REGARDING the report on the Great North Run (Evening Press, Thursday, December 2), I have run in this event for the past 18 years and find the charges for next year's event a disgrace.

The first time I ran the Great North Run the entry fee was £5. By comparison, the London Marathon was £8.

Next year, the Great North Run will cost me £64 to enter and the London Marathon will be £23.

David Hart, the marketing director for the Great North Run, claims that the increase in entry fees is due to the introduction of "chip timing" yet this has been used in the London Marathon for several years without a major impact on entry fees.

I ran the Liverpool half-marathon in October this year and chip timing was used at this event yet the entry fee was only £15.50. Is this just another way for the 'fat cats' to get even fatter?

I have sent my entry form back along with the £64 but only because I want to keep on taking part in this great event and why should the charities I help by doing so suffer?

I realise that £30 of this fee enables me to take part over the next three years but I dread to think what it is going to cost me after that.

A B Heppell,

Newbury Avenue,

Acomb,

York

Updated: 09:19 Saturday, December 18, 2004