More on TV please

I watched the Great North Run on TV this weekend, and all I could think of was an event miles away from Newcastle, and wish the BBC would extend it's eye, tentacle like, and show us some of the other amazing achievements going on across the country. As I was listening to presenters hyping the efforts of Lee from the Apprentice in the GNR, two of my good friends were slogging away on 26 miles of scenic trails on the Clarendon way marathon, along with 300 other people running their own challenge. This route runs over the gorgeous countryside between Winchester and Salisbury, and would have produced some very picturesque scenes on film, compared to the housing estates around Newcastle and South Shields.

Now I have done the GNR before, and think it is possibly my favourite UK running event. There is something about the crowd and the build-up to the start which creates an electricity and a togetherness I have not felt anywhere else, and I would definitely recommend it to new runners as well as seasoned pavement pounders who think they have done it all. But I wish there was more coverage of the amateur sports events happening up and down the country every weekend. Everyone knows about the London marathon and the GNR, but how exciting would it be to see glimpses of the London to Brighton bike ride, or watch people scrambling through the mud in the Salomon Turbo X? How inspiring to be able to watch 'ordinary' people doing crazy things like the 24 hour track race or the Thames path 50 mile ultra-marathon. Because these things happen every weekend, we just don't get to see them.