Great North Weekend properly got started today, much the same as it did last year, with a parkrun volunteering session. There were a lot of people volunteering due to the GNR, but luckily Geth, Ed, and I managed to snag the gate 2 spot, which meant we didn’t have to hang about for too long. Great atmosphere at parkrun though – it’s always good on Great North Weekend.
After parkrun, Geth and I went for breakfast at Costa, and then home to collect a few things before heading into town for the Pasta Party and the Great North CityGames.
We got off at Gateshead and headed for lunch at the Pasta Party first, as the queues just get worse throughout the day. As we’re both running this year, and I’m on my second year of membership, we had a ridiculous number (six) of pasta vouchers:
We then headed over the Millennium Bridge (bumping into Ed again halfway across!) to catch the CityGames long jump, where I took the obligatory blurry photos of Greg Rutherford and Jazmin Sawyers:
It was Greg Rutherford’s last ever competitive long jump event, so it was pretty special to get to see him. We then went back to the Gateshead side of the Quayside to watch the sprint distance events from the seated area. Despite the rain, it was quite comfy!
Sadly the CityGames is moving to Stockton-on-Tees from next year, so it won’t be part of our Great North Weekend again for the foreseeable future. I’m guessing the Pasta Party will remain in Gateshead though.
A quiet evening in after that, with the BBC coverage of the CityGames, the Strictly Come Dancing launch show, some triathlon on iPlayer, and yet more pasta. I could not be any more carb-loaded after the last three days. Hopefully it will give me the requisite energy for tomorrow’s Great North Run!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Kim Wilde – You Came
And a bonus track that Geth was humming earlier:
Baltimora – Tarzan Boy
(A short list today, partly due to spending most of the day surrounded by actual music, but mainly because after Geth woke me up for the second time by loudly singing Tarzan Boy, that became my earworm for the rest of the day too!)