Meet the Jarrow man taking on the Great North Run in a 25kg suit of medieval armour
A Jarrow man is set to take on the Great North Run will donning a full suit of armour.
James Lovatt, from Jarrow, has pledged to take on the Great North Run while wearing a full suit of medieval armour as he looks to raise funds for the Newcastle Castle - where he works and volunteers.
The 31-year-old is aiming to raise £5,000, which will go towards making the 846-year-old building more accessible for those with vision and mobility issues.
In order to keep the challenge interesting, he has set fundraising milestones which means that the more money raised, the more armour he has to wear.
If his full £5,000 target is achieved, James will be taking on the Great North Run on Sunday, September 8, while wearing 25kg worth of armour.
James, who used to be a member of Jarrow and Hebburn Athletics Club, has given an insight into where the idea to run the Great North Run in a full suit of armour came from.
He said: “I used to run the 100m when I was younger so taking on something like the Great North Run is just an entirely different challenge in itself for me.
“I’ve been at the Newcastle Castle since 2019 and as it is ran by a charity, I made a suggestion that I could do the Great North Run in some sort of medieval costume and then a colleague said that I do in while in a full suit of armour.
“I thought it was a stupid idea at first but the more I talked about it, the more people got behind me and supported me to do it.
“Training is going well so far and I’ve had a few practice runs while wearing some of the chainmail that we have.
“It is actually quite comfortable to wear in a weird way but it has made me think about how difficult it would have been for people wearing this to ride a horse or fight in around 800 years ago.
“We’ve got a few trials wearing the full suit of armour coming up but it isn’t really the weight that is bothering me, it is more so the temperature so hopefully race day will be nice and cool.
“My wife is a registered nurse and thankfully she will be running the full way with me so we’re covering in the unlikely event that anything goes wrong.”
James has also explained to the Shields Gazette how the money raised will go towards helping make the Newcastle Castle more accessible for customers.
He added: “When the Newcastle Castle was built more than 800 years ago, obviously accessibility wasn’t something that was given any thought.
“But it is such an impressive building and part of our heritage here in the North East that we want to make sure that everyone can come along and enjoy it.
“At the moment, the upper levels of the site is only accessible by stairs and we might still end up being limited by what we can change given the nature of the building.
“However, we are exploring the idea of having a virtual tour of the entire Castle on the ground floor with 3D models available or broadcasting a live feed from the top of the keep so that everyone can see the views.
“It is something that we want to share with everyone and hopefully the money raised from this will go somewhat of the way to helping that goal be achieved.”
You can view and donate to James by visiting: https://ajbellgreatnorthrun2024.enthuse.com/pf/newcastle-castle.