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  • 1 week ago
With the Great North Run bringing thousands of people into Newcastle, we hear more from local people about what the event means to them. Their views range from the atmosphere and community spirit to the impact of one of the North East’s biggest sporting events.

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00:00I always find it funny when you see them all in these big costumes and you think it's, I don't
00:06know if having to run, but then they've got fridges on the backs and the dress is like a chicken.
00:11Like, you know what I mean? So they've got all that extra weight as well.
00:15It's become kind of an institution, hasn't it? When it first started, it was all about Brendan Foster. And we
00:22used to live out near the old Dixielanders at Gateshead Fellingway. And everybody used to sort of come out of
00:28the local housing estates, stand up the side of the road. And my main recollection of it is you could
00:34hear the sound of the hoofbeats before you actually saw any runners coming along.
00:38I think it's a very good thing, especially nowadays when people are so like kind of sedentary. I think it's
00:43always good to have something like this. And I think we're quite lucky to have such like a big one.
00:50Because I know a lot of people, not even from the North will come up and do it. And Newcastle
00:55doesn't have a lot in terms of like things of national importance. So it's positive all around. It's positive for
01:02people's health and I think it's positive for the area as well.
01:05When I watch it, I cry. So when they all go past, I'm like, because I get dead emotional watching
01:10them. Because then I'm thinking, God, what? You see the things on the back who they're running for and that.
01:15And then you start thinking and yeah, I get dead emotional.
01:18I think it's because of the size of the actual run itself. Like, I think the Great North Run, I
01:23genuinely think of it alongside the things like the Boston Marathon or something like that. I do think it is
01:29that big.
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