Great North Run

RubyK

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Can be a 2 hour queue for the Metro. I reckon just get the bus if you can.

2 hrs! Holy Moly.

colin32 wrote: »

sister in law did it last year. she's told me to use the metro, but to buy the ticket the day before. as she says the queue's were mental last year

Thanks for the tip!

RubyK

What time would you need to be getting to the starting pens for?

Brianderunner

I posted this on someone's log about 2012, good a time as any to revisit it.

- Don't go to the pasta party on the Saturday, 30-40 min queues, simply not worth it for a free plate of pasta, we left the queue after 5 mins.
- The City Games is worth a look, it starts at 1 on the Gateshead side of the river, basically track races on the riverside, pretty cool.
- Book a restaurant the night before if you're staying in Newcastle, all the good ones will be fully booked the Saturday night.
- Get a bus back from near the finish line. I think it was a fiver last time, don't get the train back from South Shields, 1 hr plus queues in 2012. The buses go from near the finish just as you're heading back to South Shields itself.
-The GNR is a great race, but like every big event expect crowds at every turn, leave a bit more time than normal to get places during the weekend.
- Don't drink Belgian beer that you think is only 4.5%, only to subsequently find out it's 8.5%
- for any spectators, you can watch the start and make it to the finish on the metro in time to see the 1hr 30 min finishers but no sooner. It's a 20 min walk to the finish line from the South Shields metro. The metro will be packed with spectators in both directions on race day and its a bit of a slog (40 mins)

Best of luck with it

opus

I spotted the mention of the City Games in the magazine so will take a wander that way for a look on Sat. Collected all my entry bits this morning so think I'm set. Just have to go out & do my JD Q1 session this evening and hopefully will be ok then for Sunday.

Will see if I can dig out my boards.ac t-shirt so say hello if you see me

Best of luck to everyone!

pistol_75

What's the elite field like apart from the Somalian?

colin32

I know Mo's running but apart from that not sure. Don't think I'll be challenging them lol

Sauve

Flying into Newcastle tomorrow morning, this will be my first HM. Kinda bricking it, I'm not good with huge crowds at the best of times. (Why did I sign up for this!?!)
Hopefully once I get there and figure it all out it'll be grand.

Good luck to all running

rainbow kirby

2:01:59 for me, chip time. Happy enough overall, but can't help but feel that starting so far back and the size of the field cost me a sub-2.

colin32

2:10.58 for me, slightly disappointed with the time, the climb at 10-11 mile finished me off very warm day out there, with a few runners collapsing

Have to say it's a great set up & well organised. The last mile in South Shields was amazing with people packed in on the bank & cheering you on

Sauve

What an amazing day, I'm still on a high from it. I'd never experienced anything so mind-blowingly huge before. Watching people start on the screens while I was standing still, nowhere near the start.
The Red Devils, the roars that went up in all of the tunnels, the crowds, I just loved it all.
Came in at 01:56, was quietly hoping for something closer to 1:50 but I knew after a couple of km that it wasn't going to happen, I wasn't feeling it. Found a couple of sections very congested too, but that said I thought the whole race flew by. There was so much going on and so much to look at!

Will definitely be back

opus

rainbow kirby wrote: »

2:01:59 for me, chip time. Happy enough overall, but can't help but feel that starting so far back and the size of the field cost me a sub-2.

Glad it went well. I had a similar experience with starting a bit further back than I'd have liked. Was there in loads of time and went for a jog around the open fields just next to the start, was funny to see cows wandering around so close to the city centre

I hung around on the bank of the road to watch the elite women's start before heading towards the starting pen and couldn't have been more at the back of it if I'd climbed in from behind just before the gun! The negative side of this was the first ~5k were a good bit slower than I'd planned but the positive was that I was overtaking people from the start to around 5 metres from the finish line which was great for stroking my fragile ego :P Chip time was 1:27:34 in the end.

Great atmosphere & organisation, the whole set up in Newcastle for the week was excellent. Got in a 10m tourist jog along the Tyne early Sat morning & then watched some of the games in the afternoon, mostly the long jump which was won by Greg Rutherford, never been near to an Olympic champion before so really enjoyable.

Bit of mutterings about the winner I see - Mo Farah denies collusion with training partner to win Great North Run

groovyg

opus wrote: »

Bit of mutterings about the winner I see - Mo Farah denies collusion with training partner to win Great North Run

It was so obvious Kigen was a pace maker for Farah. The BBC commentary reiterating the same point over and over about the "great" Mo Farah was vomit inducing. It was a total sham, Kigen could have won it but kept slowing down for Farah, and when he slowed down and started talking to him it became very obvious it was a total set up for Farah to win.

rainbow kirby

I'd love to see Mo get a proper race sooner rather than later, tbh as soon as the elite line-up for this was announced I was expecting a situation like that. Probably won't happen until the Olympics though because his races and competitors will be cherrypicked.

RubyK

I really enjoyed the weekend in Newcastle, there was a great buzz around the place. Was nice to see some of the games on Saturday too.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the run at all, found it very warm, the course was tougher than I was expecting, and I felt under pressure from the very start. 1.42 finish, with nothing left in the tank. Quite disappointed as this was a building block for DCM.

career move

RubyK wrote: »

I really enjoyed the weekend in Newcastle, there was a great buzz around the place. Was nice to see some of the games on Saturday too.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the run at all, found it very warm, the course was tougher than I was expecting, and I felt under pressure from the very start. 1.42 finish, with nothing left in the tank. Quite disappointed as this was a building block for DCM.

Plenty of time yet Ruby. I'd be the same with the heat. You won't have to worry about that come Oct anyway

rainbow kirby

A lot of people struggled with the heat by the looks of things - I'm in a group on FB for the GNR and I'd say about 90% of people (a lot of first timers) were complaning about it. I didn't find it too bad, but we had a long warm spring and summer in the SE so a lot of my training runs have been done in relatively warm conditions. Plenty of water over the head/back of neck/wrists and running through the showers on the course made it fine. It is something that has to be considered when targeting a race in early September though, good ol back to school weather!

RubyK

career move wrote: »

Plenty of time yet Ruby. I'd be the same with the heat. You won't have to worry about that come Oct anyway

Yep, hopefully it'll be a nice crisp day in Dublin.

rainbow kirby wrote: »

A lot of people struggled with the heat by the looks of things - I'm in a group on FB for the GNR and I'd say about 90% of people (a lot of first timers) were complaning about it. I didn't find it too bad, but we had a long warm spring and summer in the SE so a lot of my training runs have been done in relatively warm conditions. Plenty of water over the head/back of neck/wrists and running through the showers on the course made it fine. It is something that has to be considered when targeting a race in early September though, good ol back to school weather!

I didn't think I'd stuggle so much with the heat tbh. I've trained all summer plus a couple of weeks in Spain. There was plenty of water stations and the sprinklers were welcome. I guess it was just a bad run from me. An expensive bad run :eek::)

rainbow kirby

The cost would put me off doing it again tbh - hotels are INSANE. The train up was fine (£42 return) but the hotel was well over £200 for the 2 nights and we were basically staying in Newcastle's equivalent of Tallaght in terms of distance from the city centre. To put that in perspective, we're not paying a huge amount more than that for a week in Mallorca in 3 weeks time...

RubyK

rainbow kirby wrote: »

The cost would put me off doing it again tbh - hotels are INSANE. The train up was fine (£42 return) but the hotel was well over £200 for the 2 nights and we were basically staying in Newcastle's equivalent of Tallaght in terms of distance from the city centre. To put that in perspective, we're not paying a huge amount more than that for a week in Mallorca in 3 weeks time...

Yep, it's an expensive weekend. Glad I had the experience alright, but it was a once off for me.

Enjoy Mallorca!! Lovely island.

opus

RubyK wrote: »

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the run at all, found it very warm, the course was tougher than I was expecting, and I felt under pressure from the very start. 1.42 finish, with nothing left in the tank. Quite disappointed as this was a building block for DCM.

For sure it was a bit warmer than expected (maybe I'm a bit strange in that I like running in that kind of weather). I'd imagine the sheer number of people would have slowed you down a bit as well? Wouldn't think you should use it as a predictor for DCM anyway.

rainbow kirby wrote: »

The cost would put me off doing it again tbh - hotels are INSANE. The train up was fine (£42 return) but the hotel was well over £200 for the 2 nights and we were basically staying in Newcastle's equivalent of Tallaght in terms of distance from the city centre. To put that in perspective, we're not paying a huge amount more than that for a week in Mallorca in 3 weeks time...

I used the 'official' crowd, Nirvana Europe, which cost £120 for two nights in a student block right next to St James Park. En-suite bedroom, free wifi & a kitchen for making your own grub & a great location around 10 mins walk from the Metro stop back from South Shields. Think I might well have been the only person on the floor on the Fri night! Worth considering if anyone is planning a trip next year.

rainbow kirby

Won't be next year for me anyway, the race I'm eyeballing for my first half-ironman is also on 13th September!

colin32

was a cheap weekend for me £60 for a night at the university with breakfast, and only a 5 minute walk to the start line. was a bit worried when booking the university but it was good accommodation for the weekend. will definitely be booking through them if I do the gnr in the future

was close to the metro as well to get to the airport on sunday evening. only spent £120 for accommodation & travelling for the weekend

mallowgarry

Hello All

If you are resident in the Republic of Ireland and you entered the Great North Run between 2010 and 2014, then you have been overcharged for your entry fee and you are entitled to a refund.

The organisers set the fee structure as UK/Overseas. This is illegal under EU law (it should be EU/Rest of the World). It's a fair whack of money (approx. £30 - £35 per year)

You write one letter to the organisers demanding a refund for what you have been overcharged. It's that easy. You can even demand a cheque in Euro, they have an office in Dublin.

***This only applies if you entered the Great North Run, and gave an entry address outside the UK, but within the EU***

I'm new on here, apologies for butting in. I will be posting this on several threads to highlight this.

If anyone wants a copy of the letter I sent, please feel free to PM me. (It was a bit of a rant but I'm now looking at a cheque for 156 Euro!! (4 years worth of overcharging)

pconn062

mallowgarry wrote: »

Hello All

If you are resident in the Republic of Ireland and you entered the Great North Run between 2010 and 2014, then you have been overcharged for your entry fee and you are entitled to a refund.

The organisers set the fee structure as UK/Overseas. This is illegal under EU law (it should be EU/Rest of the World). It's a fair whack of money (approx. £30 - £35 per year)

You write one letter to the organisers demanding a refund for what you have been overcharged. It's that easy. You can even demand a cheque in Euro, they have an office in Dublin.

***This only applies if you entered the Great North Run, and gave an entry address outside the UK, but within the EU***

I'm new on here, apologies for butting in. I will be posting this on several threads to highlight this.

If anyone wants a copy of the letter I sent, please feel free to PM me. (It was a bit of a rant but I'm now looking at a cheque for 156 Euro!! (4 years worth of overcharging)

Do you have a link to prove this? Also, I would advise against posting this on several threads, the Admins here don't really approve of that.

mallowgarry

Here is the link showing how Nova International have been charging for the Great North Run

[this won't let me post the link as I'm a new user, but it is on the Great North Run website]

In each year 2010 to 2014, they charged on the basis of UK Entrants / Rest of the World.

This is in contravention of Article 20(2) of the EU Services Directive 2006/123/EC which requires EU Member States to ensure that service providers “do not discriminate against consumers on the basis of their nationality or place of residence”. These regulations came into force in the United Kingdom on 28th December, 2009.

In plain English, it must be one price for all EU entrants. Dublin City Marathon were threatened with EU Court proceedings several years ago for classifying EU runners as "rest of world" and charging them a higher rate.

(I'm not sure what you mean by "a link to prove this". I will gladly PM you copies of my correspondence with Nova International, the European Consumer Centre, the European Commission and Jim Aughney, race director of the Dublin Marathon)

opus

Just wanted to say a big 'thank you' to mallowgarry for the info posted above, a cheque arrived from Nova International in the post this morning

libelula

Ballot place secured, hotel and flights booked, so now all I have to do is make sure and destroy last years time