Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to let you all know we had another fantastic Great North Run weekend up in Tyneside. Despite the horrendous rain on the way up there on Saturday, we were very fortunate with the weather on Sunday. It was cool and cloudy with sun shining a little at the start with a bit of breeze. Only at the end when we would really like the sun to appear, the wind picked up and made us cold.

Despite Louise’s serious lack of training this year (half a dozen runs in the two weeks before the race) and having to start a zone further back (takes her about 20 mins to cross the start line after the gun goes) she did amazingly well with 02:07:04. In fact she appeared a lot sooner at the finish than I expected. My race went well and for a change I tried to take on some water and eat a couple of jelly babies. Whether that made a difference or not but I felt good all the way and didn’t seem to fade as much in the last few miles. I managed to knock 26 seconds of my previous best GNR time so it’s now down to 01:33:33. I’m very pleased with that. Still some 33 minutes behind Mo which is quite a lot given that I was only 25 metres behind him at the start!

Unfortunately no Red Arrows display over the coast at the finish but we did get to see them do their flyover the Tyne Bridge as usual. After some hot drinks and little leg massage courtesy of the good folks in the Diabetes UK charity tent we made our way back to the B&B by ferry, bus, metro and foot just before the rain came again! I clocked it up and as well as running 13.1 miles we also walk an additional 5 miles getting to & from the start & finish....well at least it helps the legs from becoming too stiff!

The support from the crowds was amazing...everyone is so supportive, even when leaving the B&B at 8;30am heading off on our journey to the start line, people on the street were wishing us good luck.....the Geordies are a very friendly bunch 

But now it’s time to say once again a huge thank you for all you guys for supporting us by putting your hands in your pockets and sponsoring our chosen cause this year, Diabetes UK. We have already raised over our target of £500 and expect the final amount will be higher still when all the donations are in. Before the race Diabetes UK said they expected to raise over £75K from this event which is a huge amount to go towards supporting and finding a cure for this condition.

We love being able to do something so worthwhile but without your support we could never achieve what we have these past 17 years so as always it is really, really appreciated. Thank you!

I’ve quickly uploaded a picture I took of us in the Diabetes UK charity tent at the end with our medals onto our Virgin MoneyGiving page.

As always the page will be live for quite a while yet so if you haven’t already done so but would like to make a donation in support of us then please do so 

Our Virgin Money Charity Page


Thank you all so much

Sean & Louise