Sunday 5 October 2008

Great North Running

The first weekend in October in Newcastle means Great North Run time. Thousands of runners, probably millions of bottles of water, slices of orange and shrubbery-type toilet stops and of course for local residents like us the inability to drive anywhere at all, all day.

We have special front row tickets for the event every year as our house is less than a 10 minute walk from the half way mark, so what better opportunity to teach our kids about people doing self-less things for charity, I doubt there are many more self-less ways to raise money than to run a half marathon often times in fancy dress.

Always a great entertainment opportunity as well, about 30 seconds after I finished saying to my children that there was always a scooby-boo every year and they should try to spot him he ran passed. We also had a series of Batmans and Robins, Mr Men of a few varieties, fairies, goblins, and many other mystical characters. I would imagine just about every charity in the UK is represented and the run earns huge revenue for charities all over the country, even in this time of financial concern for many.

In amongst all the good feeling I have to say I was quite disgusted to witness the behaviour of severe local 'kids'. We witnessed them on several occasions throwing water randomly into the faces of runners, all very nice and refreshing if you choose to do it yourself I'm sure, but a jolt and a shock you don't need in the middle of a half marathon. I hope they did not spoil the experience of any of their victims or indeed their perception of the region by behaving like total idiots when they should be applauding with everyone else, especially as they are unlikely ever to get up from their games console and do anything for anyone other than themselves. I'm glad though to say that mindless morons like these are few and far between as the amount of runners and road-side support shows, a warning for them next year I will be quicker and have their photographs for everyone to see what a true idiot looks like.

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