Hotels for Great North Run 2026

Half a marathon of runners fills the streets, moving from one bank of the Tyne to the coast at South Shields. Most who take part are raising money for a cause close to them, and it shows in the mood along the route: brass bands, homemade signs, strangers cheering complete strangers by name. Elite fields go off first, but the bulk of the day belongs to club runners and first-timers who have trained through a wet spring for this.

The Great North Run was founded in 1981 by Brendan Foster, the Olympic and Commonwealth medal-winning runner turned race organiser, who wanted Britain to have a mass-participation road race of the kind he'd seen abroad. The first run, on 28 June 1981, drew just over 12,000 runners from Newcastle to South Shields — a serious field for the time, and one that grew steadily year on year.

By 2014 it had recorded its millionth finisher and set a Guinness World Record for the largest half marathon ever held, and it remains one of the biggest half marathons anywhere, drawing entrants from well over a hundred countries in some years. The route hasn't changed in essence since 1981: out of Newcastle, over the Tyne Bridge, along the coast road to the finish by the sea at South Shields.