FUN runners and more serious athletes are under starter's orders for the 22nd year of the Great North Run.

Eight months before this year's mass half-marathon, 25,000 people who took part in the 21st event last year have already indicated they plan to be back on the starting line, on the Central Motorway in Newcastle, for the 2002 run.

That leaves only 22,000 places up for grabs to make up the permitted field of 47,000 for the annual pilgrimage from Newcastle to South Shields, on Sunday, October 6.

Matthew Turnbull, marketing manager for organiser Nova International, said the message is simple: "Get your entries in ASAP."

"Everyone who took part last year is given priority entry and 25,000 took the chance, so now this year's entry forms are out I would urge anyone thinking of taking part not to hesitate and get it sent in.

"It's first come, first served, and more and more people seem to want to take part in what is Britain's biggest mass participation event, and the biggest half-marathon in the world."

Entrants are now turning up better prepared than ever, with 36,000 crossing the finishing line, on The Leas in South Shields, last year.

"The shortfall between the number of entrants to the number of finishers is purely down to the numbers dropping out through illness, injury, marriage, divorce, or whatever," said Mr Turnbull.

"Just about everyone who sets off these days tends to make it over the finishing line, eventually."

More than half-a-million people have now completed the run since Mike McLeod went through the tape at the end of the first run, in 1981, raising about £8m per year in the process, for charities and good causes.

The course record remains the 60 mins and 2 seconds set by four-times winner, Benson Masya, from Kenya, in 1994.

This year's event, the tenth sponsored by Bupa, will as usual feature an eve-of-race pasta party on The Leas, at South Shields.