Our ninth GNR is in the bag!

It was another glorious sunny day on Sunday and despite last minute nerves and a rush to get into our zone at the start we set off for what was to be a very good run. It took a good 13 minutes to actually reach the start line but finally we were away. We actually ran more than the distance in a constant battle to find what little shade there was on the course and to get round the slower runners in front of us.

We both ran at different paces with myself getting back with a recorded time of 1h 56m 44s (which may be a personal best, but I can't actually remember….in any case I was very pleased with the time). Louise was just under ten minutes behind with her personal best time of 2h 6m 37s which she is very, very happy with. It also meant that we were both back in plenty of time to get a welcome cup of tea (or two) at the Christie's charity tent before watching a stunning display by the Red Arrows over the coast at South Shields.

As always it was a terrific weekend mixed with lots of emotion from all the people taking part, all the spectators urging everyone on and for all the very kind people that have sponsored us in this challenge.

It looks like we are well on the way to raising £800 for Christie's this year which will probably be more like £1000 when you add in the Gift Aid from the tax man.

We want to say a big thank you to all the UKAT members that sponsored us, you were all so very generous. So thank you to Dave Harney, Keith Simpson, Tony Ludford, Peter Macdonald, Roger Hallet, Peter Warman, Glyn Morgan, Mike Whitworth & Tony Sefton for donating a combined total of £330!

We always worry about asking people for sponsorship especially with this being the ninth time, but as we know, if you don't ask you don't get.... We are always amazed by everyone's generosity so don't feel bad about it for too long ;-)

If you haven't yet sponsored us and would like to (any amount small or large is welcome), our Just Giving web page will be open for business until December so don't be shy, come and make a difference :-) We've updated it with a new picture taken back at the B&B of us with our medals. We'll also include a link to the picture taken of us at the Christie's charity tent at the end as soon as they've uploaded it to their website so keep checking back.

Finally if you want proof we really did do it, you can see our official times at the this web page http://www.greatrun.org/Results/Default.aspx select Great North Run 2009 and then enter our race numbers 8159 & 8160. You will see details of all the split times plus our positions out of all the runners.

One again a big thank you to everyone who supported us, we did it because of you!

Sean & Louise x