start down to the bag drop off point, as kids and adults alike stopped him to have their pictures taken, reliving their memories of Star Wars. Steve has raised an amazing £11k for his efforts for children with Leukemia – congratulations.

To tie in with my 600 miles on 6 continents challenge this year I’d requested race number 600 – which the race organizers were kind enough to oblige me with. It was all coming together I thought to myself for a brief moment until, that is, I realized that my number put me in a pen right at the front and just behind all the elite athletes.

I’d like to lie and say this didn’t make me nervous but when you’ve been used to standing at the back and chatting with like minded fun-runners, just being in the pen with all that brand new sponsored sports gear made me very nervous. It meant parting company with Yoda and walking back towards the start line – I’ve never been that close before.

What was really funny (unless you were an elite runner) was how they started the race for each pen. If you get a chance, look again at the footage of the women’s elite athlete start – they are all completely surprised when the gun goes off – no count down, no nothing. It wouldn’t be so bad but they did this for every single pen!

It was at the point the gun went off for my pen that I changed my running style for the first time in my life. Whilst my general philosophy is get to the end and enjoy the run, my instant reaction was run like mad before I got in the way of these very fast and serious club runners. My worst fear was slowing any of them down. I kept their pace but was exhausted by the first mile – gasping for air and trying to drink a sports drink, I really thought I could imagine how my nephew Morgan felt earlier this year when he got himself into a real panic because he couldn’t catch his breath.

Yet despite setting off at my fastest pace ever, even racing by, it was impossible to ignore the crowd – it was amazing. There were bands playing and people clapping and cheering the atmosphere was fantastic. I can’t criticize the organizers from a runner’s perspective. 50,000 is a lot of people to organize and from what I saw, they did a great job with well stocked and spaced water stations. There were even some great extras like cooling spray showers strategically positioned around the course.

As we eased into the course and each runner found their own pace, I then started to be over taken less often. I regained my normal breathing pattern and traded my sticky sweet sports drink for a bottle of water – I felt better almost instantly.

I’m not sure if it was my unusually fast pace, they fantastic crowd or the fact that I’ve been used to running marathon’s but I got to the 10 mile marker in what seemed like minutes and it dawned on me that I only had three miles left to complete. With renewed enthusiasm I once again picked up my pace. I was amazed with the reception awaiting runners for the last 1km. Crowds, 5 or 6 people deep, lined both sides of the road - it was a real incentive to sprint for the finish – even if in reality it looked to those spectators that I was power walking with far too much caffeine!

For the first time in my life I was the first person back to the Cystic Fibrosis tent in the charity village and boy did I make the most of it… food, drinks and most importantly, massage! It didn’t take long though for others to make it back and all too soon I was kicked off the massage table to make way for my fellow weary runners. All of which really appreciated the great support from all those helping out in the tent.

I may have been out of my comfort zone with my initial positioning but it did push me and I completed this event in my fastest time this year - 1h25. That probably doesn’t sound too impressive but when you consider there were 50,000 runners, I was 340th across the finishing line. For me it was the perfect end to a great event.

I’m signing off now but couldn’t do so without congratulating Yoda (Steve) who finished in a great time, yet was sporting a large green plastic mask, hands and a full length tunic. Good luck for Chicago next week.