NEWCASTLE GETS RUNNING: New report by The Great Run Company reveals that 1 in 40 people across the city now run

The Great Run Company, the UK’s biggest mass participation event organiser and owners of the iconic Great North Run, has unveiled a heatmap of their runners across the UK which highlights Newcastle as THE running hotspot.

Utilising 2024 participant postcode data from over 180,000 runners across their portfolio of annual running events, the report revealed nearly 21,000 Geordies took part in one of their mass events this year, equating to 1 in 40 Newcastle residents lacing up*.

The wider North East region accounted for 1 in 5 (19%) ‘great’ runners this year with NE3 (Gosforth) and NE34 (South Shields) as the two most likely postcodes for Geordie runners to call home.

Regionally the North West and Scotland both followed the North East as running hubs (with 17% each of runners), with 1 in 10 runners coming from either the South West and South Central regions.

The top 10 running towns and cities identified by The Great Run Company were:

Runners were most likely to live at one of these top 5 postcodes: 

Founder and President of the Great North Run Sir Brendan Foster said:

“It’s no surprise that the home of the world’s greatest half marathon, the Great North Run, is now a city of seasoned runners. The event is ingrained in the history of the city and has no doubt influenced many geordies to lace up and get running.

However more importantly our report shows that more and more people are finding a love of running and reaping the many benefits that come from participating. People of all ages, all postcodes across the UK and even overseas are running our events. We can’t wait to welcome even more ‘great’ runners in 2025!”

With events across the UK including Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and Portsmouth, The Great Run Company also reported an increase in the popularity of running events with a 39% increase in participation versus 2023. This growth in participation follows stats reported by online event marketplace Let’s Do This, which shows the running event market grew by 23% in 2024.

The increased popularity can be attributed to the following trends seen in 2024 which looks set to continue into 2025;

• Challenge accepted – There is significant growth in brand new runners taking on Great Run challenges with 53% of participants being first timers in 2024, a notable increase of 13% year on year
• Gen Z Zoom – The boom in young runners continues at pace with 47% of Great Run’s entrants aged 35 and under.
  • These guys are also not afraid to take on a challenge with young runners over indexing on the half marathon distance versus other age groups.
• Women lace up – the gender gap in participation continues to shrink with 46% of ‘Great’ runners being female in 2024, up 2% year on year
  • However distance wise 25% more men are taking on the Half Marathon distance with 5K and 10K distances now skewed more towards females 

One person who found her love for running in 2024 is 23 year old Becky Dodds from Cramlington, Northumberland. Becky completed the 2024 Great North Run in memory of her Grandma, having never ran before. Becky set up her own run crew to ensure she completed the event.

 “I decided i didn’t want to run by myself. I looked at other run clubs, and they were all set pace or set run times, which I definitely couldn’t keep up with. Because of this, I decided to create my own run club ‘The Coffee Run’, a community that has grown massively over the last 12 months.

“The Coffee Run is my main source of training, as running in a group makes it so much easier! They push me every week, t inspires me every single day! Meeting new people, from all fitness levels, continuously improving themselves and pushing each other to be 1% better everyday.” she says.

Fancy taking on a running challenge in 2025?

Visit www.greatrun.org/events to explore the full Great Run Seres of events including the iconic Great North Run, the ballot for which is now open. 

Check out the Great Run RIA Member profile here  .