BUPA Great North Run 2009 Preview

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I have to admit here, this is the world’s largest half marathon, and I heard about the event only this year. The Bupa Great North Run is the world’s most popular half marathon road running event, and this years event will be run on September 20th, the same day as the Berlin Marathon. The run happens in England, starts at Newcastle upon Tyne, and finishes at the coast of South Shields.

2009 will see a record 54,000 entrants to the run (selected from an online ballot of 100,000 people), 2,000 more than last year. In scale, the event matches up the London marathon, which is the most popular road race in the country.

Some of the contenders for the title this year include former champion Berhane Adere, fellow Ethiopian’s Ejegayehu Dibaba and Worknesh Kidane, while the men’s field has Kenya’s Martin Lel. The quality of the men’s field over the years can be judged by the names and finish times of the winners:

2004 Dejene Berhanu, Ethiopia, 59:37
2005 Zersenay Tadese, Eritrea, 59:05
2006 Hendrick Ramaala, South Africa, 1:01:03
2007 Martin Lel, Kenya, 1:00:08
2008 Tsegaye Kebede, Ethiopia, 59:45

Route Map:

What surprised me about this run is that given how popular this race is in England, it is not covered at a similar level in the media internationally, and it is really difficult to find out details when looking on the web, unlike other even smaller events, which is really difficult to understand of a size as big as this one. I just wonder why.

BUPA Great North Run is an IAAF Gold Label Road Race.