Great North Run 2024

I completed a very cold and wet 2024 episode of the Great North Run on Sunday in 2h26m. I was pretty disappointed with the time, and not much about the day went to plan. Read on for my race run through, and for my jacket potato disguise outfit.

The Great North Run was my 'A' Race for 2024, I'd secured a place through the race membership scheme, and Vickie was running too having obtained her place through the ballot.

We stayed in Hartlepool prior to the race, driving into South Shields on the morning of the race. We planned to park in South Shields, get the metro to Newcastle, and run back to the car for our escape South. Great plan, but we struggled to find parking around South Shields, putting a little time pressure on making the race start.

We were also allocated to different waves, nominally I could have started around 10am, and Vickie 12. Starting together seemed much more logical than lying outside in the cold for a few hours after the race - and so I joined the 12pm wave.

Arriving at the start, and making a final bathroom stop, we joined the queue for the race start around 11:30, proceeding to walk very slowly to the start line for the next hour. And it pissed it down, we got a proper Burnley soaking. Vickie spent the hour trying to raid the best discarded clothes to keep dry in - within which I gained a new retro tracksuit top, and a couple of very important scoops of vaseline. Not much else went to plan in the race, but the nipple anti-chafing project was perfectly executed.

Eventually we got going, my legs felt slow and lethargic, and I think I am right in saying that other than the first and last km I did not break under 6min/km. I don't think running the Parkrun a day earlier made much difference, though there was a little tightness. I was too cold and wet by the time that we began, I really struggled with the amount of climb on the course, albeit ascent negative, and I also struggled with the stop start nature of the group.

At the end of the race I was just glad it was over, though I enjoyed the last km dropping gently in to South Shields. Collecting my medal and finishers tee / goodies, I then proceeded to disguise myself as a jacket potato while I waited for Vickie to finish.

Vickie finished in around 3:15 - not what she wanted either, but a very strong PR for her on a tough day and course.

So on reflection, my training should have enabled me to run the distance much more easily than I did, my training did not have the volume that it needed to, nor the ascent. So there is plenty to improve in the volume, consistency and makeup of my training before next year. If I could stay well for more than a couple of weeks at a time, that would be really appreciated.

Next time I would run with my own wave. I found it really difficult to find any rhythm in my stride with all of the speeding up, slowing down and weaving in and out.

I'd probably fuel slightly better too, probably much more carb the day before.

Parking in South Shields is definitely the way to go though - I'd just get there a couple hours earlier and park on the 'escape' side of the town. The queue for the metro back to Newcastle stretched halfway back to Newcastle.

Until next year...

Course Profile