15 Top Moments From Running A Half Marathon Dressed In A Yeti Costume

Jon Green is six foot seven tall.  Add on a Yeti Costume and he’s hard to miss – even amongst a throng of costumed people raring to go at the start line of the 2016 Great North Run in Newcastle-upon-Tyne!  He ran to raise money for us – here’s how it went:

Why the Great North Run:
It’s the biggest, best, friendliest, noisiest, funniest, hilliest, brilliantest race in the world!

Why Make-A-Wish?

The company I work for, Brammer UK, give regularly to Make-A-Wish so we often hear about the great work! I tried to keep a line I read on the website – “a child’s life shouldn’t be about illness, hospitals and diagnosis – it should be about wonder, joy and hope” – in mind when designing and building my massive 8 foot costume, becoming literally larger than life.

Why a Yeti Costume?!

I’m already 6’7 and ran last year as a 7 foot Beast with Colin “Big Pink Dress” Plews. This year I wanted to go bigger and better, I aimed at being 8 foot but it took a work colleague to suggest a Yeti. My colleague Nikki Powell keeps telling me I remind her of the Abominable Snowman from Monsters Inc.

15 highlights and challenges from the weekend:

1. Raising £390 for Make-A-Wish and all the money raised for all charities on the day
2. Spending 25 hours over three months building the costume
3. Enduring a claustrophobic train/metro journey to the start line
4. Walking with the crowds of runners to the start (goosebumps)
5. Whacking my head on a tree at the start sending hundreds of other runners into hysterics
6. Packing the big blue Yeti costume onto the motorbike for a five hour 200 mile plus journey up to Newcastle from Cannock with some very funny looks, points and waves from motorists and pedestrians
7. Running the whole way with my great mate Jen Stevens, a singer/songwriter from South Shields, who ran in memory of her mum for Sue Ryder while riding a Unicorn!
8. Shouting the famous Oggy Oggy Oggy under all the bridges and flyovers
9. Talking our way into the celebrity area and seeing Ricky Wilson (Kaiser Chiefs), John Culshaw (impressionist/comedian) and Terry Deary
10. Doing interviews with local, regional and national TV, radio and newspapers including the BBC
11. Singing with Elvis at mile 11
12. High fiving thousands of people, doing countless photos and selfies - generally causing 13.1 miles of mayhem!
13. The sheer noise along the way, the crowds are the best in the world
14. Baking hot sun turning my Yeti head into a pressure cooker
15. Heading to the pub for a few pints, karaoke, cheesy chips and bed
16. Finishing in 4 hours 15 minutes, narrowly missing the sweeper trucks due to all the talking, high fives, interviews and a quick pint outside the Lakeside Pub otherwise we would have beaten Mo Farrah and ruined his record (hehehe!)

Choose Your Challenge for us this year - run, cycle or push yourself out of your comfort zone with an extreme challenge!

Whatever you choose - you'll be making a huge differrence to the lives of seriously ill children.