Hopefully, pre-race preparations paid off for our Great North runners

This was probably the biggest number of patients I have ever had to prepare and advise for the event. I am expecting most of them back in the clinic this week alone for their recovery sessions.

One of those is my good friend Michael Hart. He is now immensely fit, has trained so hard to get himself ready for this, and is already booked in with me and one of our sports therapists for a well-earned recovery massage.

I also helped prepare former Hartlepool United Communications Manager Mark Simpson, otherwise known these days as “Shrinking Simmo” to his many followers on TikTok. 

Mark has been on an unbelievable journey to get to this point. It has been a life-changing turnaround with his running and his weight loss – he has lost around 80kg since he started, which are just incredible numbers.

To sit here now and say he has just completed his second half marathon and his first ever Great North Run is brilliant. He ran it alongside his two sisters in honour of their father, Roy Simpson MBE. 

Mark is an absolute inspiration to many out there, as you can see from the thousands who follow his journey online.

Another one of my patients is a young man called Joseph Fraser. 

Joseph was actually down to run the event for the PFC Trust 12 months ago but had to pull out because he needed meniscus knee surgery. 

He was in a bad way at the time, not long out of his teenage years, and couldn’t even play football. But, with strict rehab and guidance, he became a regular in the clinic. 

He is now back playing football and I knew he would cruise through the Great North Run. Well done, mate – see you this week!

There are so many other stories to mention, but simply too many to fit in. Almost all of them had niggles along the way. 

The most common was IT Band Syndrome – which is basically pain running from the outside of the knee up to the hip, a very common issue for runners – as well as mild sciatica and mild back pain.

Everyone took the advice on board and it gives me immense job satisfaction to see them all come through – training for a run and doing the actual Great North Run are two very different things.

The Great North Run is what I call a “fake day” compared to what you are used to as an amateur runner. You are standing around waiting for a few hours before the race even starts. 

Over the years, I’ve learned how crucial it is to prepare for that wait. I advised my patients to take resistance bands with them to keep loose while waiting for the starting gun and reminded them to stay on top of their electrolytes. 

Thankfully, all the group I saw did exactly that – and it paid off.

On a different, much more sombre note, a week has now passed since PC Matthew Blades’ funeral.  What a send off that was, I’ve never seen anything like it.

Matty was actually supposed to be running the GNR this year for his mother-in-law, who has Parkinson’s. 

I wrote about my friendship with Matty in last week’s column. He was doing quite a few runs this year to raise awareness and money for Parkinson’s – the last run he did was Middlesbrough, he was scheduled for Sunderland, and the GNR was the next big one on his calendar.

His best mate, Darragh Burke, bravely stepped up to do it for him. Darragh was determined to do absolutely everything he could to make sure Matty’s goals were achieved.  He stepped in at incredibly short notice with no training. Amazing! 

Matty’s funeral last week was a moving tribute to him – and seeing his best mate cross the finish line in his honour was a fitting way to round off an emotional few weeks.