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| Stock picture from the website |
The Great North
Run in Northern England is one of the biggest races in the world. Since it
started in 1981 with its first 12,000 runners, over 1 million finishers have
crossed the line. It is the first IAAF race to reach this milestone.
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| Picture from the paper. The runners were thin at this point! |
The 13.1 half marathon route runs from Newcastle, over the
Tyne Bridge and, after some surprising hills, ends in South Shields on the
coast. The route was lined with spectators the whole way and seemed to fulfill
the descriptions I have read of the top marathons in places like London,
Chicago, and New York.
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| So British to have red, double decker buses as our baggage transport :-) |
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| Patient bus drivers that gave up their Sunday morning off to haul bags for us |
It was amazing
being in that big of a field and despite the crowds I was able to stay on pace
pretty well. There is always a few walkers to get around, but for the most part
I was seeded extremely well in my corral and felt like I was just carried along
on the tide. There were a couple of bottlenecks, but we never came to a
complete halt.
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| Entertainment in the start corrals |
My pace was the
best it has been in years. Although it wasn’t a PR, it was my fastest finish in
3 ½ years and my second fastest over all. I supposed if it had been cooler, the
course had been flatter, or the crowds had been thinner, it might have been a
PR, but I don’t really care, it was my 3rd sub 2-hour finish out of
14 half marathons, I wasn’t going to worry about the details.
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| He actually finished the race in that! |
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| Wondering why all the crazy people are on his street |
I didn’t take
pictures on the course since I don’t take walk breaks in half marathons, but I
wish I could show everything some of the crazy people and things I saw. There
were costumes, funny signs, and fantastic spectators, (especially the ones
handing out orange slices!) Everything from “Elvis” in full regalia crooning as
we passed and the Pink Lady for Breast Cancer, to a 7 member steel drum band
without a drop of ethnic blood amongst them. They all whizzed by as I pressed
myself to maintain my heart rate, basing my pace off of that, rather than how
many minutes it was taking me to cover a mile.
By the time we hit
the finish, the crowds had really not thinned out. I was in the thick of it as
hundreds of runners crowded to get across the finish line. Owing to the chip
collection, there was already a backup bad enough that we were having to wiggle
in like sardines to actually get our body over the final timing mat! I guess crossing it slowly is why my Garmin
and my official time agree to the second.
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| Where? |
I went
through the usual steps; turned in my chip, got my goodie bag, stopped for my
finisher photo, and followed the crowd on our march to the baggage busses.
Along the way I managed to score a pint, and a seat on a hay bale in front of a
live band playing American Western Music, long enough to cool down and enjoy my
tasty beverage.
One big cultural
different that surprised me was that British runners are even less body conscious
than American runners. I’m used to runners being a bit more comfortable, women
stripping down to sports bras, everyone in revealing compression shorts, but I
was caught a little off guard by women stripping naked to the waist in full
public view and guys stripping down to less than a Speedo. Not that I mind, but
my run-addled brain took a little more time than usual to process the images.
“Did I just see that?” “Did Winnie the Pooh just disrobe to a thong?”
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| Hard to see here, but there are solid people all the way to the finish arch and beyond |
Eventually I made my
way to the bus that would carry me back to my car in Leeds. It was a long day,
but well worth it to have been part of this great race!
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| The calm beyond the storm |
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