Great North Run

Saturday sees up heading up to Newcastle for the Great North Run. We go by train and via Sheffield, just in case someone obsessed wants to take in a Parkrun but, on this occasion, we don’t. 

We have moved from last year’s hotel after they ratcheted the price up. We stay in Motel One which is right near our usual post-race Sunday Roast venue the Pleased To Meet You.

Motel One is nice, offers free bottled water to ‘members’ (I only joined to book it this once) and an electronic aquarium on the TV, like some sort of 90’s screen saver.

Having checked in we head off to find the Pasta Party, having finally got the hang of the fact that this is now in Gateshead or rather it was. It isn’t this year apparently. The Great North City Games which are the mainly track based athletics events they usually have the day before the Great North Run have been moved to Stockton. Oh. Although we didn’t initially realise this when we got to Gateshead because they still have the big screen showing live coverage of it. While the Junior races are still there but the Pasta Party and the Expo seemed to have been vaporised. Unless that motley collection of tents is the Expo. They certainly don’t have any hoodies this year. This doesn’t bode well as the race approaches its 40^th birthday next year.

In the evening, finding somewhere to eat is difficult, for some reason everywhere is busy. In the end we eat at the Banyan bar which is full inside but they let us eat outside. That is until another staff member turns up to tell us that we can’t eat outside... once we’re finished eating. Then we pop into the delightfully and prophetically named D.E.A.D. for a pre-race beer. D.E.A.D. stands for Drop Everything And Drink.

Sunday is the race itself and we follow the throngs to the start where we join first the loo queue and then the start queue. Some poor folk probably won’t have even have cross the start line by the time Mr Farah is taking the tape at the finish. I line up next to a chap who ran 1:27 last year and is hoping to improve on that this time. One of us is in the wrong start zone.

As I have mentioned in previous years, it’s a pretty dull course so I mix things up this year by staying on the right hand side of the start which means you go over the first flyover rather than under it. So daring.

Then it’s the one exciting bit, over the Tyne Bridge but for some reason my timing is out and the Red Arrows are not overhead this year. Then I settle in for the grimness, get in a steady pace and high five as much of the crowd as possible to relieve the boredom until the next highlight at 10.5 miles where the beer stop is.

I am aiming for a time of around 1:45 but have completely failed to locate the 1:45 pacer either at the start or since. Then he comes past me at 12 miles. Are pacers supposed to sprint finish? I get a shift one and ‘un-lap’ myself finishing in 1:45:50.

Overall I am pleased with that. It’s a PB at my third attempt here. In previous years I’ve arrived pre-injured and have done a 1:48 and a 1:51.

Then it’s time for some more queuing. First I spend almost as long in the massage queue as I did running the race, all for what wasn’t even a great massage. Then I join the beer queue only to find that L has now finished her race and made the beer tent before me despite starting ages after me. We split three pints between us before heading off to join the bus queue as we attempt to escape South Shields.

Our evening meal and post-race drinks is again in the Pleased To Meet You and for breakfast the next morning we again frequent the Cathedral cafe.

Before the race L said this was definitely her last Great North Run but... she seems to have really enjoyed this one. We also have one more year of our three year ‘membership’ and next year is the race’s 40^thAnniversary. I rebook the hotel for next year.

Great North Run

We are away for the second weekend in a row and once again heading northwards by train, this time via Sheffield just in case L fancies popping for a parkrun again like last year (but she declines). This time we are not passing through Newcastle but disembarking there. It’s Great North Run weekend.

We stay at the oddly name Sleeperz hotel, which is nicely central and only a few doors down from a decent micro pub, the Split Chimp. Where we meet other Great North runners hydrating on the beer. We meet two people from Nottingham, one a runner sporting the same Robin Hood Half t-shirt as me, the other a non-runner who’d moved to the area.

Sleeperzzzzz do us a decent pasta buffet for Saturday night which is very welcome but sadly they don’t provide a working air-con which just dumps water all over our floor. They don’t seem too apologetic when I report it to them when we check out.

We do make it to the official race village and pasta party this year but aren’t terribly impressed with either although I do pick up a Great North hoodie to replace my rather lived in Vitruvian one.

On race day we are again central enough to walk to the start where I bag my usual space near the front and then say farewell to L who has to trudge several miles back to find her start. We agree to meet in the beer tent afterwards.

The race goes well, if you class 13.1 miles uphill as well. It’s not supposed to be all uphill but it certainly feels like it. The beer stop at 10 miles is so welcome I gab two cups full.

My time is 1:51, four minutes slower than the hilly windy Faroes. Perhaps I over-hydrated in the Split Chimp? Perhaps I under-hydrated in the Split Chimp? Perhaps I’m just unfit?

Then I queue for a massage, for longer than I would have liked because there’s now a big queue at the beer tent. I buy three pints. One each for L and I, and another for me while I wait.

L arrives looking not quite as enthused as she did after the Faroes Half. Then we discuss tactics on how to get back to Newcastle while avoiding the usual two hour Metro and/or ferry queue.

There are direct buses from the finish to Newcastle, called the R1, and we give that a go. There are plenty of buses and we take advantage of the chaotic queuing system. Each bus seems to have it’s own queue but everyone by default is joining the queue for the first bus. So we get on bus two, sorted.

The bus is quicker but it isn’t that pleasant. The weather is warm, the bus is badly ventilated and it has to take a roundabout route due to the road clothes. One chap looks ready to vomit while I’m considered fainting in solidarity with him. We both make it through in the end although that experience makes the run seem a doddle.

Great North Run

L and I head up to Newcastle, via a parkrun in Sheffield, as you do. Daughter joins us and the two them, not me, run the Sheffield Castle parkrun. I’m saving my calves for the GNR tomorrow.

Once in Newcastle, we head to find the pasta party, which is no longer held at the finish line where we expected it to be, where it was fifteen years ago, but apparently it hasn’t been there for years. Who knew? That will teach us to read the race information.

The next day we are near enough to walk to the start which saves a lot of hassle with the Metro etc, which I’m sure will be busy. Then amazingly we bump into some people we know and the Elite women’s coach almost bumps into us.

Then we part to go to our respective start points. The race starts at 10:40am and I get to cross the start line at 10:45am, L who is further back doesn’t get to start until 11:10am. By which point Mo Farah is long gone. In fact before I am even half way around they are announcing that he has won, smart a***.

The route, of course, goes from Newcastle to South Shields via the Tyne Bridge. The on course support is, as expected, amazing but (whisper it quietly) I was a bit disappointed with the route, it’s just not that scenic... the bridge is good but isn’t it tiny! I was surprised. Blink and you’ve missed it but you can’t missed the Red Arrows who flew across overhead as we crossed.  

There was a very welcome beer stop at 10 miles provided by Newcastle Hash House Harriers but, again, blink and you’ll miss it. Which I did, so naturally I turned around and went back.  They had beers from several local micro breweries so it was almost a mini beer festival. Perhaps I should have stayed for a couple but I just grabbed a taster from Tyne Bank Brewery and went on my way.

The best bit of the course is probably the end and that's not just because it’s the end. After an uphill section around mile 11 there then comes an evil downhill slope (for those of us with dodgy calves) at 12 miles but having weathered than the final mile long stretch along the sea front is great.

Having looked after my calves all the way around, I start to push it now and they twang at me in protest but they can pack up now if they want. I can crawl from here.

So I finish in one piece and a little while later so too does L. By now I’ve managed to grab a massage and have headed back up the course to cheer L in, who texts me from the finish. So I’ve missed her. We arrange to meet in the beer tent which is filled with tempting real ales. It was fairly quiet when I finished but it’s heaving now, so we shelve that idea.

The queues for the Metro are huge even after we’ve killed time in one of the pubs so we head to get the Tyne Ferry instead which will enable us to pick up the Metro on the other side of the river. The queues are probably just as long but at least we are serenaded by a band in the queue.