Congratulations to COCO's Great North Run Finisher's!
Tuesday 22nd September 2009
Sunday 20th September saw 54,000 runners take to the streets of Tyneside in the world's biggest half marathon, the Bupa Great North Run. Among them were a group of COCO runners who took on the 13.1 miles in support of COCO and ensuring a brighter future for children in our projects.
Once again the race organisers had booked a great day of weather for the event and the blue skies helped to paint the iconic shot of runners as they crossed over the Tyne Bridge as the Red Arrows flew overhead. As North East music legend Sting and cricket sensation Steve Harmison started the run and greeted the nervous runners as they crossed the start line, a small group of nervous and excited COCO runners got underway with their challenge.
Among them was a long standing member of COCO, Terry Welsh. Terry has competed in the Great North Run for many years now and started amongst the club runners.
Along the route which stretches from Newcastle, through Gateshead and down into South Shields, runners were cheered on by supporters and the people of Tyneside and kept motivated by numerous live bands and music. It's even rumoured that towards the end of the course runners are offered the odd pint of beer or carton of chips to get them through the last few miles!
Record numbers of people gathered in South Shields at the finish to cheer on their friends and family and COCO runners were also joined by celebrities such as Ben Fogle, Gordan Ramsay, Ray Stubbs and Nell McAndrew who was dressed as Stephanie from the kids show Lazy Town!
COCO runners also received words of encouragement from COCO's Chairman, Steve Cram as he commentated for the BBC.
The fastest woman for COCO was Sarah Rhodes who stormed home in a time of 1 hour and 35 minutes, an amazing achievement!
Although Terry was hoping to be the fastest man, he just missed out to Chris Lines who completed the half marathon in a time of 1 hour and 32 minutes. Terry should still be extremely proud with his sub-two hour time of 1 hour and 49 minutes.
However, as one junior runner pointed out the day before, it's not the winning but the taking part that counts! All of our COCO runners finished the run and all achieved fantastic times so a big congratulations goes out to everyone!
Most importantly, it is expected that the sponsorship from COCO's runners will total over £7000 and this will make a huge difference to our projects and the work COCO do.
We hope you all enjoyed the day and thank you to those of you who have been in touch to let us know what a brilliant experience you had. Thank you for all your efforts - your miles will really count!
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF YOU!
If you are interested in taking part in the Bupa Great North Run in 2010 please contact laura@coco.org.uk!
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