Hey Brits Explain the Great North Run to Us

It is relatively historic race, older than the London marathon.

It has been extremely well marketed and it has entered into the national consciousness partly because of that.

It is more important to Northerners in Britain than Southerners (like me). Northerners feel proud of it - you must remember here that Northerners in Britain are like Southerners in the US.

It has a huge number of charity runners and this gives it a great budget to attract the top international talent, despite the course not being a record certified course.

Serious club runners in Britain don't run the GNR however. It is very expensive and tends not to be very well organised even for people in the front corals. (Different from London marathon)

What are the southerners in the US like?

wejo wrote:

I was surprised to see Michael Johnson is doing a piece on the Great North Run and what it means to Brits on national tv.

This says more about the media's attitude to running than anything else. Got to look for new "personal interest" or "angles" or whatever. So we end up with great former sprinters interviewing about charity, or dressing up as penguins, or whoever else makes the cut and wants 15 minutes of fame.

By the way, not sure where you heard or saw this. I think it was announced at the end of the BBC's coverage of the world championships. Michael Johnson looked bored out of his mind at the prospect of talking about it!

It's organised by Brendan Foster (1976 Olympic 10k bronze) who makes an absolute killing from the event. He also annoyingly plugs it and his other events at every opportunity he gets. However it does attract great athletes and also gives good club runners (sub 68ish) free entry if you phone them up.

I usually turn the TV off after the elite races as the attention switches to the fun runners which is just painfull to watch.

Well as mentioned above, the event was started by Brendan Foster (a local to the area) and one of the first large participation races in the UK. From memory it started off as couple of thousand but rapidly grew to tens of thousands. Just checked and the first event already attracted 11k runners!

Not sure about the first couple of years but after that it has been shown live every year on the BBC. This and the London Marathon are the big 2 which get massive coverage. The show lasts about 3 hours & they even show the highlights again later in the day! Think it appeals to them as it has high quality at the front plus mass participation and charity interest

I ran it in 1987. Went out in Newcastle the night before and it was just a normal night. Looked out of the hotel room in the morning and the whole city was transformed. Hundreds of people in running gear were streaming along the streets in every from every direction. The whole place was buzzing with an amazing atmosphere

The race is always massively oversubscribed but they used to always advertise first in the local papers along with an application form. As a result there are always a lot of local runners and following support.

The course although slightly dropping in elevation is not quite as fast as you would think. There are several miles where there is a gradual rise and you lose all this going down a hill just a couple of hundred yards long near the end

Lasse V. I don't see a problem there. Watched much TV lately re: product advertising?

It can have a very fast 1st mile split due to the gentle downhill nature of that split. Mind you, the last mile can be nasty - you have the short sharp steep downhill and turn onto the cliff tops for a pretty much flat straight mile & a bit. If the wind is in the wrong direction there it can be very hard work.

Any discussion of this race would overlap with tired and tested themes on these boards. There is a very fast elite at the front but behind them very few fast 'club runners.

IMHO it is still a tremendous event. Many thousands of people have got enormous pleasure from running it or from supporting others. Then there are the millions of pounds raised for charity and loved ones.

There will also be carry-overs to mainstream athletics. Finally two points : (i)anyone with a knowledge of British running knows that the North East of England has produced a disproportionate number of good runners... and the locals don't need any lessons about the sport.

(ii) North Easterners are a proud folk and rightly so. They suffered disproportionately during the long de-industrialisation last century. This event is part of the fight back.

Have I done it? No.

I just want to post something as a native North Easterner. In response to the previous post, you have touched on some very important factors here. The race is indeed as much a reflection of the passion of the area as an Elite Race and I agree totally that discussing the elote fields is almost irrevelant. I say this because our region has indeed suffered over the last few decades as the whole structure and make up/heritage has been almost destroyed by the de-industrialisation. The race brings out masses of pride in those taking part and those who know others who are taking part. The support is huge in comparison to other major road races and cannot be underestimated. I wouldn't say it is a fight back as much, rather I would say that it is a showcase of our pride, passion and support for one and other. It would be criminal however to not mention that we do also have a great distance running tradition in the area which is obviously a great bonus when stagign such a high profile event. I hope this goes some way to explaining

nothing but a bunch of fat, lazy, unemployed northerners, running in hobnailed boots with their whippets.

southernerdude wrote:

nothing but a bunch of fat, lazy, unemployed northerners, running in hobnailed boots with their whippets.

Their boots have whippets? Learn how to construct a sentence if you're going to try to be witty.

Like the London Marathon, the GNR has been morally hijacked by the charity runners, and is no longer the race it was in the 80's.

There are a few elites who are paid to run, but the overally quality of the race has gone down and down year after year.

Of course the crowds love it and so do the media, but the for serious club runners, it is not an important date on the race calendar. This is a shame, it should be better represented by lots of good level runners.

It is a brilliant event.Usually before the race there is RED Arrows display.Most elite distance runners aspire to run the GNR,hence why Lel has been in it for 3 yrs consecutively.Alomst every grest runner has done it i.e Moses Tanui,Temu,Tergat,Wanjiru,Kabede,Paula Radcliff,Abdi,Ritz,Adere,Lornah Kiplagat etc.

If it's such a great race, how come I haven't run it for 10 years, when I only live a few miles away?

wellnow wrote:

Like the London Marathon, the GNR has been morally hijacked by the charity runners, and is no longer the race it was in the 80's.

I thought that charity runners were a good thing:

"Everyone has a cause and that is what makes London so unique and prompts envious glances from the New York City Marathon organisers, who would like their race to embody the highs and lows of human life but know it is really about getting nice calf muscles. Running in the United States is a vanity project, but in London there are 35,000 higher aims."

Would you really prefer a bunch of vanity runners?

Both races have turned into largely charity runner events. Why can't we have more decent runners in those events? After all they are supposed to be races.

The quality of the races goes down every year as the races become more charity orientated. That's great for the charities and bad for decent club runners.

Running it this year in memry of Rauol Moat. Howay lad.

R.I.P Moaty

Was he your drug dealer?

wellnow wrote:

Both races have turned into largely charity runner events. Why can't we have more decent runners in those events? After all they are supposed to be races.

The quality of the races goes down every year as the races become more charity orientated. That's great for the charities and bad for decent club runners.

Part of the issue is that these charity runners do not gravitate to/join running clubs....and it is running clubs (not spectacular events like GNR) that are the grassroots of running as a sport.

So, no, GNR does not enhance the sport of running in the north of England.