Olympian shares advice to runners as Portsmouth gets ready for the biggest Great South Run in history
This year’s run will be the biggest in its 26 year history
Everything is set for the South Coast’s best running celebration this weekend, as more than 26,000 runners prepare to take on the Great South Run, the biggest in its history.
This year’s 10-mile race around Portsmouth is extra special, marking 100 years since the city was granted city status. Since it began in 1990, the Great South Run has become a much-loved tradition, for both runners and supporters who line the route.
People of all ages, experience and backgrounds will be completing the course, with many raising money for fantastic causes.
One person raising money is Karen Barnett, who will be running the course for Headway, a brain injury association, a charity she supports all year round.
She said: “I've run the Great South a few times, but this is the first one since COVID so it's nice to come back! I'm running for Headway. Headway is a fantastic charity supporting um people with brain injuries and their families and carers, supplying... or supporting them with wellbeing groups um for physical and mental wellbeing
“Every Friday morning I help run the Headway music group. I was asked to come on board and help run the music group last September, and in that one year that we've been running, we were asked to be a part of the Portsmouth 100 song on Shining Waters.
“It's been an amazing journey. We started off as just a very small group and we're still quite small, but we're all friends and we all look forward to Friday mornings, getting together, singing all random songs, but also in a structured way that we can learn to go out and perform as time goes on.”
Sophie Bavin and her dad, Matt Bavin will be completing the course to raise money for The Elizabeth Foundation, a charity that supports deaf children. Sophie is one of the youngest people to run the race this year at only 17 years old. She said: “ We're taking part in the Great South Run on Sunday because The Elizabeth Foundation dedicated a lot to our family, so it's something to give back to them.”
Sophie’s brother Jacob was born “profoundly deaf” and the charity has supported him and his family since he was two months old.
Matt Bavin said: “I did the run last in 2018, which was supposed to be my last Great South Run!
“But Sophie said she wanted to do it this year, and somehow I got talked into running alongside her to give her a bit of moral support.
“This is just our way of trying to raise some money for them and give something back to the charity.”
While Sophie is one of the youngest runners taking part this weekend, ex-Royal Navy officer and firefighter William Newman will be completing his 25th Great South Run at aged 80.
“I started running when I was about 8 years of age,” said Mr Newman.
“My father had passed away and the British Railways used to take us away for a day trip each year, and they had a sports day in Littlehampton on the village green. I won the 100-yard dash and got a box of paints and a football as a prize for winning, and I thought to myself, ‘This running's good, you get prizes!’
“I've done various, um, runs for charities all over the years. I’ve done seven London Marathons. I've run in various countries, Gibraltar when I was in the Navy, up the Rock Road race, they called it. I’ve done the Malta Marathon. I did the Great British Marathon in Bolton and the Birmingham Marathon.”
“I've done all the training right up until Wednesday, and then my wife had a cold, and she's politely given it to me! So for the last two days I've been taking Lemsips powders, but I should be okay.”
Another octogenarian will also be running over the weekend. A family of 11, including 81-year-old grandmother Birbala Chandra, will take part in a weekend of running to raise money for the Portsmouth Down Syndrome Association, a charity that has supported them.
Calling themselves Dexter’s Dudes Dynamic Dashing Dashes, the group is named after seven-year-old Dexter Hoyle, who has Down syndrome. His parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, grandmother and five-year-old twin sisters will all be lacing up their trainers to raise funds and awareness.
The family are also running in memory of Dexter’s grandfather, Dr Girish Chandra, who died last year.
His widow, Birbala, 81, will be running the 5K course on Saturday and said she was feeling good after completing her 60th Parkrun on last week.
“I’m getting slower now,” she said. “I used to finish in less than an hour, so I hope I can do that, and not 1 hour 5 minutes.
“I’m glad to have my daughter and her husband and their three children, and my son Aman Chandra, his wife and their three children, so 11 of us in total. My husband passed away last year, so I’m running in his memory as well as for Dexter.”
The race also draws professional athletes from all over the country. Verity Ockenden, who runs for Team GB, will be returning to the race to defend her title of champion after winning the race with an incredible time of 56 minutes 37 seconds last year.
“I’m really excited to be back,” she said.
“Obviously there’s a little bit of pressure on me to defend my title, which is a good pressure to have.
“The Great South Run is always a really nice opportunity to get my family involved. It's one of the few races that is fairly local to my mum and she loves to cheer me on, so that's always just a really nice moment for us as a family.
“I would love to run faster than I did last year but it always depends on the weather, though. The wind along here can be brutal.”
Olympian Chris Thompson, who has run the Great South Run three times, has fond memories of the course.
He said: “It was the place where I ran my first ever road race, having won the event, taken part in the event in a variety of capacities, but also retiring from my international career here two years ago. It holds a special place in my heart, and also just the event itself is a special event.
“It’s the atmosphere and the Pompy crowds getting really behind you, supporting the athletes. I think that extra special centenary celebration just adds everything. But that's where I think everyone across all the different communities, all the reasons for running, and all the money that's raised for charity, the elite athletes, everything, it all comes together in a special weekend.
“It's not many things that we have where we can make everyone feel part of a singular event or achievement, with the common goal of a 10-mile run, and the Portsmouth100 is an extra layer of excitement to add into that to be able to celebrate.”
Mr Thompson also urged runners to take the weather into consideration.
“The last mile and a half can be severely affected by how windy or not it is,” he said. “I would say if it is going to be windy just take the first half a bit easy. Enjoy the scenery, really kind of absorb the local support.
“I think just keep reminding yourself that, when things get hard, you've got people there to support you, people that you don't know, that you've never met, are willing you to get to the end. It's a very special feeling, and it's a very special thing to have someone you've never met call your name, cheer you on, support you all the way to the end.”