Great North Run Special - 18/09/2005

Hello, and welcome to the Great North special. Well this is what the whole nine months of training has been building up to.

Forename(s) Surname Race Number Time Race Position
Andrew Shirres 16015 01:49:49 4461 out of 38011

We stayed at Newcastle Uni - Castle Leazes. It was excellent value, we got a pasta party in the evening and a breakfast in the morning thrown in. There was even a quiz. All in all they made us feel really welcome.

In the morning, I had a light English breakfast, got my banana, and headed off to the start. There was a really good atmosphere at the start line, with the red falcons doing a formation parachute jump, the Ashes being displayed by Paul Collingwood and lots of people in fantastic fancy dress.

The starting gun went, and we were off! It was good to get underway after all the standing around! As we ran along I was dreading the image of Gateshead Stadium as this was the marker for the tallest and longest hill on the course. After about four miles I started going through a bit of a rough patch for a while. It was very hard to run at the pace that I was use to as there was just a sea of people as far as the I could see. There was also lots of short, steep, inclines round here. after a while I recovered and felt ready to step it up a gear, but still hadn't seen Gateshead stadium. I must have missed it as I ran across the Black Bull junction at the top of the course.

Somewhere around here someone was in an unfortunate state and an ambulance had to be called for them. Whilst obviously unfortunate for the person who needed it, it did clear a corridor through the crowds and I got in it's slip stream and got a half mile of uncrowded running.

I remember seeing the 10km marker and thinking back to the manchester run. I looked at my watch and it was something like 56 minutes at the time. Not the best really!!! But given how slow the start was it wasn't surprising. Somewhere round here, I passed the first army guy. Like Manchester, he was wearing a full pack so it wasn't much of an achievement.

Around the seven mile mark I saw an old chap who was doing remarkeably well. He had an England shirt on so I had a bit of a laugh with him that at least someone was doing the shirt proud! Ended up having a chat with him for a few minutes about Englands problems, then wished him luck, and then carried on.

Around the nine mile mark we were entering the housing estates of South Shields, and the locals were being really friendly. They had sliced oranges, ice lollies, biscuits... it turned into more of a food crawl!!!!!!!!!!

When I finally turned the corner onto South Shields sea front with one mile to go, I began to get quite excited. The end felt near, but the last stretch did seem to be the longest mile! I heard our support team near the pub at the finish line, but sadly didn't see them!

Anyway, I crossed the line in a time of 1 h and 49 mins and 49 seconds finishing 4461st out of about 50,000. It was a fantastic day and I've raised over £500 for the Biritsh Red Cross, so a big thank you to all the people who have sponsored me, as they managed to turn an event that would have only benefitted me, into one that will benefit many both in the UK and abroad.

Thanks very much all, I hope you've enjoyed reading the jog blog, I may restart it next year for the Manchester 10K, but I expect this to be the last post for a while!

Over and out!

Andy