Well we finally did it. After 9 months preparation, 3 non-runners turned themselves into competent half marathoners and completed their first 13 mile race. As I recall it was Laura's idea - there we were enjoying a nice pint of Pedigree last Christmas in the Broughton Arms when she put the idea out there: who fancies doing the Great North Run next year? Being someone who always feels I should be exercising more but never quite knows why I agreed. And Rich likes a challenge so there we had it - but would it stick?

Incredibly within a few weeks of Christmas we'd all applied and got our places so there was no turning back now, and so the months of blood, sweat an blisters began. I found that now I had some motivation I could actually run a lot further than I thought - at Christmas I could run 3 or 4 miles tops, but by the middle of February I had done my first one hour run. Training was going really well, I found I could run further and faster every time I went out - it felt great!

I ran my first race at Easter - a 10k road race in Crewe. I ran exactly my target time of 50 mins and even more motivation to keep it going through to the big day in September. I ran a few more races during the summer, the longest being an undulating 10 mile race near Tretham which I ran in 1 hour 26 mins. Laura aslo got stuck into the trainig and ran the Nike 10k in September. Rich went to the GNR a racing virgin, but with the confidence of a couple of 2 hour runs under his belt.

Laura and her mate Jill had intended to run the race together, in fact they decided it would be a good idea to dress identically too! I had intended to run on my own, but after the start me and Rich just stayed together and ran nearly the whole race together. In fact we bumped into the girls after 4 miles and from then on ran the rest of the race close to each other as we all turned out to be very similar pace. I don't remember much about most of the race, I was so busy weaving round people and trying to avoid getting tripped up - the density of the runners never thinned out during the race as I'd expected it to. What I do remember though is that it felt like all uphill, it certainly didn't feel as if the course is downhill overall as they claim!

As we dropped down the steep slope onto the sea front with just over a mile to go all 4 of us were together. At this point Rich put on a spurt for the line. I wanted to follow but the legs weren't having any of it. I was really tired by this point and the last mile was just hanging on for the line.

Rich finishing (far side in the blue vest)

Laura, with Jill on the left and Martin just behind to the right

Martin at the end. I was truely as knackered as I look!

Our mate Paula somebody

Laura

Martin