The Great North Run 2011

Getting off the topic of design work which is the usual focus of my site, I wanted to write a post about another achievement that I achieved this month, and it is one that I have wanted to do for a very long time, and that was to take part in The Great North Run 2011.

Now as I dont intend on doing the run every year, nor do I intend on making running a full time hobby,  and  especially as this was to be my first experience of taking part in any distance running event, I knew that I wanted to do it right. But the first hurdle was to get a spot in the first place, and this is a challenge as alot of people get turned away during the open ballot period, and there is always a big scramble to get places directly through charities, it is very competitive. Thankfully I managed to attain my spot through the ballot so I had an easy ride, however the friend that I had originally planned to run and also train with did not get a spot, and after this happened his interest in getting a spot in this years run quickly faded. So it seemed that I would be doing the run by myself.

But thankfully I was never truly on my own, as Julia my very supportive girlfriend was always willing to get on her bike and go running with me. And we both signed up for her local gym together so we kept motivated by trying to do the same amount of training as eachother, though her goal was to get fitter for her own sport which is Roller Derby.

So with me now feeling fitter than I ever have in these past few years, I then lined up some fundraising so that I would have a worthy charity to keep me motivated on the run itself to keep pushing me towards the finish line. I chose two in the end, CLIC Sargent for Children With Cancer, and Dogs Trust. For both I managed to raise roughly £200 which was shared equally between the two. The disapointing thing was that Dogs Trust contacted me around a week before the event to tell me that they wouldnt be attending the event themselves as they couldn’t get a tent from the organisers in the charity village. I was unhappy to hear this as I had bought a Dogs Trust vest especially for the event and was looking forward to meeting my fellow fund raisers to compare our experiences and laugh about the day. I remember it was only at the end of the run that I actually found one single other person who was wearing a Dogs Trust vest, but im sure there were other Dogs Trusters running around somewhere during the race. I know that next time I will definitly be changing my charity to Anthony Nolan. I have signed up to be a bone marrow donor myself this year, and those guys went absolutely crazy with their support during the race, and I definitly want to be welcomed into their charity tent for next time!

I completed my race in 2hrs 31min 2seconds, 1 minute and 2 seconds more than my target which I am really chuffed with. I dont know if I will do it again next year but it is very tempting to want to beat my current record, and try and compete more with my colleague DeanoB who finished in around 1hr 50mins which is very impressive.

Photos and videos of me in action, and also not so much in action (hobbling!) can be seen here.

I would highly recommend doing the run at least once in your life, it was the toughest challenge I have ever done, but I thoroughly enjoyed it!