Great North Run

This weekend we headed to Newcastle so that I could do the Great North Run. Driving up after school pickup on Friday we arrived relatively late in the evening. Kath had booked us into the Sandman Newcastle Hotel next to St James Park well placed for exploring the city centre and in good proximity to the start of the run.

On Saturday we headed into the city to explore a little, spending the afternoon at the Great North Museum Hancock. There were a variety of displays from the natural world to Egyptians including artefacts on loan from the British museum. There was also a large Hadrians wall section. Thom had a great time there and I would definitely recommend it for some quality family time. The admission is free (optional donation), we paid only for a guidebook and to see one of the shows at the planetarium.

Sunday was the day of the race. It is the largest half marathon in the world, and you can tell! There were 60 thousand runners and a lot of spectators, so the city was extremely busy. I was in one of the later waves the walk to the back of the start line was very long I had done nearly 10,000 steps before I even started the race.

The race itself was very good. The route was nice and varied. There were flyovers by the Red Arrows, which indecently is the first time I had seen them for years. They were a regular fixture of the Woodford airshow when I was younger but it's been decades since that ended!

There was a lot of crowd support all the way along the course, and every time you went under a bridge somebody would start a chant "oggy oggy oggy, oi, oi, oi". Unlike most races I have done the start was in the city the end point at the sea in South Shields which was nice to see the contrast. It did mean getting back to the city was a bit tricky however they organised it really well having a shuttle bus service which must have transported many thousands of people efficiently to and from South Shields. 

I enjoyed most of the run though a bit like London marathon at it is so busy at times I felt like I was having to dodge and jig to get past people. I would definitely recommend though really felt like you were part of a huge event. 

It was my first time in Newcastle apart from a very quick visit for work once where I saw only a small industrial park data centre not far from the Angel of the North. I enjoyed the weekend, it had a certain charm and the people were very friendly.