00:00So my name's James, I'm a volunteer and a staff member at Newcastle Castle and I'm going
00:08to be doing the Great North Run in medieval armour.
00:11We've got a very small charity that operates Newcastle Castle and we've never had anybody
00:17do the Great North Run for us before and so when I thought about it, I thought well I
00:23could do the Great North Run but I could do it in soft sort of wool or linen medieval
00:28costume and then one of my colleagues said well how about you wear this armour that I've
00:33got.
00:34I thought well don't be ridiculous, that's a ridiculous idea.
00:37But the more I thought about it I thought well how about the more money we raise the
00:41more I'll wear so we can do it piece by piece and then it'll be really worthwhile.
00:45So I came around to the idea eventually.
00:48We did a first sort of trial in armour back in about March time I believe.
00:54We did about 8km walking around in the chain mail and it was a bit heavy on the shoulders
00:59but it was alright.
01:01And then the last couple of weeks I've stepped it up and wore the full armour over 11 miles
01:06and that was 20 degree weather, quite gruelling actually, yeah.
01:10It's quite flexible, it's quite comfortable, see that was the point.
01:14The smaller the rings are the more flexible and comfortable it'll be, it'll sort of hug
01:18your body.
01:19In this kind of stuff back in the day you would have had to pay quite a pretty penny
01:23to have this made.
01:24It's all hand made, it's all put together by hand and it was going to be tailored to
01:30your own body as well because it would need to fit quite smoothly.
01:33So yeah, you would have to be pretty rich to be wearing something like this.
01:38If we were going to be wearing everything it would be 25kg, that's about 4 stone and
01:43with the target that we've just hit which would be the padded under armour that we've
01:48got over there, we've got a padded cap, we've got the chainmail coif and we've got the
01:53chainmail shirt and we've got some shin pads now.
01:57So all of that is about half of the weight, we're looking at about 12-13kg with that stuff.
02:02Actually I used to be a 100m runner.
02:05So I used to run for Jarrow and Hebbin Athletics Club when I was a teenager, I was North East
02:10Champion in the juniors over 100-200m.
02:14So a half marathon is not something that I'm used to at all.
02:18I've heard that there's a car that sweeps at the back so as long as I'm ahead of that
02:22then I think I'll be quite happy.
02:24The 11 mile walk that we did in the armour took about 4 and a half to 5 hours so it's
02:30not going to be particularly fast, depends on how much I've got on as to how much I'll
02:36be able to run.
02:37Cool conditions would be nice, rain would probably make things a bit too heavy especially
02:43with some of the padded armour that we wear underneath the chainmail but cool would be
02:48nice.
02:49But beginning of September you never really know what you're going to get but we've tried
02:52it in 20 degree sunshine and we know that we can do it.
02:55The overall target that we've got is £5,000, that would enable us to really make a difference
03:02in terms of accessibility at Newcastle Castle, develop new materials, really change the experience
03:08for people with limited vision and mobility but at the moment we're just past the £400
03:15mark and that's our fourth target, I believe fourth or fifth target in terms of the actual
03:22items that I'm going to be wearing so it's getting there, it's certainly getting there.
