Mo Farah wins the Great North Run and now can’t wait to start tucking into some sweets
The Olympic gold medallist's wife Tania also took part
MO Farah capped a golden year by winning the Great North Run for the third year in a row - then helped his wife Tania over the line.
The mother of four, who took up running nine months ago, collapsed and was helped by the athletic great.
As he cradled her in his arms she sighed: “I’m dying.”
Farah ended his season, which saw him win two golds at the Olympics in Rio, by romping home in the world’s biggest half marathon, which is backed by The Sun.
He finished 49 minutes before Tania, 30, who was competing in the race for the first time.
Farah, who successfully defended his 5,000m and 10,000m titles in Rio, said he was proud of his wife.
He said: “I think it is amazing for her to run that quick on such a tough course.
“I set up her programme and told her what to do and just tried mentally to help her out. Even this morning she was saying she was really nervous and she was going to be sick.
“I told her to try and chill out but she couldn’t.”
Farah said he was looking forward to a break but joked: “It’s never a holiday when you have four kids, they come first.
“For me, it is going home as they have started school, and being there for them, spending as much time as we can together. I am looking forward to eating sweets and letting go.”
The couple left their children - four-year-old twins Amani and Aisha, Hussein, ten month, and Mo’s stepdaughter Rhianna, 11 - with family at home in Portland, Oregon, so they could compete.
Tania has admitted that she often feels like a single mother as Mo spends months away from home training.
But this time they were racing together.
Tania, 30, who finished in 1 hour 49 minutes, said the final miles of the course had been tough.
She said: “I didn’t know he was there at first. But it was so nice to see him after I gathered myself and the first thing I asked was, 'Did you win?'
“I was feeling an awful lot of pain from mile ten onward and at one point I thought how am I going to get to the finish line? I have got three miles left and I thought I can stop right now.
“I thought, ‘Mo is at the finish line and if he was here right now he would be telling me to push on.' So I kept telling myself to push through.”
But after months of a gruelling fitness regime guided by her husband, the mother of four aimed to celebrate.
She joked. “A burger and chips and some ice cream tonight would be nice.”
Farah, 33, added that his clenched fist salute as he crossed the line was a tribute to local hero, footballer Alan Shearer.
He said: “He is a legend. I thought for the people who came out to support me why not give something back to the crowd. he is one of the greatest players ever so lets do a Shearer celebration.”
He joked: "Love it @Mo_Farah! Apparently they've already built a statue of you to commemorate your hat-trick!”
Lord Coe, President of the IAAF, said the win put Farah up in the pantheon of all-time athletic greats.
He said: “He is there with the greatest. He is definitely the top athlete of the modern era.He has gripped these events for six years.
“He is number one for medals and number one for all the championships he has won.”
The Great North Run has grown into the biggest in the world and 150,000 runners tried to get a place and 57,000 people from 178 nations competed in blazing sunshine on the course that snakes from Newcastle to South Shields.
The Sun backed the event and gave away 3,000 tickets to readers.
The paper has been following two families as they underwent the gruelling challenge.
Sun writer Natasha Harding, 41, who finished the race 3hours 16 mins, said it had been tough.
She said: “My legs are really feeling it but it has been a great experience. I have enjoyed running together as a family and we will certainly be continuing.”
Scott and Charley Annear, both 32, finished together after two hours and and 58 minutes.
Charley said: “That was very very tough. but I got there in the end. Ten miles out I got cramps and that slowed me up.”
A host of celebrities took part in the race including impressionist Jon Culshaw, TV presenter Nell McAndrew and Emmerdale actress Eden Taylor Draper.
Bionic woman Claire Lomas was the first to cross the finish line. Paralysed from the chest down after a riding accident, the 36-year-old set off to walk the course on Wednesday using a special ReWalk suit.
And she had more reason to celebrate as she revealed she was 16 weeks pregnant half way through her marathon effort.
She said: “Training wasn’t the best as I was suffering from morning sickness but it is great to finish. I went over the line first, I never finish first.
“There were times when I thought I wouldn’t make it. It was very tough.”
She walked three miles a day in the ReWalk robotic exoskeleton with the help of her husband Dan and cheered on at the finish line by five-year-old daughter Maisie.
Claire has raised more than £500,000 for the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation since her injury nine years ago.