Great North Run 2011
If you follow me on twitter you may know I’m currently trying to fight off the flu – ever since we started the journey home from Newcastle on Sunday I started to feel unwell and it went downhill from there! So 2 sleepless nights later I’m still dosing up on Beechams, throat sweets and getting through countless tissues (and giving Rudolph’s red nose a run for his money!)
On a much more positive note I thought I’d share with you my GNR weekend…
As always, we stopped on the way up to take a look at the Angel of the North – I’m always amazed how big it is!
The Great Run Games held on the Saturday was fun to watch and we saw Mo Farah, one of the best distance runners of this generation, win his race.
After a grey start to the day, the sun came out and stayed for the rest of the day – below is a photo of my Mum and I in front of the Millennium Bridge.
We enjoyed cups of tea and coffee outside by the river before we headed to the Italian restaurant we had a table booked at. It was quite surreal knowing we would be amongst 54,000 runners the following day running over the Tyne bridge in front of us!
The race morning came and we nervously waited in our starting ‘wave’ before we were moved forward to the start line (My aunty, our friend Dawn and I look look amazingly calm in this photo despite our nerves!
It was an emotional moment when the Red Arrows flew over us to mark the start of the 31st Bupa Great North Run, I managed to take a few photos as they went over – absolutely amazing to see and hear:
The run all seems a bit of a blur now but it was fantastic – the weather went from sunny to torrential rain to sunny again so bright light and wet conditions didn’t make for good photos but I did manage to snap this image of us approaching Tyne Bridge (My aunty can be seen on the right in the orange top).
Despite me suffering an agonising stitch on and off for the last third of the race we finished with a PB of 2 hours 26 mins – we are so pleased with this result! It was made extra special because we were running the last 1.1 miles along the coast when the red arrows began their finishing display – what a treat to be nearing the finish when this happened.
It wasn’t long before my Dad crossed the finish line and we got some photos taken – once our friend Dawn crossed the finish line of her first half marathon we all celebrated by walking down to the charity village where we received free drinks and food as a thank you for taking part and raising money for our various charities.
All in all it was a fantastic weekend and one I will never forget. It’s only a shame now I’m stuck in bed with the flu but I’m thankful it waited until after the race to come!
How was your weekend?
