What a great weekend 😊 Flew into Newcastle on Friday with the other half Judy, my brother Del and his wife for the GNR on Sunday.
Saturday morning we watched the kids doing their fun runs escorted by parents or grandparents, that was a sight, to see the kids doing their thing, with some of the adults struggling to keep up with them 😊
In the afternoon, we met up with ChrisAllen1 for a drink and a chat, It was nice to meet up with someone else on the forum and Chris and his wife Julie came over as being really nice friendly people. We wished each other good luck as we went our separate ways 😊
Sunday morning I was up bright and early for breakfast, leaving Judy in bed as she and my brothers wife decided they’d make their way to the finish in South Shields. I just had a bowl of Granola and a banana for breakfast before meeting up with Del to catch a shuttle taxi to the start line.
My goodness, the atmosphere was electric with the sheer numbers of runners and supporters. We looked for the baggage bus to dump our bags before making our way to our starting pen. I’d put a projected finishing time of 2.20-2.40 in the application, which put us in the Pink zone, one pen from last. We only just made it before the assembly area closed, it took us the best part of an hour to get there due to the sheer numbers....reminded me of East St Market in London on a Sunday morning 😳
We hung about feeling like cattle at market, it was so cramped but the atmosphere was electric with the tannoy at full blast as they interviewed celebrities like Olly Murs and Ross Noble, who were taking part!
10.40 came and it was start time, off went the elite men which included our own Mo Farah, followed by the masses. It took us all of 50mins to get to the start line, by which time Mo had probably finished 😂
Once we got started we couldn’t make much headway.... sooo many people. It certainly isn’t the run to do if you want a good time but as I said, it’s the atmosphere, electric!
Myself and Del plodded along at about 11min a mile pace, hitting the 10k mark in 1’12”
I felt comfortable up to the 8ml mark when my hamstrings in my right leg started to tighten up 😩 Now, bearing in mind I tore a hamstring in my right leg in February, I really didn’t want to risk tearing it again so stopped to do some stretches. I set off again with Del still by my side, but lowering the pace and taking the odd walk break. It got worse going into the last two miles and Del asked me if I wanted to call it a day.... you can guess my answer 😂 We soldiered on, doing more running than walking, and crossed the line together in 2’44”....... I’d done it and didn’t it feel good inside even though I was hurting outside 🤗
A lot of strengthening, stretching and foam rolling to be done before my next HM the Oxford Half in October 😊
Now where’s that badge? 🤗
A New Category for the HM...The 3 legged Race!
Long run HM training run number 18
London Vitality 10000
Great South Run... Great Day 
Tim’s Run North Yorkshire
