This live feed is in the North East for the 2011 running of the Great North Run:
Great North Run Webcam
Event Information:
The run was devised by former Olympic 10,000 m bronze medallist and BBC Sport commentator Brendan Foster. Foster was inspired after running in the Round the Bays Race in New Zealand in 1979, and has built upon the Great North Run with a series of other Great Run road races.
BUPA has been title partner of the Great North Run for the last 18 years, one of Britain’s longest ever sports sponsorship agreements.
The first ever Great North Run was staged on the 28 June 1981, when 12,000 runners participated. By 2003, the number of participants had risen to 47,000. The 2008 event saw an announced field of 52,000. Counting only real finishers (many are entered through their company and don't show up) the number was 35,777 in 2007, the largest half marathon and the 13th largest running race that year
For the first year it was advertised as a local fun run; twenty years on it has become one of the biggest running events in the world, and the biggest in the UK. Only the London Marathon (Britain's second biggest road race every year since 1981) comes close to attracting 'similar' numbers of athletes each year. In recent years, a Great North Mile has also been held.
In the 2004 Great North Mile race on Saturday 25 September, double Olympic Gold medalist Kelly Holmes made her first appearance in Britain since returning from the 2004 Summer Olympics. Holmes also fired the gun to start the main event on Sunday 26 September, and waved and shook hands with many of the 50,000 starters.
