On 13th September, 40 of our members ran the Great North Run, the biggest half marathon in the world, from Newcastle out to the seafront at South Shields. Around 63,000 runners took the start line. The sun was out, the route was lined the whole way, and a good number of our lads came home with personal bests over the distance.
If you've run it you know the thing that makes it different isn't the course, it's the noise. Thirteen miles of people three deep on the pavement, front gardens turned into water stations, and that stretch along the coast road where the crowd doesn't let up. It's the one day a year the North East turns out for runners in a way nowhere else in the country does. Warm conditions made it honest work, and pacing mattered more than usual.
We're a strength and conditioning gym rather than a running club, and our members still went and set personal bests over a half marathon. Running capacity isn't a separate discipline you bolt on in the spring. It comes out of engine work and conditioning that's already in the weekly programme, so when a member decides in June that they fancy a crack at the Great North Run, they're building on a base rather than starting one. The event comes round every September and the ballot fills fast. If you've been meaning to enter, decide early, because the training is far more enjoyable when you've got eight months rather than eight weeks.
