The Great North Run route, printed
The 2025 course, 21.1 km, from Newcastle upon Tyne.
- Styles
- 19 colourwaysto choose from
- 300 DPIsharp at every size
- Price
- From £24.95delivered free
- Paper
- 240 gsmsmooth fine-art paper
The 2025 course is already drawn on the map, with the distance beneath it. Add your name and your finishing time, choose a style, and preview the finished artwork before you buy. Prices from £24.95, and delivery is free.
Brendan Foster's run from Newcastle to the sea at South Shields began in 1981 as a local fun run and grew into the largest half marathon in the world.
The first Great North Run, on 28 June 1981, came out of a trip Brendan Foster made to New Zealand's Round the Bays race. The Olympic bronze medallist came home, planned a Tyneside version with four Gateshead Harriers club mates, and around 12,000 people turned up to something advertised as a local fun run. In 2014 Tracey Cramond, raising money for Butterwick Hospices, became its millionth finisher, and Guinness World Records later named it the largest half marathon in the world on the strength of that year's 41,615 finishers. Mo Farah won the men's race every year from 2014 to 2019.
The start is on the A167 by the Town Moor, and the first mile is quick and slightly downhill along the central motorway before the field funnels onto the Tyne Bridge. The noise there bounces off the steelwork, and in some years the Red Arrows have flown over as the runners cross. On the Gateshead side comes the first real rise, then the long dual carriageway of the Felling Bypass heading east. The crowds are thinner here, families on garden walls rather than grandstands, as the race settles towards Jarrow and turns onto John Reid Road, which carries it through to South Shields.
Most finishers remember the end. A rise between eleven and twelve miles takes what is left in the legs, and then the road tips sharply down to the coast at Marsden, where most people get their first look at the North Sea, and turns north. The last mile is flat along the seafront to the finish on the Leas, with grandstands along the barriers and the sea alongside. Because the race goes one way only, from city to coast, the course on a map is a single line with the Tyne crossed once near its start.
Questions
Where are the hills on this course?
There are two that matter: the climb out of Gateshead around two miles, just after the Tyne Bridge, and a rise between eleven and twelve miles before the drop to the sea. Neither is long, but the second comes when legs are tired.
Has the race always finished in South Shields?
The traditional finish is on the seafront in South Shields, as in this 2025 course. In 2021, the year after the race was cancelled because of the pandemic, it used a different route and finished back in Newcastle, before returning to the coast in 2022.
Can I add my finishing time?
Yes. The title and the line beneath it are yours to write, so your name, your finishing time and your club all fit. The 2025 course and its distance are drawn for you, and you see the finished artwork before you buy.
Is this an official Great North Run print?
No. Maps & Son is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the organisers of the Great North Run; the name says which course is mapped. The course is drawn from a route file we use with permission.
Can I change the map?
Yes. The designer opens with the course drawn and the map framed around it. Move the map if you like, choose from 19 styles, and preview the finished artwork before you buy.
How much does a race route print cost?
Prints start at £24.95, printed on 240 gsm smooth fine-art paper, with delivery included to the UK and 25 other countries. Sold as A4, A3, A2 or A1 prints, unframed, at standard sizes so a ready-made frame will fit.
Other courses
Maps & Son is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the organisers of the Great North Run. The course is drawn from a route file we use with permission. For the race itself, see the organisers' website.