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:
- Raising £390 for Make-A-Wish and all the money raised for all charities on the day
- Spending 25 hours over three months building the costume
- Enduring a claustrophobic train/metro journey to the start line
- Walking with the crowds of runners to the start (goosebumps)
- Whacking my head on a tree at the start sending hundreds of other runners into hysterics
- 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
- 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!
- Shouting the famous Oggy Oggy Oggy under all the bridges and flyovers
- Talking our way into the celebrity area and seeing Ricky Wilson (Kaiser Chiefs), John Culshaw (impressionist/comedian) and Terry Deary
- Doing interviews with local, regional and national TV, radio and newspapers including the BBC
- Singing with Elvis at mile 11
- High fiving thousands of people, doing countless photos and selfies - generally causing 13.1 miles of mayhem!
- The sheer noise along the way, the crowds are the best in the world
- Baking hot sun turning my Yeti head into a pressure cooker
- Heading to the pub for a few pints, karaoke, cheesy chips and bed
- 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.