Suzanne’s story: Running for WAY

September 2024

On Sunday, 8 September, WAY volunteer Suzanne ran more than 13 miles for WAY by taking part in the iconic Great North Run. Suzanne takes up the story…

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Sitting on the train up to Newcastle, I have to admit I felt a bit nervous – I’ve been building up to this race for almost a year. As soon as I saw the Tyne Bridge wearing its Great North Run logo, I started to get excited.

I last ran the Great North Run in 2019, 18 months after Tim’s sudden death from type 2 diabetes, as one of a series of four races in his memory. I wore a Diabetes UK vest.
 
Being widowed young and losing someone unexpectedly is a massive shock, and it feels like the whole world has been swept away from under your feet. WAY Widowed and Young, along with its community of people who understood, helped me to get back up again and begin to live again.
 
This year I decided to give something back by running the Great North Run again, but this time wearing a WAY Widowed and Young vest.

The day of the run dawned rather grey, but the city was buzzing with people wearing running numbers. Kitted up in my WAY running vest and WAY Pride logo I walked over the assembly area and met a fellow widow who used to be a member of WAY. She was fundraising for a charity and was wearing her wedding ring, and her son, also running, was wearing his dad’s wedding ring.
 
I saw the elite wheelchair racers and the elite women racers head off, and then the long walk to the assembly area past tens of thousands of runners in charity shirts, running club shirts and fancy dress. The fog was replaced by rain and the waiting seemed to last forever, but eventually we were off – across the Tyne Bridge and towards South Shields. There’s something quite surreal about running on a dual carriageway with 60,000 other runners.
 
I hit a bit of a wall at 8 or 9 miles, but Kendal Mint Cake, my friend Lindsay shouting ‘there’s just a Park run to go’ as she passed me, and spotting the road sign to the coast kept me going. Seeing the sea at Mile 11 was a huge boost, but the last mile along the coast road seemed like the longest mile of the race. A grin from fellow WAY member Ed (the running photographs are his – thanks Ed) got me over the line and I was done! 13.1 miles in 3 hrs 11 mins, ten minutes faster than I expected.
 
It took me longer to get back across to Newcastle station than it did to run it from Newcastle to South Shields. Stepping through my door at home at 10.30 pm, I announced that I was never going to do the Great North Run again. I’m plotting some local runs – and perhaps when it comes round to booking, the Great North Run fever will hit again.
 
Thank you so much to the people who have sponsored me, and if you would like to support the amazing charity WAY Widowed and Young, there’s still time.

Suzanne is a member of our Diversity Working Group and was the winner of our 2022 Helen Bailey Award for her blog The Widow’s Handbook. Read more here