Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
Great North Run 2011
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
Mile 5 is quite a steep uphill, with a sign at the top to tell you it's the highest point of the course. I clocked 6.44 for that one, but had to press the lap button again 9 seconds later at the actual marker. At least now I could see I had a bit of a cushion against 90 min pace.
Mile 6 is downhill. At least, I assume it must be since I ran 6.30 for that mile. I started to worry that I was going too fast, but actually it still felt really easy. I decided to go with it. Maybe I'll blow up, maybe I won't.
Mile 7 6.30 again. Still felt fine and at the halfway marker I realised I was over a minute ahead of my pace band. Sweet!
I took an isotonic gel at mile 8 (6.31 plus 8 seconds to the actual marker) (none of this Powerade muck for me thank you very much - bleurgh!) and 6.44 for uphill mile 9.
Through the Bupa Boost zone where they were playing that horrible Saxo Beat song, or whatever it's called. Motivation to move faster to get away from it at least! I missed the 10 mile marker, but the Garmin said 6.37.
Mile 11 is up the John Reid Road and the sun came out just at the bottom of the hill. I could feel I'd slowed a bit, but I was passing people left right and centre. Including 2 women I'd had in my sights for a while. I clocked 6.44 but had to lap it again at the actual marker some 16 seconds later.
Mile 12 is still mostly uphill, but you know you're so damn close and it does have that very steep downhill at the end of it, which explains the 6.34 split.
I wanted to start my sprint finish with 400m to go, but the wind was a little too strong so I waited till about 200m to go then hammered it! 36 seconds for the last 0.26 miles, which is 4.57 min miling!
I was out of puff at the end, but not all that tired actually. I was recovered enough to run over to the Sweatshop stand to see if I knew anyone there. I didn't, but still managed to get a loan of a towel. Came in very handy as seconds after I crossed the line the heavens opened!
Official time 1.27.37 (which is a monster PB), 16th lady in the mass race and only 21 of the Elites were faster than me, and they don't count anyway as their race was half an hour before mine
Retrieving my bag was a nightmare - it was well buried. Eventually I found it and threw my clothes on. On the way to the Metro I befriended a bloke with a brolly. Good call! The journey back to Newcastle was swift and smooth. Then I did a little shopping (as you do!) but failed to buy anything before heading home for a nice bath.
Some fantastic reports coming in
.
CC2 so how many seconds under were you? (or should we just count the minutes?!?)
Great day. Was very hot a few miles in when the sun came blazing through. Also a tad too wet for a while as Shielsy mentioned (I was worried about my nice new phone!) but it kept us cool. One spider man was on the floor just after the Bridge (oh dear - no kiddies around to see fortunately!) Anyway, my goal was to get a course PB. I've done several at 2:30: and a few seconds. Last yearI was 8 seconds over!
Pleased to report that I cracked it
. Not a half PB, just the course, but that's fine - finished in 2:27:31 wooo hooo dee wooo hoo!
Stuffed myself with all the goodies at the Cancer Research tent. Queued forthe shuttle bus (not too long this year). The journey back to Newcastle took forever, the diversions and road closures wre still in place. Got back to B&B around 5pm after popping in to the O2 shop where very nice lady showed me where my contacts were hiding (thank goodness!). At least I know who's calling me now!
Blimey, RLTW. Not just CC2 counting the minutes,there's you breaking your target by two and a half of them.
Huge congratulations.
yes, mr SJ was supposed to be taking it easy! What could he have achieved if he'd gone all-out!? Well done mr SJ - an amazing time
CC2- great race report- I almost felt I was there
.
0.26 miles in 36 secs is quite a bit faster than 4:47 miling.1:31:59 for me
. Great event, great atmosphere, Just need to take them hills out..lol. Well done all!
Great reading all your stories.
It's a race of two halves, isn't it? You can crack on with the first half, going wheeeeee! downhill. It's like freewheeling.
Then reality kicks in. It kicked in big-style at the 8-mile point, when I swore NEVER to do a distance event ever again. That mile, to 9 miles, was the slowest I have ever run and possibly the worst I've ever felt.
Then I stopped at the 9-mile drinks station to glug and got my second wind.
1:55:10 ain't too shabby for an old man. It's a PB, which has to be qualified by saying that I didn't start doing HMs till I was 47.
I was 1:31:57 - that was a p.b (in what was my 3rd half) by just over 5 mins. I couldn't see the early mile markers which put me ahead of time. I wasn't feeling too bad so was able to just about grit out the last few miles at my normal pace and smash my p.b.
Managed to slap Mo's had at the start and ran alongside Joe McElderry for a bit around halfway. He must have over cooked it early on as he was 1:42 in the end. He got a hell of a lot of support though!!
Yeah, I was 54 mins for the first half and 61 for the second, which tells you something about the topography.
Now drinking Cobra and eating Galaxy Counters.
Well done, everyone. Achievements are all relative based on age, gender, willpower and how fortunate you were when the slow-twitch muscle fibres were being handed out.
Well done CC2 and glad you benefitted from your deserved upgrade to A Zone. Looking at your power of 10 profile I am guessing that you could have also set 10k and 10 mile pbs during this race
Today was a catalogue of mishaps for me today -
However, I was only slower than last year by 8 seconds, which was a pb ,so I am happy to accept that today simply wasn't my day. I now looking forward to maybe the Leeds Abbey dash to have a go at a 10k PB and then maybe the brass monkey to see what I can do over a flat 10k.
Reading back
XL the first mile splits for the elite are scary!!
Mr SJ - Well done mate you have earned so well earned rnr before the op
GCE - Well done and good luck in dublin
RLTW - well done on the course pb - It didn't half chuck it down at the end
Friend and I after run while in Newcastle looking for place to eat and drink, chose posh looking hotel bar. Where the Red Arrows team were relaxing and drinking.
Rather nine Chenin too.....
Morning all,
Great reports and have loved Reading them.
I knew it wasnt going to be a pb weekend as i'd missed for weeks of training and stil wasn't fully fit.
Had a heat pad on me bum the night before the race and must have boosted deep heats profits for this year withthe amount i put on on race morning.
It was great meeting with some of you before the race under the bridge.
I was aiming for 2.10 and had my race band on.
Was just before tyne bridge when the arrows came over, brilliant!!! and was averageing 9mins 30secs at 3 miles but feeling ok. (you'd think i should know by now!!) Kept a minute or two up on pace until 8 miles and thought i might be ok. Then Mile 9 was 10.30, mile 10 was over 11mins mile, mile11 was 12.30, mile 12 was 12 minutes BUT kept plodding and didnt stop then over the hill and ddown to the coast. Pulled over to the side and must have looked awful as had loads of encouragement along the coast road, it was all i could do to give a thumbs up in thanks.
Finished in 2.16 .37 not a PB or even a course pb but the 1st 1/2m i ran all the way so chuffed to bits
Now considering next year, have had some advise from Mandie about local races
morning all, congatulations to all who ran yesterday, in the end the horry story weather didn't really happen, it was great running weather really, i had a hard run as i ran 20 seconds per mile last year, my Garmin showed my finish time as 1.40.22 so was a bit miffed I missed out on the sub 1.40, however the official results show me as 1.39.58 yay
4 minutes faster than last year, thos mile 2 to 5 and 8 / 9 to 11 drag on a bit , you tend to forget but i didn't lose too much time there.
quick question, where do we find the splits on the Great Run website / they seem to have a new results thing on there or maybe I am missing something?
2012 thread is up and running, so when people are ready to move across, then feel free !!
rod - yeah its a new result thing and i couldnt find the splits either
I've put a lot of photos and videos from the race onto our facebook page