Great North Run, 7th September 2025
From the City to the Sea, Claremont Road Runners will be … hot, sweaty and very tired!
Or was that just me? We should all have had a sense of achievement too – whether running for the first time or the umpteenth; whether running for a time, for a charity close to one’s heart, or just for the sheer pleasure of running 13.1 miles to South Shields and then taking even longer to get home.
The Great North Run is obviously the major event in the North East running calendar, and one that it always feels good to be a part of; and this year over half the club were involved in running, volunteering or just supporting and taking photos. The 47 Claremont Road Runners who did make it from city to sea was, as far as I am aware, a record number of club members. Add to that our 12 strong volunteer team, consisting of 9 members and 3 friends, and a number of others on the course to cheer us on, and I think it is fair to say that we played our part in making the North Run Great Again.
It was an early start in our house as Gill had to be on site for 7:30 as part of the pre-race and start volunteer team. Apparently they arrived to a fairly chaotic registration with a lot of items missing – including all their “Here to help” signs and, more importantly, the flags with the times on for the pacers! So I made my way to the Town Moor nice and early, deposited my stuff on the baggage bus, and made my way over to say hello to the Claremont volunteer team. Having gone through the orange entrance, a kind marshal let me out onto Claremont Road and I managed to find a few of the team. The crowds were starting to build now and Chris Jones’s safety pin bucket was already half-empty – when you have had your number for weeks, how do you still manage to turn up without any means of attaching it to your vest? Apparently lots of people do. As I didn’t want a repeat of last year when I had queued for 45 minutes for a portaloo and just about made it into my zone on time, I made full use of my wristband for the University Sports Centre to use a queue-free, civilised toilet, complete with hot running water and soap. I think that this will definitely be my pre-race routine from now on!
From there it was a short stroll to the photoshoot outside the North Terrace, and the chance to exchange meaningless banter with the assembled sky blues, to hear each others aims and worries and wish each other luck before heading to the start pens. Most of us were only worried about how underprepared we felt, but poor David Lydall, 1 hour 55 minute pacer, was there, sans flag, not quite sure how anybody was meant to follow him around!
Rather than walk all the way back around, those of us in the orange zone nipped over the fence and down the bank to the Central Motorway. Jim Crinnion and I were together, and we both started to worry as the sun came out and it began to feel a bit on the warm side for a 13.1 mile run! Not long before the start, we saw the pacers making their way to the pens, complete with flags. So crisis averted – somebody had obviously looked down the back of the sofa and said “Is anybody looking for these?”.
Then we were off. The funnelling of runners through the barriers means that you can be running as soon as you cross the start line, and we quickly got into our stride, perhaps even going slightly too fast (I know, so unlike me to set off quickly. You would think that I would learn by now!). Jim gradually pulled ahead, but I was happy to keep him in sight.
One of the pleasures of Great North Run day is celebrity spotting, and, as we were crossing the Tyne Bridge I spotted the flowing locks of Joe Wicks ahead. Soon I was elbow to elbow with him and tried to exchange a few words, but what he said to me was lost in the shouts of “Joe!” from other runners. Poor lad must have had 13.1 miles of that! The next celebrity that I saw was North East legend Mungai Wairia, running along the Felling By-Pass carrying his Kenyan flag. I could see Jim chatting to him as he passed, but I was on the other carriageway so just gave Mungai a shout. It was quite funny seeing him look around, searching for the Claremont top but not spotting me as I was in my red charity vest.
I passed Gateshead Stadium still feeling quite fresh, but miles 4 and 5 are the long, gradual incline up towards Heworth, so I inevitably dropped the pace slightly. I could still see Jim and realised that I was closing the gap, eventually catching and passing him somewhere around 5 miles. It is around this part of the run that I start looking at my watch, passing a bit of time doing some mental calculations as to what time I might be at 10K, halfway, 10 miles etc. Then I come back to reality and think “I still feel fine, but remember John Reid Road. Forget about your time!”.
When we did turn onto the aforementioned John Reid Road, my heart sank – we were heading into quite a stiff breeze. This caused me to mutter a few silent expletives to myself and even exchange words with a fellow runner to the effect of “Bloody hell! Isn’t this bit hard enough without running into a wind.” This stretch is always a bit of a grind, especially when it starts to climb, slowly but surely, with mind and legs tiring. Whenever I reach the 10 mile marker, I always say to myself “Just a steady parkrun to go”, as if that makes it any easier! The 11 mile marker comes and, by now, I am very tired. Despite a few good weeks of training, I haven’t got that many long runs under my belt in 2025, and this lack of endurance starts to bite. It is now a case of “I’ll soon be able to see the sea and then it is basically over”, gritting my teeth and relying on willpower and muscle memory.
Eventually, there is the short descent and sharp turn onto the sea front where I know that the packed, noisy crowd will carry me to the finish line. It was on this descent that Jim overtook me. I thought he was ex-Army, but it must have been RAF because he absolutely flew past. Within a couple of hundred metres he was out of sight – I found out later that his last mile was his fastest. It certainly wasn’t mine and it felt like I was being overtaken by hundreds of runners. Checking my splits afterwards, I hadn’t slowed much, so it must be that, like Jim, they all pace it better than me.
The now infamous medal and t-shirt collected (none of us noticed and we weren’t to learn of Medalgate until the following day), I met Heather, Paul and Roberto by the baggage buses – it is always nice to see fellow Claremonters and know that they have finished in one piece – before heading to the charity tent for a restorative cup of tea and banana. Then back to town to gather in the pub and exchange tales of the day.
There were some great performances from Claremonters. Harry Mawdsley’s time is obviously outstanding, and there were a number of debutants who should be very pleased with their run. Our pacers, Nina Jensen and David Lydall, were spot-on, but I think that Dean O’Brien deserves some special praise. To run 1:53 just a few months after knee surgery is a great achievement. One final mention – although not a member, Shahzad Ali has run with us a few times, and I think it is fair to say that he exceeded our expectations by finishing the course in 3:05:09.
Well done, everyone.
| Position | Runner | Time |
| 134 | Harry Mawdsley | 1:16:11 |
| 436 | Mark Anderson | 1:22:37 |
| 496 | Roberto Marzo | 1:23:29 |
| 1487 | Sonam Wangdi | 1:31:22 |
| 1655 | Russell Brown | 1:32:16 |
| 1714 | Jim Crinnion | 1:32:42 |
| 1913 | Tom Tinsley | 1:33:44 |
| 2251 | Jamie Armstrong | 1:35:17 |
| 2507 | Heather Steel | 1:36:25 |
| 4632 | Mungai Wairia | 1:43:12 |
| 4659 | Paul Robinson | 1:43:16 |
| 5572 | Holly Porter | 1:45:35 |
| 7531 | Laurie Johnson | 1:50:04 |
| 7534 | Cate Walker | 1:50:04 |
| 8567 | Lynne Cornell | 1:52:12 |
| 9326 | Aoife Monaghan | 1:53:41 |
| 9425 | Dean O’Brien | 1:53:50 |
| 9463 | Brian Hegarty | 1:53:54 |
| 9586 | David Lydall | 1:54:07 (1:55 pacer) |
| 9677 | Guy Cowan Hutton | 1:54:16 |
| 9899 | Steph Towers | 1:54:39 |
| 11035 | Cagla Erdas | 1:56:32 |
| 11210 | Julija Simpson | 1:56:49 |
| 11913 | Antony Darne | 1:57:57 |
| 12216 | Katy Adkins | 1:58:25 |
| 13007 | Lucy Ward | 1:59:35 |
| 13311 | Luke O’Neill | 2:00:02 |
| 14181 | Luke Woodend | 2:01:36 |
| 16816 | Jenny Roberts | 2:06:25 |
| 16853 | Aaron Mansell | 2:06:28 |
| 17105 | Liz Denyer | 2:06:56 |
| 18854 | David Devennie | 2:09:57 |
| 19965 | Eddie Smith | 2:11:51 |
| 21244 | Olga Smith | 2:14:06 |
| 21286 | Mark Flynn | 2:14:11 |
| 21969 | Sonja Fenske | 2:15:22 |
| 23831 | Anton Mirafsari | 2:18:32 |
| 24374 | Nina Jensen | 2:19:29 (2:20 pacer) |
| 24867 | Zoe Jukes | 2:20:02 |
| 30492 | Ann Smith | 2:30:39 |
| 30220 | Chris Carr | 2:31:48 |
| 34025 | Claire Taylor | 2:38:30 |
| 37427 | Lisa Wen | 2:47:34 |
| 38343 | Sarah Taylor | 2:50:26 |
| 41162 | Becky Webster | 3:01:16 |
| 41832 | Alexia O’Rourke | 3:05:05 |
| 42531 | Silvia Velastegui-Cortez | 3:09:36 |
| 42897 | Elizabeth O’Mahony | 3:11:58 |
