VETERAN Ledbury runner Terry White plans to retire from the Great North Run after next year, by which time he will be a sprightly 90.

But having successfully completed the Great North run last Sunday (September 13), in a highly creditable time of 3 hours, 58 minutes and 35 seconds, Mr White has his sights set firmly on the Hereford 10k race next May, because he says he was "born to run".

Mr White, of Bank Crescent, is a former England International who, only now, is thinking of hanging up his jogging shoes: at least when it comes to the longer competitive races .

But even if next year's Great North Run will be his competitive swan song, he still plans to clock up 20 miles a week, pounding the lanes near Wellington Heath and Coddington.

Mr White said: "I think the need to run is in you, right from the start. You are born to run.

"It's my 90th birthday next year, and I shall make next year's Great North Run my last one. But I shall still be out training, around the hills."

As a young man at the London Polytechnic, Mr White managed a marathon in 2 hrs 30 mins, and he won a 20-mile international race in Southern Ireland, coming in at 1 hr 52 mins.

He took up running again at the age of 69, following the example of his sons, who used to run around Ledbury bypass when they visited their parents.

This year, Mr White tackled the Great North run alongside his grandson, Jack, aged 18.

It was very much a family occasion.

Jack said: "My Grampy ran the Great North Run for the 19th time and I accompanied him this year for the first time. My Dad, Jeremy, the son of Terry, aged 49, completed the race in 1h 50m 57s. My own time was, of course, the same as my Grampy.

"He was the Great North Run's fifth oldest runner this year."

Mr White said: "It was a bit gruelling for me at 89. It's relative to age, the time. When I was 74, I could do the Great North Run in two hours."

The Great North Run is a half-marathon, of 13.1 miles, from Newcastle to South Shields.