THE GREAT NORTH RUN

When the transport arrived, at 7:30 am, to take me to South Shields, our sleepy estate was awoken to such a shriek. Janet knocked on the door and I don't think she was prepared for the monster that opened the door, but then I am not a morning person, and that is as good as I can look that time in the morning.

I had agreed to go and help out at the finishing funnels because Adrian wanted to go with his mate and help, but I didn't realise that I would be leaving that time in the morning on a Sunday. We were first there from our club, arriving three cars ahead of Ed and Sam, then after them the Wilsons, and Jordan, then Bob Jacques and Tommy. We were a great squad, and worked well together.

The atmosphere at the beginning was electric. There was an eleven foot tall Scotsman, and a dog that took a liking to Ed….not all of Ed, just his leg!! There was a trailer off an artic lorry that had massive tv screen on so you could watch the race live as it was happening. We saw ex Birtley runner Darren Purvis peering between Martin Lell and his mate on the front line at the start. Then we spotted his family on the other side of the road waiting to cheer him through. Darren was about 39th I think in 1:12. The next athlete we saw from Birtley was Karl, who had a great run, finishing in 1:19, which meant he finished top 300 and was allowed to finish in the road with the elite runners. Next in I saw Paul, round about 1:34 so after the time correction I suspect that was another PB.

We didn't see anymore Birtley runners, which is strange cos we normally have loads of runners at this event. Didn't see Maggie, I know she was running, but I don't know who else was running.

Manning the funnels was a piece of cake for me, because I had been practicing the day before. I was told there would be a period when the runners would be coming in 300 per minute, so on Friday I went to the Next sale just to get used to the crowds, and so Sunday was a doddle.

It was a long day but I did my best to keep spirits high with my Tom Cruise impressions from Top Gun, while the Red Arrows provided a spectacular display. I also do a very good impression of a dog, cat and donkey. I think it was when I did the batman theme for two runners in the capes of the superheroes, that finally did Ed in. Anyway the megaphone wouldn't fit where he wanted to put it so I just placed it on the grass at the side and sulked. I didn't like to tell Linda why I was walking funny when I got home.

After the race, I got a nice picture of Miss Vordeman, (from Countdown) then we started to head back to the car, to return home to our loved ones. The traffic was static, so we went for a wander round the Leas. When we reached the Gypsy Green stadium, there was a massive tent with a band playing and there were loads of charity tents. The charity tents were raising awareness, and they all had loads of balloons that the kids were all getting as they dismantled the site. There were a couple of tents doing massages as well for tired legs. It looks like we missed quite a lot by leaving it late to look around.

When we were retuning to the car we met Jimmy Colpitt in the "garden area" of one of the hospitality tents and had a chat with him. We stood and watched as the staff from the tent left with arms full of anything that was worth having like free bottles of wine that hadn't been used etc. ………just a taster of how the other half live.

It was a pleasant day, but looking back it was a long day (24 hours long actually). We returned to the car, it must have been around 5:00 and even then there was a load of traffic still on the roads. But we made it home in time for tea.

While we were all working hard at South Shields, Lee Millmore was running, I think somewhere in Northumberland. Lee came second in the race, only 8 seconds behind the winner Les Atkinson. I don't know quite how this works, but he could be classed as the winner of the seniors' race, as Les Atkinson is a vet. As far as I can see Lee you won the seniors race well done!