00:00So, my name's Chris Thompson. I'm an ex-professional distance runner, three-time winner of Great South Run.
00:06What a lovely weekend, the AJ Bell Great South Run weekend.
00:11I love this time of year. I love autumn, even though it's the time of year for bugs.
00:16I don't know, there's something about the freshness. I think I was an Eskimo in my previous life.
00:20I just love the feel of this time of year, the kind of fresh air and that the winter is coming.
00:25But Great South Run makes it a great feeling again to be part of it.
00:31So, yeah, it's a special weekend.
00:33So, I'm Verity Ockenden. I'm going to be on the Elite Start.
00:39I've won it, well, I haven't. I've won second and third in the past, the past two times I've done it.
00:49And I'm hoping I might be able to win it.
00:53I think the competition's going to be tough this time, like it always is.
00:58But, yeah, I'm hoping this might be the time that I can actually win it.
01:04OK, so, my name's Charlotte.
01:05I'm running this weekend for Portsmouth Down Syndrome Association to raise money for a fantastic charity.
01:12They're very close to my heart and my family's heart because they support my nephew, Teddy, since diagnosis.
01:18He's now eight years old and he's received just fantastic support from the family.
01:23Sorry, from the charity.
01:25The charity is like a big family.
01:28And so it's just fantastic support networks, social networks.
01:32And he currently receives support in school, from the specialist school service to keep him kind of included and well supported in mainstream school, which is fantastic.
01:42And so I'm not a runner, so I'm doing it absolutely for the cause this weekend, but looking forward to it.
01:49Hi, I'm John Hillage.
01:50I work for Portsmouth City Council Fostering Team.
01:52I'm running this weekend to raise some awareness around our foster carers and the amazing resilience they have.
01:58I'm running it barefoot as part of that kind of whole message, really, just to say what good work they do for the children in the city.
02:03And also to try and get the message out there, we always need new foster carers in the city, so we're always looking for people to come along and talk to us.
02:09I'm Shubo.
02:10I was born and bred here in Portsmouth, but three or four years ago, I moved to London.
02:15And I discovered running almost two years ago to today.
02:19Obviously, yeah, running every single day kind of hardens up your legs, so you're always ready for a race.
02:25The Great South Run for me, it means so much because I was born and bred in Portsmouth.
02:28So I knew that my first ever race, I wanted to do the Great South Run, come back to Portsmouth, a homecoming, should I say.
02:38And obviously, that was meant to be last year, but it got cancelled, got text messaged the day before.
02:43And I was a little bit upset by that, but I thought, you know what, I had a couple of friends coming down from London to do the race with me and to support me.
02:52And we said to ourselves, let's just go and do it anyway.
02:55So we ran through the storm and it was crazy.
02:58It was incredible.
02:59I kind of understood why they cancelled it because it was wild, like the wind was so strong.
03:03But it was really incredible the support we got, like through our run in the storm.
03:09We had cars beeping at us.
03:11We had people on the sideline cheering us on.
03:15Like towards the end, it was extremely rainy and windy.
03:18And there was this memory, like will stick with me forever.
03:22And there was this lady in her raincoat like this through the storm, through the rain.
03:27And she was handing out sweets because she knew there would be people still doing the race.
03:31And that was incredible to see.
03:33And that's Portsmouth in a nutshell.
03:35The community and the support that we receive here is unmatched.
Comments