Between April and September 2011 poet, comedian and writer Kate Fox will be the Great North Run Culture Poet in Residence whilst she trains to take part in the 2011 Great North Run. All poems will be posted here on the Great North Run Culture website.

"In common with many writers, the only exercise I usually do involves lifting my pen. I tend to lead a nice warm, sedentary life, writing my poems while drinking a nice cup of tea and performing my poetry in arts centres and on the radio-where there’s more sitting down and tea. I’d describe myself as being like Sylvia Plath but cheerier, and like Pam Ayres but more miserable. Neither of them were renowned for their niftiness in Nikes, but now I’m prepared to embrace the Loneliness of the Long Distance Punner, and train to do the Great North Run. Not only that, but I’ll be reeling off rhymes while I’m running and spouting sonnets while I’m sprinting. I’ll be feeling the burn...and the Burns." Kate Fox

The residency will enable Fox to explore her own physical and mental journey through the months of preparation whilst engaging fellow participants and audiences along the way. She will demonstrate how sport and creativity do not have to be separated but can feed and speak to each other.

Kate will write poems over the course of the residency that will be shared with participants and public via this blog on the Great North Run website and via social media. By encouraging feedback, the poems will become a conversation and engage interest in the idea of the residency.

On April 5 2011 Kate launched her residency at the Great North Run Hall of Fame with the poem You Don't Look Like a Runner.

You Don't Look Like A Runner

You? You couldn't run for a bus
or to the end of our street.
You haven't got the right shoes,
You haven't got the right feet,

You make Jabba the Hutt look graceful,
You just weren't Born to Run,
You couldn't pace set for a snail,
You're more funeral than fun.

You're more gradual than evolution,
Slower than a three toed sloth's brain,
You suffer more delays than
A GNER train.

You are...well you're hefty,
You've got wobbly bits and breasts
And bingo wings and lumps
That weren't designed for vests.

Your only experience of half a Marathon,
Is scoffing a renamed chocolate bar,
If you could you'd get to your kitchen
By driving there in your car.

I reply with all the numbers,
The pounds that I will lose
The pounds that I will make
The calories I will use.

The 50 000 other runners,
The 30 years of history,
The 21 water stations,
The millions raised for charity.

But I don't have to be a mathematician either,
And reach for numbers ever bigger,
To show the impressive shrinkage
In my sweating or my figure.

I don't have to be an athlete,
I don't have to make like Zola Budd,
I don't have to beat a record
In order to feel good.

I just want to feel connected,
To be part of something more,
To train my body and my mind
To reach something they've never reached before.

I still won't look like a runner,
And a runner won't look like me
But when I've done my 13 miles
A Great North Runner is what I'll be.