The Great North Run: Why 57,000 People Run Through Newcastle Every September

There is a moment in the Great North Run, somewhere around the two-mile mark on the A167, when the runners crossing the Tyne Bridge look like the city is pouring itself out onto the road. The bridge – that bridge, the one that defines Newcastle’s skyline – is invisible under the mass of people. The crowd on either side is four deep. The noise is extraordinary. It is one of the most impressive things you can witness in British sport, and it started with one man’s idea in 1980.

Brendan Foster and the Founding Idea

Brendan Foster was the greatest British distance runner of the 1970s – world record holder at 3,000 metres, bronze medallist at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, winner of the 10,000 metres at the 1974 European Championships. He was born in Hebburn, County Durham, and trained throughout his career in the northeast. When the running boom of the late 1970s was producing mass participation events in America – most notably the New York City Marathon, which had attracted 16,000 runners by 1978 – Foster wanted to create something equivalent for the northeast.

The half marathon format was a conscious choice. A full marathon was too long for a course through an urban area; a shorter race would not draw the same commitment. Half marathon – 13.1 miles, achievable with training by almost any reasonably fit adult – was the right length for what he had in mind. The route from Newcastle city centre to South Shields, following the river and then the coast, was mapped to showcase the region.

The First Race: 1981

The first Great North Run took place on 28 June 1981. Approximately 12,000 runners entered. The event was run along roads that had never been closed for a mass participation event of this kind in the region. The logistics were improvised, the organisation was modest, and the response from spectators along the route was overwhelming. The northeast turned out in numbers that nobody had quite anticipated. The race was an immediate success and an immediate institution.

New Zealand’s Mike McLeod won the first men’s race. The women’s race was won by Karen Goldhawk. The elite competition has remained a feature of the race throughout its history, attracting world-class runners alongside the mass participation field.

Growth and the Tyne Bridge Start

The race grew rapidly through the 1980s. By the time it had established its current format – starting near the Tyne Bridge, crossing the river, heading through Gateshead and on to South Shields on the coast – it had become the defining event in the British road racing calendar. The Tyne Bridge crossing is deliberately theatrical: the start is timed so that the bridge is covered with runners, visible from both banks, for a sustained period.

The current field size of approximately 57,000 runners makes it the largest half marathon in the world. The entry ballot is consistently oversubscribed. Charity places add further to demand. The route is essentially unchanged from the original concept.

What It Means to the City

The Great North Run matters to Newcastle in ways that go beyond sporting event. It is one of the largest annual mass gatherings in the north of England, it draws international attention to the city and region every September, and it functions as a community event as much as a race. The volunteers lining the route, the crowds cheering strangers, the fundraising that the event generates for charity – these are not incidental to the Great North Run. They are the thing itself. Foster created a race. Newcastle made it into something bigger.