For such a huge race in the British athletics calendar your rarely get any Bournemouth AC members competing at the Great North Run. As events in England go, this one of about as far away from the south coast as it could possibly be so that could have something to do with it.

Unlike at the Big Half, the prize money for the Great North Run is open to anyone so that attracts some big names. Last year’s winner Abel Kipchumba of Kenya was back to try and retain his crown. 2024 London Marathon winner Alex Mutiso was in action as well and his time of 57:59 was the fourth fastest half marathon time ever recorded.

Belgian marathon runner Bashir Abdi, who is of Somalian descent, was also in the running as well. He won a silver medal at the Olympics last year in Paris and is the European record holder for the marathon.

There were several top level club runners as well including Ben Connor of Derby, Jake Smith of Pontypridd Roadents, Marc Scott and of Richmond & Zetland, Jonathan Escalante-Phillips of Cambridge & Coleridge and James Kingston of Tonbridge.

Eilish McColgan was running as well and hoping to fend off competition from the African runners who had come over to try to scoop the prize money.

A huge crowd of 60,000 people descend on the streets of Newcastle for the Great North Run making it the world’s biggest half marathon. It’s a point to point route from Newcastle upon Tyne to to South Shields.

Amongst the vast numbers taking part were Emily and Jason Coltman who were running for the Stroke Association. Jason did actually have a mini stroke not so long ago so it was a charity close to his heart, if you’ll excuse the pun!

Managing to get a scholarship in America, Emily is heading off to the US soon to follow her dreams. She didn’t think she’d got it at first and was looking at alternatives, but it came through in the end and she was delighted about that.

She’ll be heading out to America after Christmas for three years so the Great North Run was likely to be Emily and Jason’s last big race together before she goes. They’ve done so many races together over the years and shared so many running memories and were excited to make one last one up in Newcastle.

With a half marathon PB of 1 hour 23 minutes which he did at Run Bournemouth in 2021, the ultimate goal for Leon Louis was to beat that, or get somewhere close to it. He probably was in his best form back then though in 2021. He’s been training hard recently though and seeing a fair of improvement in his times. That was evident in his sub 38 minute 10k at Stubbington at the beginning of the year.

He also ran the Salisbury 10 in 1:04:47 in April so that showed some signs that his endurance was in a fairly good place as well. He’d been putting in some good long training runs as well in the lead up to the Great North Run so had every reason to be positive about his prospects.

There’s quite a bit of downhill in the first three miles of the Great North Run and that enabled Leon to get off to a fairly fast start, registering a 6:18, followed by a 6:04 and then a 6:21 for his first three mile splits. That put his opening 5k at 19:48.

The fourth and fifth miles are mostly uphill though and for those ones, Leon registered a 6:27 followed by a 6:36. That put his five mile time at 32:20.

Then it’s a slight descent for the next three miles, with Leon getting through them in 6:22, 6:26 and 6:29. He’d gone through 10k in 40:08. There was a slight incline on the ninth mile but Leon still got through that in 6:29 before going on the clock a 6;34 for his tenth mile.

That meant he’d reached the tenth mile in 1 hour 5 minutes. Now it was a question of how much he had left in the tank for the last 5k. There was another incline to tackle over the next couple of miles though which would make it tougher.

Registering a 6:33 for his eleventh mile, Leon then went on to clock a 6:42 for his 12th mile. From there it was mostly downhill into the finish and Leon got through the 13th mile in 6:20. That left him with a short run into the finish.

Getting to the line in 1:25:05, Leon finished in 616th place overall and his average pace for the run was 6:26 per mile. His previous best time at the Great North Run was 1:28 which he did in 2022, so although he hadn’t quite been able to match up to his PB time, he’d bettered his time on that course by three minutes.

That was an excellent result for Leon and one that he really had to be pleased with. The elevation came to 438ft, so it isn’t really the fastest of courses, since there’s quite a bit of up and down.

Emily Coltman’s primary focus is the steeplechase so the Great North Run was a significant step up in distance for her. She’d done the Great South Run a couple of times before though, with Jason, and their best time in that was 1:18:22.

Going through the first 5k in 24:31, Emily and Jason then went on to reach the 10k stage in 49:58. They’d been going along pretty smoothly at roughly 8 minute mile pace. The next couple of miles were fine but then Jason started feeling unwell.

Emily noticed that Jason had gone a bit quiet which doesn’t usually happen and they had no option but to slow down and go at an easier pace. Jason suggested to Emily that she should push on as they were doing well but she didn’t want to. This was their last race together before she jets off to the US and she wanted them to do it together.

Getting to 10 miles in 1:22:42, they now just had to make it through the last 5k. Jason was struggling though and all he could really focus on at that point was making it to the finish.

It wasn’t an easy last 5k but they made it to the finish in a time of 1:51:42. That put them in 8,319th and 8,320th places overall with an average pace of 8:24 per mile.

Jason had a few issues after the race but ironically, the Stroke Association that he was running for gave him great care and support at their charity tent. They made it back home okay on the train but Jason went to hospital when they got back to have a full medical and MRI to check the cyst he had two years ago.

There was no change in that so the stroke like symptoms along with the chest pains he had during and after the race they think could have been due to Covid.

They’d had a great time running together which was the most important thing but they had trained a lot for it so it was sad that they hadn’t been able to get the best result they could have done. In the grand scheme of things though, health is much more important and they still had great memories of their first half marathon together to cherish.

It had actually been a lovely weekend for them up north as they’d been to see Jason’s Dad. They’d also watched the elite race Friday night and bumped into Joe Wicks who was really nice and was interested to hear about Emily’s steeplechase journey and going out to the US. Joe Wicks is an ambassador for sports clothing brand Lulelemon, along with US steeplechaser Colleen Quigley so he knows a bit about it from that.

Alex Mutison won the race in 1:00:52 which put him six seconds ahead of Bashir Abdi who was 2nd. Abel Kipchumba was 3rd in 1:01:01.

Ben Connor took 4th place in 1:02:57, with Jake Smith taking 5th in 1:03:07. Marc Scott was 7th in 1:04:05 and Jonathan Escalante-Phillips came 8th in 1:04:22.

Seyfu Jamaal of London Heathside took 10th placer in 1:04:34 and James Kingston of Tonbridge was 11th in 1:04:35.

Eilish McColgan came 3rd in the women’s race, recording a time of 1:09:42. Sheila Chepkirui came out on top, with a time of 1:09:32 which put her five seconds ahead of Vivian Cheruiyot who was 2nd.