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Event
Information:
The
BUPA Great North Run is the world's
most popular half marathon road
running event. Participants run
between Newcastle upon Tyne and
South Shields in England. The run
was devised by former Olympic 10,000
m bronze medallist and BBC Sport
commentator Brendan Foster. Foster
was inspired after running in the
Round the Bays Race in New Zealand
in 1979, and has built upon the
Great North Run with a series of
other Great Run road races.
BUPA
has been title partner of the Great
North Run for the last 18 years, one
of Britain’s longest ever sports
sponsorship agreements.
The
first ever Great North Run was
staged on the 28 June 1981, when
12,000 runners participated. By
2003, the number of participants had
risen to 47,000. The 2008 event saw
an announced field of 52,000.
Counting only real finishers (many
are entered through their company
and don't show up) the number was
35,777 in 2007, the largest half
marathon and the 13th largest
running race that year
For
the first year it was advertised as
a local fun run; twenty years on it
has become one of the biggest
running events in the world, and the
biggest in the UK. Only the London
Marathon (Britain's second biggest
road race every year since 1981)
comes close to attracting 'similar'
numbers of athletes each year.
In recent years, a Great North Mile
has also been held.
In the
2004 Great North Mile race on
Saturday 25 September, double
Olympic Gold medalist Kelly Holmes
made her first appearance in Britain
since returning from the 2004 Summer
Olympics. Holmes also fired the gun
to start the main event on Sunday 26
September, and waved and shook hands
with many of the 50,000 starters.
In
addition the The 'Tunnel 2K'
international warm up race, on the
day before the Great North run sees
wheelchair athletes competing over a
2km course run through the Tyne
Tunnel between North Shields and
Jarrow.
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