Well it's the morning after and my legs ache and my head is pounding, however I am chuffed to bits to have got round yesterday.
The atmosphere in the build up was eveything I expected with plenty of words of encouragement form more experienced runners.
I was about halfway back in the line up and as the Red Arrows flew over head it took about 25 minutes after Sir Mo and the elites started for me to shuffle forward to the start line.
3 of us started together to raise funds for the intensive care unit at The Great North Childrens Hospital where my wife Julie works.
We were able to break into a run as soon as we crossed the start line and I have to admit to making the rookie mistake of going off to quickly. The other 2 runners wanted us all to at least cross the Tyne Bridge together so I decided to go with their pace but on reflection a first 3km of just uner 19 minutes (including a second km of 5.55 mins) was far to quick, actually quicker than my regular 5k pace.
As we passed through Gateshead and up towards Heworth my pace slowed but I still felt ok and got to the 10km mark in 1 hour 14 mins.
However after that I really started to struggle with the breathing and the second half of the run was a real battle.
However the brilliant encouragement of the crowd allowed me to drag myself over the line and I even managed to pick things up slightly at the end.
As I crossed the line I swore to myself I would never to this again, an hour later I was already planning next years run!!.
An absolutely brilliant experience that any runner should try at least once.
Next up for me is to do as many of the North East park runs as possible before Christmas but probably no more longer runs until the Spring.
My final time at 2 hours 52 Minutes was about 15 minutes slower than I hoped and my finishing position was 36,650 out of about 57,000.
Run happy, run safe.
First park run in a while
This running lark is great 
