The Great Run Company is a United Kingdom events company specialising in the development, design, organisation and rights management of mass participation and televised sporting events. They most notably organise the Great North Run, Great South Run and Great Manchester Run annually. They are formally known as Nova International.
The business is headed up by chief executive Mark Hollinshead, [1] while founder Brendan Foster is the company's chairman.
The Great North Run was the first event in the Great Run stable, in 1981, and pre-dates Nova International and The Great Run Company by seven years.
Former European and Commonwealth champion Brendan Foster was inspired to organise an event in his native North-East England, [2] after taking part in the Round the Bays event in Auckland, New Zealand. [3] The first Great North Run, the original flagship Great Run, was staged in 1981 and has now grown into the world’s greatest half marathon and the UK’s biggest running event with 57,000 runners.
In 1988, Nova International Ltd was established to manage all Great Run assets as well as its own film department FilmNova and its sportswear brand View From.
From its flagship event, the company has grown to consist of a portfolio of events that now extend over multiple days and include not just mass participation events but family activity, with elite competition on the Great CityGames track and associated Great Swim and Great Cycle events.
In 2014 the Great North Run became the first event in the world to be officially recognised by the IAAF for achieving the milestone one millionth finish. [4] The Great North Run millionth celebration, as part of the Great North Run Cultural Programme was a defining moment for the whole programme of events as consumer research showed that over 3 million participants had taken part in Great Run events since the first Great North Run in 1981. [5]
Using this research and working with M&C Saatchi, Nova positioned and started to market Great Run as the World’s Favourite Run. To further reinforce the success of Great Run and the focus on the consumer brand, Nova changed the company name in March 2015 from Nova International to The Great Run Company.
The London Marathon is an annual marathon held in London, England. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it is typically held in April, although it moved to October for 2020, 2021, and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The largely flat course is set around the River Thames, starting in Blackheath and finishing at The Mall. Hugh Brasher is the current race director and Nick Bitel its chief executive.
Sir Brendan Foster is a British former long-distance runner, athletics commentator and road race organiser. He founded the Great North Run, one of the sport's most high profile half-marathon races. As an athlete, he won the bronze medal in the 10,000 metres at the 1976 Summer Olympics and the gold medal in the 5,000 metres at the 1974 European Championships and the 10,000 metres at the 1978 Commonwealth Games. He later provided commentary and analysis on athletics, particularly long-distance events, for BBC Sport.
The Great North Run is the largest half marathon in the world, taking place annually in North East England each September. Participants run between Newcastle upon Tyne and South Shields. The run was devised by former Olympic 10,000 m bronze medallist and BBC Sport commentator Brendan Foster.
Gateshead International Stadium (GIS) is a multi-purpose, all-seater venue in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. Originally known as the Gateshead Youth Stadium, the venue was built in 1955 at a cost of £30,000. It has since been extensively re-developed on three occasions. Its capacity of around 11,800 is the greatest in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, the third-largest in Tyne and Wear, and the sixth-largest in North East England.
Sonova Holding AG is an internationally active Swiss group of companies headquartered in Stäfa that specializes in hearing care. The Sonova group operates through its core business brands Phonak, Unitron, Advanced Bionics, AudioNova and Sennheiser (Licensed). It is one of the largest providers in the sector worldwide. The group and its brands hold 24% of the global hearing aid market in sales. As of 11 September 2022, Sonova was a component of the Swiss Market Index.
AW is a monthly track and field magazine published in the United Kingdom by Athletics Weekly Limited. The magazine covers news, results, fixtures, coaching and product advice for all aspects of track and field, cross-country, road racing and race walking. Between 1950 and 2020, it was called Athletics Weekly and was published weekly.
The Great Bristol Half Marathon is an annual road running event held on the streets of Bristol, UK. The route is at sea level and starts on Anchor Road outside We The Curious. Participants make their way toward Hotwells before heading under the Clifton Suspension Bridge and along the Portway toward Sea Mills before returning the same way then navigating around Cumberland Basin then along Spike Island before crossing Prince Street Bridge, circling Queen Square then heading to Castle Park via St Mary Redcliffe and Temple Circus. The final mile and a half take place in the Old City and Bristol City Centre before crossing the finish line back at Anchor Road.
The Cardiff Half Marathon is an annual half marathon race held in the Welsh capital city of Cardiff, taking place in October. The event was established in 2003, initially alongside the Cardiff Marathon, however, due to the increasing popularity of the Half Marathon, the Marathon distance was dropped after 2006. The race was originally organised by the children’s charity Barnardo’s. Now organised by Run 4 Wales, the race has grown to accommodate up to 27,500 runners.
The Great South Run is an annual 10 mile (16.09 km) road running race which takes place in Portsmouth, United Kingdom providing an intermediate distance between the ten kilometre and the half marathon (21.097 km) runs. Launched in 1990, it is part of the Great Run series created by former British athlete Brendan Foster. It was originally held in Southampton, but the race moved to its current course after the first edition.
Great Run is a series of road running events around the United Kingdom, which includes the Great North Run. Great Run is a part of The Great Run Company, which was launched by retired athlete Brendan Foster. The group specialises in road running events, from a 5k up to a marathon.
The Great North Run Cultural Programme, now known as Great North Run Culture, is an annual series of artistic commissions which celebrate and respond to the Great North Run - the world's largest half-marathon - its history and route, its spirit and recollection, the thousands of journeys and stories of those who take part.
The London 10,000 is an annual road running event over 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) which takes place in late May in London, United Kingdom. Established in 2008, the race goes through the roads of St. James's Park and finishes on the mall by Buckingham Palace. VitalityHealth took over sponsorship in 2016 from the original sponsor BUPA.
The running boom of the 1970s occurred in high- and middle-income countries. It was particularly pronounced in the United States and occurred in other countries including the United Kingdom and other European countries, Australia and New Zealand.
The Great Scottish Run is a series of mass-participation road running events, held annually in the streets of Glasgow, Scotland in October. The event began as a full marathon in 1979, but later changed to a weekend of shorter events. The weekend now includes short events for children, a 10K roadrace, and a half marathon. The 2013 event, which was sponsored by the Bank of Scotland, featured over 30,000 competitors. It is the largest mass-participation sporting event in Scotland.
The Great North 10K, styled as the Simplyhealth Great North 10K for sponsorship purposes, is a 10K road run, which has been called "the North East's biggest 10K running event", with over 5,000 people taking part. It is part of the Great Run series and the number of participants is only outnumbered by the Great North Run. The race in its present format was first staged in Sunderland in 2009 but changed locations to Gateshead for the 2011 event. Prior to 2009, a 10K race had taken place at Roker along the coastline of Sunderland but the event was only open to female competitors; when it changed to permit male participants, it was re-styled as the Great North 10K. In 2013, the date was brought forward to become the official running event partner of the 2013 European Team Championships.
The Birmingham International Marathon was a long-distance running event held in Birmingham, UK. It formed part of the Great Run British Marathon Series. The first event was held on 15 October 2017, the same day as the existing Great Birmingham Run in the city centre. The event was cancelled the following year, with organisers blaming the city's ongoing roadworks.
The Stirling Scottish Marathon, previously named the Great Stirling Run between 2018 and 2019, is a long-distance running event held in Stirling, Scotland. The first event was held on 21 May 2017, with the subsequent event taking place on 29 April 2018 when the event introduced a half marathon alongside the existing marathon. After the race cancellation in 2020, the event reverts to its former name and has been scheduled for 15th of May 2022.
The Big Half is an annual road running event over the half marathon distance (21.1 km), held in central London, United Kingdom. The event, first held in 2018, initially took place in early March, a few weeks before the London Marathon, but after the COVID-19 pandemic switched to dates in late August/early September.
The 2021 London Marathon was the 41st running of the annual London Marathon on 3 October 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the race was postponed from April until October to maximise the chances of a mass participation event.
The 2022 London Marathon was the 42nd running of the annual London Marathon on 2 October 2022. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the race was postponed from April until October to maximise the chances of a mass participation event. The elite men's and women's event were won by Kenyan Amos Kipruto and Ethiopian Yalemzerf Yehualaw respectively. The wheelchair races were won by Swiss athletes Marcel Hug and Catherine Debrunner respectively, both in course record times. Over 40,000 people finished the mass participation event.
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