Great North Volunteering

Over the last couple of years, mainly through the efforts of Gill Milne, Claremont Road Runners have become a trusted partner of the Great Run organisation when it comes to providing volunteers for their events. This is Gill’s account of our duties for the 10K on Sunday:

“Claremont have been providing volunteers for Great Run events since the 2021 Great North Run when we ran the water station at the start – the year the start and finish was in Newcastle. This was our first 10 K event and saw Claremont volunteer regulars such as Elaine, Kim, Ken and myself team up with first timers such as Laurie, Julie D, Liz and Lynne. Also Clare had brought along husband David and son Aidan who was particularly keen to get his hands on a Greggs packed lunch which he managed at about 8.10 am!

Our task was to help the waves get off in an orderly and timely manner by minding the entrances to the pens and then walking the runners down to the start behind a rope. Anyone who tried to push into the front of the pink zone had no chance with the Professionals aka Kim and Elaine on duty! Even Lena had to walk up to the proper entrance. As a certain local runner had been spotted, Tom and Laurie were also sent to guard the entrance to the Central Motorway to stop anyone warming up on the course.

We were all done by 10.30 giving us time to watch the runners finishing (although we missed the first few as they were so fast) and enjoy our pack ups in the sunshine before the heavens opened for a while. All in all a very enjoyable morning. Volunteering is a great way to be part of an event without having to do the actual training/running part. You get a T shirt, packed lunch (all diet options catered for) and the club gets a donation which goes towards keeping the handicap socials free for members. If you’d like to be considered for future events just let me know.”