Incredible and most memorable - a runner's verdict on the Virtual Great North Run

A show of support and lots of smiles marked the one-off Virtual Great North Run that saw thousands of people take to the streets

It was the Great North Run but not as we know as the virtual version of the world's most famous half-marathon got under way on Sunday - and proved itself to be the next best thing to the real deal.

One of its regular runners, Freeman Hospital nurse Kaye Walsh who this time was part of a group of 12 taking part for charity, thought the experience ranked as among the best.

"It was just incredible to be honest," she said, as she and her fellow runners, a mix of nurses, family and friends, completed the 13.1-mile distance and celebrated their achievement with a glass of prosecco at their chosen finish line at Blyth beach huts in Northumberland.

"It's been such a unique experience. Our friends and family were all along the route and complete strangers were tooting."

In what had to be the most socially-distanced event of its kind, the Virtual Great North Run, reflecting its global reputation, had opened up the challenge worldwide and 16,000 runners, from every continent and all 127 UK postcodes, ran their own half-marathon in range of locations while listening via an app to a Geordie soundtrack to set the mood.

Kaye, a lead nurse in the hospital's congenital heart disease network, thought the app great, adding "although we couldn't always hear it" because it was windy along their chosen route which started and ended at the beach huts and took in Cullercoats.

The group included first-time Great North Run entrants, all helping surpass the £2,000 fund-raising target they set for CHUF: the Children’s Heart Unit Fund, while run regular Kaye herself clocked up a time of two hours and four minutes - "the best time I've run since I did it at 17!"

She sees their joint achievement as something of "a victory over lockdown, over coronavirus", she said, adding: "We won't let it beat us."

She added of the experience: "It is up there as on the best, most memorable I've ever done."

Another medic doing the virtual run was Mickey Jachuck, a clinical director for cardiology and respiratory medicine at South Tyneside hospital who has been involved in the fight against Covid-19.

He took up running for the first time last year, finding it a de-stress from work, and Sunday marked his first half-marathon with a route taking the Great Park, via Woolsington, Gosforth and Hazelrigg - and then a well-deserved drink.

He said of the Great North Run: "I know what a great atmosphere there is and have often been tempted to do the run, but never thought I was capable of doing it."

Another runner Den Hewitt, who has done the run every year - usually in an Indiana Jones costume while collecting en route for St Oswald's Hospice - enjoyed the camaraderie on the street.

"I saw quite a few out in the Virtual Great North Run T-shirts and everyone gives a wave and a nod and asks how you're doing. One woman with her child who I passed near the end was saying 'keep going'!"

But he missed the run atmosphere and crowd reaction and also had some trouble with his app, which had him logged as still out on the route when he had actually completed his circuit taking him from his home in Birtley, Gateshead, twice around Saltwell Park and then finishing at his mother's house in Chester-le-Street.

"It's not the same; it was more of a challenge this year," he said.

Olympian and Great North Run founder Brendan Foster was also in on the action, picking a coastal route from Bamburgh Castle to Dunstanburgh Castle, and claiming in a BBC TV interview that, being away from watching eyes, he planned to factor in a stop-off for lunch en route.

And also making a TV appearance was Big Pink Dress - otherwise known as Colin Plews - who embarked upon his regular fund-raiser, taking in the Coast Road, on the windiest of mornings.

Urging people to support charities at a time they are really struggling, he said: "I know a lot of people are struggling because of job cuts but if you can give, then please do."

Among the international runners taking part was Andrew Jarvis, with a mission to complete 12 laps of his large neighbourhood in Colombia on the edge of the Andean mountain range just as the sun rose, and British ex-pat Paul Potter who ran on the North Island of New Zealand at what was 9.30pm local time.

Foster was delighted that the virtual event meant a benefit to charities otherwise losing out following the cancellation of this year's Great North Run which had been due to celebrate its 40th birthday this Sunday.

And as for main event, he said: "We'll be back, don't you worry."