Great North 10K, 2nd July 2023

2023 saw a re-vamped Great North 10K with a new route through Newcastle city centre and a much larger field of approximately 4,500 runners. It felt very much like a mini Great North Run, with runners assembling on the Town Moor, the same start line on the central motorway, same route as far as the Tyne Bridge and runners allocated a different coloured “wave” based on expected time.

There was a large Claremont contingent, though this was split evenly between runners and volunteers – 12 of each plus Nina Jensen who did both by acting as the 1 hour 15 minute pacer. Who else but Nina would put herself up for pacing duties the day after running the Chevy Chase? The woman is a machine!

There were some excellent performances from the runners, with Sarah Kerr and Mungai Wairia winning their age categories (Mungai must have resisted scoffing the rest of that cake!), and Sarah being 10th female overall.

However, the award for performance of the day surely goes to the incredible Joyce Archibold. Already a world recoder holder for some ages at the marathon distance, we think Joyce has just absolutely smashed the British female over 85 record for a 10K road race! And this on a very windy day and a tough, undulating course.

The screenshot opposite is taken from the British Masters Athletic Federation website. It shows the over 85 record to be 1:27:51. Joyce’s time of 1:11:10 is so much quicker that I am questioning their stats, but surely Joyce has another record to add to her collection.

I have said it before, but Joyce truly is an inspiration to us all (words echoed by Paula Ratcliffe a few years ago – see here), and the pride of Claremont Road Runners.