Life on the road has proved surprisingly tough for Mo Farah this year: carted off on a wheelchair at the New York half-marathon and given a cuffing in his first attempt at the marathon in London. So there was understandable pride – and relief – as he fended off his friend and sometime training partner Mike Kigen to become the first British man since Steve Kenyon in 1985 to win the Great North Run.

Farah’s time – exactly an hour, the same as Kigen, who nearly caught him after he attempted a Mobot just before the line – was a personal best by 10 seconds. But it came after a long-play struggle over the 13.1 mile route with Kigen, who on several occasions appeared to be drifting 10 or 20 metres clear only for Farah to drag him back. And it was also not without controversy. A mile from the end, both athletes – who are represented by Pace management – chatted to each other before Farah went clear, leading some to speculate that Kigen had deliberately given way. The Kenyan, however, emphatically denied such suggestions. “I was slowing because I was feeling tired,” he said. “That’s why Mo won the race.”

Farah confirmed they were talking about needing to speed up over the last mile to dip under the one-hour mark. “He was saying, ‘let’s go, let’s go’,” said Farah. “But I wanted to have something left in the end. The aim was to win the race rather than run a fast time.”

“Mike’s a great athlete and he just kept pushing and pushing so I was thinking ‘just hang in, just hang in’ so I could create more speed,” Farah said. “Once we had dropped everybody I was thinking ‘it’s just me and you’ but he wanted to run faster and just put his foot down and kept pushing and pushing. There were a couple of times when I was thinking ‘four more miles, three more miles, two more miles’ but I just had to dig in.”

Before the race Farah’s main challengers were expected to be Stephen Kiprotich, the Olympic and World marathon champion, and the Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist Tariku Bekele. But both men were blasted off the back in a blistering opening four miles which left just three men up front – Farah, Kigen and the Ugandan Thomas Ayegu. But Ayegu dropped off at halfway to leave Farah and Kigen duking it out. Kigen kept the pace up from seven to 10 miles, to his friend’s evident discomfort, but perhaps lacked the confidence to apply the squeeze.

Farah, meanwhile, heads for his holidays a contented man after winning two European gold medals and setting two personal bests, in the two miles in Birmingham last month and now here. “If you have asked me six weeks ago I wouldn’t have thought I’d have done all that,” he conceded. “I’ve learned you can push your body and do more. It’s great to finish the season with a win and a good time. I’ve learned a lot this year and it has been up and down. But now I want to take a break and relax and get ready for the world championships next year.”

In the women’s race, the impressive Kenyan Mary Keitany slipped under Paula Radcliffe’s 11-year-old course record by a second to win in 1:05:39, while Britain’s Gemma Steel showcased her potential by finishing second in 1:08:13 – a personal best by over two minutes.

The 28-year-old Steel is a late developer, who started training seriously only three years ago. The results have been impressive as she has run a series of fast 10km times on the road all summer. This was another step up.

“I felt really comfortable for the first 10 miles, then I picked it up a bit,” said Steel. “When I found out Mary broke the course record I was glad I didn’t go with her. I ran a tactical race and stayed in contention – I didn’t do anything silly. I have definitely got it in me to do the marathon and this race has helped my confidence a lot.”

Keitany – who is unbeaten in nine half-marathon races and holds the second-fastest marathon time in history – was asked if she was gunning for Radcliffe’s world marathon record. But she laughed and said: “I don’t know.”

After her hard-running performance here, and another personal best, such suggestions no longer appear to be quite so fanciful.