Where to begin. I have never done a half marathon before and have never done a race ( or run in my case) review before either.
This was meant to be a joint effort on the journey home on Monday but by the time we got round to it everybody was ready for a nap! It must have been the hour at Braehead that left us so tired.
Here goes, and girls, please correct me if I have missed anything out!
Race day dawned bright but cool for the Newcastle9.
Our chauffeur had instructed us, that because of road closures etc we had to be left our hotel by 8am. He failed to realise that with 8 women he should really have told us to be there at least 15 minutes before he really wanted us there.
Not to worry though, being a very well organised chauffeur he had plan B at the ready. Ian dropped us at the nearest metro station to our hotel and we joined an underground train full of runners heading to Haymarket and the start of the world's largest half marathon.
There were quite a few giggles before we headed to our official starting point but
we were all surprisingly calm.
At the start the chat was good. Already stories were making us feel very humbled to be part of this day. The warm up would have been fun if we had room to move, but the sight before us was incredible with runners covering both sides of the motorway in central Newcastle.
The Red Arrows swoop over the start was extremely emotional for most of us as the commentators paid tribute to Red4 and the arrows first flight without him.
Mo Farrah fired the starting pistol and they were off! Forty minutes later when we crossed the starting line he was still high-fiving the runners and wishing us well.
As we headed for the Tyne Bridge the road splits in two quite early on. Entering the tunnels were the first of many roars of “oggy oggy oggy”. With all runners participating in the yelling these were real goosebump moments. I think I can speak for us all when I say we couldn't stop grinning!
It was great just after crossing the Tyne Bridge to get a yell from Ex-Campbeltonian Fergus Kerr. We had thought it would be lovely to see a friendly face cheering us on but hadn't counted on the locals cheering us on by our names on our race numbers, the tartan on our skorts or skapris, or the wee saltires on our faces.
The bands playing at nearly every mile, the north eastern humour, the kids lining the roads looking for high fives or soaking us with water bottles just added to the spirit of the day.
We were told the course was very hilly and even the chauffeur driving the minibus to the finish thought it was hilly. I can honestly say none of us found the hills extremely challenging. Were we so caught up in the atmosphere? do the crowds of people running help so that you aren't so aware of what lies ahead ? or does the hill training pay off?? Hills?? These weren't hills
!!
The GNR certainly isn't the most scenic on the planet but the crowds must be the noisiest and the most generous.....icepoles, sweeties, biscuits, G+T's at mile 10 (how did we miss that?). There were also lots of official water stops and at least a couple of sports drink stands, loads of music and two cool off shower areas.
The Red Arrows display came when we were around mile 10 giving us that last wee bit of encouragement to persevere to the end.
On to mile 11 and a wee climb before a very sharp drop down to the seafront.....the downhill was harder than the up!
It was very congested by this point. The road is narrower so dodging the walkers was much more tricky but we did it!
All four of us newbies ran the whole way and are extremely proud of ourselves and also grateful to the others for the support.
The race is extremely busy and probably not ideal to be gaining pb's for you serious runners but for atmosphere and fun, 10 out of 10.
We headed to the charity village for Tea and a Mars Bar from the Get Kids Going crew before we had official pictures handing over our cheque for £3000 to them. Ian then bought us a very well appreciated drink.
The entertainment in the beer tent as we queued for our refreshment was Tony Audenshaw (Emmerdale's Bob Hope) and his band. He is a regular face at the GNR and had loads of energy on stage.
What a truly amazing and memorable day. We said we would do one and one only half marathon! Would we do it again? Most definitely!!
I sent this to the girls to read before posting and a reply came back from one who shall remain nameless: “that sounds great, no mention of snoring, raiding each others rooms, lost phones or lost purses”.
What wonderful memories of a fabulous weekend and a massive thanks from all of us to the very brave (or mad) Ian McGeachy for taking the travel stress out of our weekend by driving us and putting up with us