Ben Cook celebrates running the length of the Tyne and Wear Metro. Video courtesy of Nexus
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00:00 How are you feeling after completing your Metro Marathon?
00:02 I'm absolutely knackered to be honest.
00:04 Just done 36 miles today, 27 yesterday, so over 100km.
00:08 Over the two days I'm ready for a lie down now.
00:11 Morning, just set off from South Hilton, 7 o'clock right now.
00:17 27 miles to go.
00:20 To Sunderland, South Tyneside, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, all the way up to the airport.
00:30 First Metro station down, well technically second if you're counting South Hilton.
00:35 Up these steps, there's 31 stations on this route.
00:40 Number 4, nice and early, there's nobody really around.
00:48 God, there's so many steps though.
00:51 Good luck against Coventry today boys, or whether lads.
00:56 First little bit of off-road here.
00:58 I'm just in between Severn and East Bolan.
01:04 [heavy breathing]
01:32 I'm as quick as I entered the seas at the moment.
01:36 18 miles in, but 9 miles left.
01:42 On the home straight now.
01:44 Second from last station, onto the airport now.
01:49 Right, gotta go right.
01:51 Almost finished, I have to run through the terminal first to get to the train station.
02:00 I'll wait till I get to the station doors and I'll jog down.
02:03 I'm not running through an airport.
02:08 Finished!
02:25 Good morning guys, it's 6 o'clock, just left South Shields.
02:30 Ready to get tackled on the next 36 miles.
02:33 Let's go.
02:35 So I'm just running up towards Fallon right now.
02:51 Which means I've completed the section between South Shields and Royal Fallon.
02:58 Which is a section I was probably the most unfamiliar with.
03:01 So now I'm on the same route I was on yesterday until I get to South Gosseth.
03:09 And then from there I'll be heading east rather than west.
03:13 Around a big loop around the coast and then back to St James' Park.
03:18 I'll catch up with you as I'm heading through the city centre.
03:21 Just coming up towards the coast now, wrong seat I think is the next station.
03:26 And I just ran through a bit of a swamp there.
03:30 This route's taken me on some bizarre places that's for sure.
03:35 But yeah, about 14 miles left.
03:37 Feeling really, really good.
03:47 Just running across Baker Bridge now.
03:49 Got about a mile and a half left.
03:51 Well on time as well.
03:54 I'm going to finish in about 6 and a half hours.
03:57 Can't wait.
03:59 I'm absolutely knackered.
04:15 Yay!
04:17 6 and a half hours.
04:22 Really, really hard.
04:25 I'm so glad to be done.
04:27 What was the hardest bit about this challenge?
04:39 God, this morning by far.
04:42 I didn't want to get out of bed at 4 o'clock this morning, never mind put on my running shoes.
04:46 So I think when I set off at South Shales, the first 10 miles was a bit of a slog to get myself going.
04:50 But once I got into it, it was fine.
04:53 But yeah, this morning was definitely the hardest part.
04:55 What kept you going all the way through?
04:57 Having my friends from the Heat and Harriers joining me at about mile 15.
05:01 They've came round on their bikes for about 15 to 20 miles.
05:04 So having a bit of company and somebody to talk to, that definitely helped.
05:07 But just knowing that I had everyone behind me supporting, that kind of pushed me on as well.
05:12 And it's also for a very worthy cause of charity.
05:15 Do you want to just talk about how much you're raising?
05:17 Yeah, so the running charity, I had a target of £1,000.
05:20 I think we're close to £1,500 now.
05:22 We'd hit that target before I even started yesterday.
05:24 So I can't thank everybody enough who's donated so far.
05:27 Let's hope we can maybe get it to £2,000.
05:29 And what's the plan now you've finished? A rest?
05:31 I'm going to go home, have a bath, have a lie down, then we're going for a curry tonight.
05:34 Excellent.