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| The Tyne Bridge adorned for the first time with the Great North Run sign |
DOUBLE Olympic champions Mo Farah took to the mean streets of the North East for the first time today but his bid for victory in his maiden Great North Run ended in defeat.
It was a very close-run thing, though, as Farah and winner Kenenisa Bekele treated the chilly South Shields crowd to a thrilling sprint finish.
For much of the race, Farah and Bekele had been joined by the legendary Haile Gebrselassie who was still competing aged 40, ultimately setting a new world record for his age-group.
Between them, the trio can boast no fewer than seven Olympic gold medals and they set off at an impressive pace, completing mile seven in just 4:21.
That pace seemed to catch out Bekele a little but, while he dropped about 20 metres behind, he made sure not to fall completely out of contention - and he was back in touch for a climactic finish.
Indeed, Bekele was first to make a move, pulling away down a steep slope in mile 12 - something which would have been rather unfamiliar to track star Farah.
But, still, Farah would not give up - and, as Gebrselassie faded to third, the stage was set for the Briton to chase down the lead.
Closer and closer came Farah but the tape was also coming closer and closer for Bekele. It was really unclear just which one would come first.
However, after a couple of anxious looks over the shoulder and a defensive weave across the path of Farah, one final kick would prove enough for Ethiopian Bekele to complete the course in 60:09.
Farah, just a second behind, was left only with the rare and bitter taste of defeat, though undoubtedly also with a hunger to road race again.
Meanwhile, in the women's elite race, an exciting finish of a different sort developed.
Unlike in the men's competition, there was no doubt who was going to win - Kenyan Priscah Jeptoo was well ahead of all of her rivals.
Instead, it was Jeptoo against the clock as, despite the dreary conditions, she chased down Paula Radcliffe's half-marathon record of 65:40, set in the 2003 Great North Run.
Radcliffe, who was on commentary duty today for the BBC, will have breathed a sigh of relief when Jeptoo crossed the line.
It was not quite quick enough, five seconds off the record to be accurate, though still the third-fastest time in history.
In the wheelchair races, the Tyneside crowds could cheer home success - in both the men's and women's events.
Six-time Paralympic gold medallist David Weir (43:06) took the men's event for the fifth time, a feat matched by Shelly Woods, who finished in 54:28.
But, of course, the Great North Run is not just about the elite athletes. Today, another 55,000+ runners, joggers, try-hards, and never-give-uppers also crossed the line in South Shields, raising millions between them for charity.
Little did Brendan Foster know just how big the Great North Run would become when he devised the first edition in 1981.
As Foster freely admits: “To be honest we had no idea if anyone was going to turn up at all
"But they did. And it’s just grown. When we reached 40,000 entrants a few years back, someone said that’s it, we can’t get any bigger. But we have."
Now, the run is constantly over-subscribed and attracts regular praise for its level of organisation.
And next year's entrants have the added incentive of the possibility of being the millionth person in the race's history to cross the line, the very first mass-participation event set to reach landmark.
Amongst the throng this year for the second time was my sister, Helen, a keen runner as she amply demonstrated in comfortably breaking the hour-mark in the Blaydon Race.
My sister was running for a brilliant charity, the Alzheimer's Society, a cause close to all of our hearts in our family, given that dementia has blighted three of our grandparents' latter days.
Dementia, which affects approximately 800,000 people in the United Kingdom alone, does not discriminate between the victims which it chooses.
It is a harrowing, often drawn-out illness without a known cure - and much more scientific research needs to be done to solve the enigma or at least stem the tide.
This is where the Alzheimer's Society comes in - but, of course, research requires money and so it feels only right that I should annotate this blog posting with my sister's JustGiving page.
Helen was very proud to represent the Alzheimer's Society today and she did them proud, finishing in a personal best time of two hours and 12 minutes.
A brilliant effort on a day which - even when the sun does not shine - never fails to show Newcastle and Tyneside in anything but a fantastic light.
For Nanna x
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