The Great North Run (GNR) is nearly upon again and I can’t wait. Living only about fifteen miles from the start line this is a race I do every year and such this will be my sixth GNR.
You tend to get some serious runners who get a bit snooty about the GNR as it is a mass participation run with around 50,000 participants every year - apparently the world’s largest half marathon, but who cares it is a great race.
There are a number of things that I love about the race and I decided to put them into a top five, so here goes:
You tend to get some serious runners who get a bit snooty about the GNR as it is a mass participation run with around 50,000 participants every year - apparently the world’s largest half marathon, but who cares it is a great race.
There are a number of things that I love about the race and I decided to put them into a top five, so here goes:
1.Start
with the music pumping and fifty thousand runners at the start line it makes for a tremendous atmosphere, when I look back at the start line I cannot see where the runners end - it still make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!
with the music pumping and fifty thousand runners at the start line it makes for a tremendous atmosphere, when I look back at the start line I cannot see where the runners end - it still make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!
2.Finish
The finish is spectacular, thousands of people line the last mile of the race, there is even a small grandstand, the spectators make a lot of noise and it really forces you to run the last mile much faster then you would normally. Amazing!
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| Half a mile from the finish GNR 2011 |
3. The kindness of the local residents
The race route goes through built up parts of Gateshead and South Shields and the local residents provide drinks (the oddest I saw one year was home brewed beer!), sweets and hose piped water, they also give exceptional support.
4.Runners
The runners are from all types of backgrounds from elites (Mo Farah will run the race this year) to fun runners. The costumes that people wear amaze me sometimes I think there is a bloke doing completing the run this year with a fridge strapped to his back!
5. Charity
The race raises many millions of pounds for charity which is the icing on the cake!
So good luck to all who are participating in this year GNR, I can’t wait!
What do you like about the Great North Run?