A languages teacher has vowed not to hang up his running shoes following his retirement earlier this month as he trains for his 38th consecutive Great North Run.
Liam Friel, from Whickham in Gateshead, entered his first Great North Run in 1984 a year after relocating from Essex to the North East to take a post teaching Latin and French at Dame Allan's School. At the time, the Great North Run was in its fourth year after being established in 1981, and Liam has run every single race since.
He has only missed the GNR in 2020 as it was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The 62-year-old retired last Wednesday as one of the longest serving teachers at the school in Fenham, having taught more than 35,000 hours of languages classes to his students.
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When he completed his first raise in 1984, Liam ran alongside around 20,000 fellow competitors. Today, it is the second-largest half-marathon in the world and this September's race is expected to be the biggest yet, with 60,000 runners expected to tackle the course, which is returning to its original Newcastle to South Shields route, after it was altered last year to include the Town Moor.
Liam has been a member of Blaydon Harriers and Athletics Club, which organises the Blaydon Races, since 1991, seven years after he moved to the region as a 23-year-old. And as well as doing the Great North Run 37 times, he has also done the London Marathon three times too.
He said: "Within the first year of moving here I decided to try the Great North Run, and from run one I was hooked; I just kept doing it! Teaching at Dame Allan’s and running the local half-marathon, with its testing course and fantastic atmosphere, are two things I have dearly loved over the last four decades.
"It was hard to say goodbye to the schools that have given me so much pleasure to teach in, but I’m not ready to hang up my running shoes quite yet! In fact, I hope to keep running for as long as my body doesn’t object, and surpass my 39-year teaching record at Dame Allan’s with at least 40 years of the Great North Run… and hopefully many more."
How many times have you done the Great North Run? Let us know!
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