World's Biggest Half Marathon Great North Run

It's just over a week since this year's Great North Run. This is the sixth time I have run the race and as usual it was an amazing day. For those of you who know little about the race the Great North Run is the world's best attended half marathon, with over 50,000 runners. The race is run in the north east of England - from Newcastle upon Tyne to South Shields as you can see from the route overview below.

BUPA Great North Run Route

Upcoming Salomon Kielder Marathon

I will also be repeating my Kielder Marathon experience when the race is run again on the 7th October.

Salomon Kielder Marathon Elevation Profile

The marathon is unique in that it follows the Lakeside Tail around Kielder Water with one lap of the water equalling the marathon distance. It is a beautiful spot in rural Northumberland in the North of England most of the time you are running through pine trees

The marathon is not easy, it is the most hilly marathon I have run. As you can see from the elevation profile I recorded on my Garmin GPS watch below, there are  no real killer hills just lots of small one - lots of ups and down that slowly sap your strength. 

5 Reasons Why I Like the Great North Run

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:

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!

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!

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?