How many heroes?

My bib's arrived... and around the country over 50,000 bibs have arrived...

So its back to where it all began... well all of my running...

A mate convinced me it would be a good weekend and even a walker would be able to finish before they re-opened the roads.
I can still remember the weekend, the finding a pub in Whitley Bay for our Saturday restorative pint... And were joined by some locals who on hearing what we were up to said that Mike looked like he'd be fine, but that was a bit fat to run anywhere...

Pasta ensued...

And then the run, I waited at the back... right at the back... so far at the back the guys in the sweeper truck were asking me if I was ok... and I was... 13.1 miles... Walking past people who had started off a long time before me, realising that I was part of that tide of humanity pouring over the Tyne Bridge, plodding along the motorways, ohh and ahhing as the Red Arrows swoop low over ours heads as we go up the last hill... and then the sea, shining in the sun (the sun always shines on the GNR) the steep downhill and then the last km along the front...
That was 2002, I finished in about 4h - not bad for a walker... but looking back through my medal haul (I'm sad enough to have kept them all)... I can remember the progression... A couple of years walking, starting to jog the finish, starting to do something like a training plan, actually training for a run and knocking 35min off my PB, then plateauing to a steady 2:45 - 3h time....

I've run in GUCH PA colours, and in CHF colours... I know I look and wonder about some of the others in charity tops about how they're affected by the cause they're raising money for, how many heroes are out there... I'm one runner in 54,000... One purple vest in a multicoloured maelstrom, but there are others out there and between us others may wonder...



That's developed further; running shoes following gait analysis, thinking about diet and hydration, run strategies, motivational methods... all read, some applied, some even worked. I've a 2:38 PB for a half marathon (Liverpool, I train better in the cool).


It's the 30th Great North Run.

I don't know what time I'll do it in this year, I haven't trained hard because my body and brain needed sometime to recharge after the exploits earlier in the year... Will I have fun, hell yes!

So here's to the heroes, be they running for #CHD, coronary heart disease, cancers or any other worthy causes!

TTFN

Paul Bib No 39136 - green pen I

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