Garden City Runners got to enjoy the very best the north east can offer with a good contingent heading to the Great North Run.

The now iconic race had courted controversy when it announced a change in the normal route from Newcastle to South Shields through the towns of South Tyneside.

This year's course was an out and back 13.1 miles around Newcastle and Gateshead with two crossings of the Tyne Bridge.

Paul Guy finished in a speedy one hour 21 minutes nine seconds followed by Steve Ellerd-Elliot who smashed his half marathon PB by over a minute, recording 1:28:33.

Ellerd-Elliot said: "It was a great day, everyone involved was so nice and friendly and support around the route was brilliant.

“It was so good to be back at a big event and this must have spurred me on as I finally broke the 1:30 barrier.”

Also representing GCR were Zoe Stephens, running a storming 1:33:47; Paul Marchant, running in 1:37:45, and Sofie Marchant, finishing in 1:52:56.

Nick Atkinson, Mark Caswell, Lisa Makowski and Emma Dempster completed the squad.