The thing that it’s hard to understand is that this is just the first few people to start. Fifty thousand people or so did this race on Sunday. Last year, when I did the race myself, it was over 20 minutes before I crossed the start line from where I started the race. It’s hard to understand the scale. No wonder it’s called the biggest half-marathon in the world.
visits
since April 2006.
Twenty minutes just to get to the start! I can’t imagine 50,000 people in a race. Amazing!
I used to live in Atlanta, Georgia in the States and we had the Peachtree Road Race every July 4th. It is a 6 K race and over 100,000 people apply for numbers ( you have to have a number to run) every year but only 55,000 get them. Everyone that completes the race in under on hour gets their name printed in the paper. Everyone that crosses the finish line gets a t-shirt. The worse part of the course is called Cardiac Hill because it is near the end and very difficult and every year someone collapses with chest pains and has to be carried off. As you round the corner at the top of Cardiac Hill, there is a restaurant there called Jocks and Jills. They stand out there and pass out cans of beer to all the racers. ;-) That is JUST what we need to put in our bodies at that point. Only in America….. lol.
Jill - and there were still a lot of people behind me!
Shelli, that sounds similar to the Great North Run in a lot of ways. some of the route (especially towards the end) goes past people’s houses and they stand outside passing out ice pops and water and juice and even biscuits, last year. One guy stood on top of a bus shelter with a hosepipe and sprayed everyone to cool them down. It was GREAT.
A couple of years ago, four people died in the GNR. They were all healthy young men I think. There were investigations galore, but I think they decided that there were so many medical personnel lining the course that even if they’d collapsed in a casualty department they wouldn’t have had a better chance.
I love this photo. I can see shadows. From Sun. Sunshine. Something we haven’t seen for sooooooo long. It’s lovely! The colour of all the shirts too. Nice pic. Thank you!
Nice to see alot of colour in this pic. A friend of mine ran the GNR and he couldnt believe how hilly the run was.
Wow. I can’t imagine 50,000 people running all at the same time. Fantastic!
Ah, I can almost hear them shouting. “oggy oggy oggy, oy oy oy”. This woke me up on one of my first days in NCL, I think.
I took part in my hometown’s half marathon for the last couple of years. They only allow about 4000 participants cause the roads and forest paths are quite narrow. It also features some very steep hills (it’s officially registered as a mountain race). Garden hoses have become some kind of fashion among people living alongside the track - and it’s really a wonderful supportive idea! As well as people offering water oder pieces of banana and so on. Great experience all along the way.
Wish I can take part in GNR one day.