The 30th Bupa Great North Run. Sunday 19 September 2010.

The highs and lows of my first great run!

Sunday the 19th of September didn’t start out like any other racing morning; for one thing I was in a hotel overlooking the River Tyne and its Iconic bridges.
As I looked out of my second floor window at 8.30 to see if it was raining I could already see runners wearing bin bags moving on mass down the road, all heading in one direction.

To the start of the 30th Bupa Great North Run, the world’s biggest half marathon. I gulped at the thought of what lay ahead for me over the course of the next few hours.
My head was filled with the music "The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)" which only added to the growing fear in my mind about the race.

I stuck to my usual pre race rituals and foods. A cup of coffee and a big bowl of bran flakes and some apple juice at least 2 hours before the start has been my tried and tested formula to keep going during races and runs for the last 2 years now.

So at around 9.20; I and my other half Kedren who had run the 2008 GNR, joined the ever growing throng of runners now snaking its way through the retail centre of Newcastle.

By the time I got down to the Kilometre long starting area, the wheel chair race had just started and the elite women were about to kick off.

As we walked to my starting zone we saw Ant and Dec laughing with the crowd and stopped to take a photo, we then saw a donkey runner!
Well someone in a very good donkey costume. We saw some of the wackiest and wickedest fancy dress outfits as we made out way to zone D.

After a couple of nervous toilet stops in the bushes above the central motorway I said good bye to Keds who I’d meet at the finish in South Shields later and queued to get in to my starting pen with a few hundred other orange numbered runners.

For what ever reason they closed the gate to Zone D and panicked runners then darted forward to zone C only to find we couldn’t get in there as it was too full, by now a few people had climbed over the 6 foot high metal fences.

It was starting to look like a scene from the Hillsborough disaster and my adrenaline kicked in and with a handful of others we sprinted further to the start at zone B and pulled the fences up out of the stands and held them high enough for people to scramble under and into the race.

I went under very quickly and then held the metal post at one end allowing others to crawl under after me.
After a few minutes someone else took my place and my race then started.
I walked forward with the rest to the sounds of Mark Knopfler’s theme which I always find emotional at the best of times.

My aim was to set a new PB as this would be my flattest half marathon course I had run to date and I did the 2010 Potters Arf in 1 hour and 57 minutes so I felt this race held a good chance for me to go one better.

My start couldn’t have gone better, well once I’d got into a starting pen!

To be so far forwards just one zone up from the elite men was maybe a bit too ambitious but it meant I wouldn’t have so many people to push past.

I set off at a steady pace and didn’t feel too hemmed in by slower runners and I also didn’t feel like I was going too slow for the group I was with. The first mile down hill came and went in a blur and I checked my Garmin to make sure my pace wasn’t creeping up into the 6 and 7 minute miles which would be way too quick to go at the start.

I soon crossed the most famous land mark in the race, the Tyne Bridge and set off through a series of under passes as I made steady progress through Gateshead.

I heard the roar of the red arrows fly over the bridge and turned to look for a second and marvel at the spectacle but then it was on up the first hill towards the Gateshead Stadium and then on up to Heworth. Another glance at the Garmin and I was still running at 8.5 minute miles.

Somewhere between miles 4 and 5 I started to feel comfortable with my pace and tried to relax into the race.

My Garmin did seem out by at least point 2 of a mile as it would bleep a while after I’d gone past the mile posts on the course so I wasn’t sure what had gone pear shaped as I’d started it the moment my feet hit the mat at the start.

But I was going well and I hit the 15K mark in 1 hour and 21 minutes, from my Garmin time I hit 10 miles in 1 hour and 25 minutes which is my fastest 10 miles to date.

I was now feeling it and this was a hard tough and gruelling last 3 miles.

I’d got through my gel at mile 7 and eaten a jelly baby and stopped at every water and powerade stop on route in an aid to give my legs and body everything it needed to keep going. Throughout the run the rain held off and it was 15c by the time I hit mile 12.

My legs we’re dead and I had pain etched across my sweat soaked face as came over that hill and the North Sea came into view, I just remember saying thank God.

As I ran along the road with the sea to my right I remember feeling faint and seeing other runners by the side of the road being tended to by medics, I just thought I had to go on and go on at the best speed I could find.

The end soon came into sight and I summoned some energy for a sprint finish after about 600 meters.

I was in a total and complete state of exhaustion at the end and once I’d dropped my timing chip in a bin I limped over to a field and collapsed. I lay on my back for what seemed like an age with the world spinning around me. I then got up and slowly walked over to get my goody bag and medal.

I then went over to the charity tents to meet Keds.
I was feeling very low as I’d not hit my target of beating 1 hour 57:59.
I’d raced around the course in 1 hour and 58:29. 31 seconds off a new PB.

These are my split times 5k - 25:56, 10k - 53:25 and 15k - 1:21:15.

I felt so low but as the day came to a close and we drove back to the hotel in Newcastle I started to feel a real sense of achievement.

Of the 6 competitive half marathons I’ve ran to date this was my second best time and my overall position was 10,728 and this means I had about 30,000 other runners behind me.

A few days later and though the legs still felt painful I really was proud of my achievement and I’m sure I’ll run in future Great North Runs. Maybe even the 60th run in 30 years time at which point I’ll be 65 years young!

Running the 30th Great North Run is my biggest running achievement in my fledgling running career so far.