Brendan Foster hopes his knighthood can be followed next year by a biggest and best ever Great North Run.
The 72-year-old has been recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to international and national sport and culture in north-east England.
Foster enjoyed a distinguished athletics career, including a gold medal at the 1974 European Championships in Rome, before setting up the Great North Run in 1980, the year he retired from racing.
As well as his track success and his work with the Great North Run, Foster is best known to many for his work as a commentator for the BBC, a job he did between 1980 and 2017.
His favourite moment on the track happened close to his north-east roots.
"The one that probably goes down in the folklore is the reopening of the stadium in Gateshead (in 1974) and I set the 3,000 metres world record there," he said.
"I'd promised to do it in a moment of rashness at a civic reception where I said 'If you build the track, I'll break a world record'.
"It was a foolish thing to say, but when you've had a few drinks at a function in December, it's easy to say next August I'll break the world record!"
Reflecting on this latest honour, Foster said: "When I look back, which I've only done in the last few weeks, I think how lucky I've been to spend my life doing something I love and that I've loved since I was a kid, and then The Queen gives me a knighthood for doing it."
