Thankfully this year they had a more sensible start time of 9am whereas last year it started 8am, which was way too early!
I set my alarm for 6am and felt exhausted when it went off and I was not really in the right frame of mind to get up and run a Half Marathon!
After a busy week at work I would have liked a lie in!
The day before I had to get up early to swim in The Great North Swim and I had stupidly booked this Half Marathon for the day after not realising it was all in the same weekend! At the time I decided it was good Triathlon training to push my body to its limits 2 days in a row, now I was regretting this decision!
I am nowhere near as "run fit" this year as I was last year so I wasn't expecting great things! Last year I had just completed a marathon a few weeks before, but this year I am in the midst of Triathlon Training with not enough time to concentrate on running, which has severely affected my performances! Jack of all trades Master of none!
I dragged my weary body out of bed and forced down some porridge and had a sip of coffee. I dressed in my cropped tights and vest and attached my race number.
I was hoping the weather in Liverpool was fine, but I had taken some different clothes with me just in case!
We left our home in Kendal at 6.45am to travel the 80 miles to Liverpool arriving around 8.15am.
By the time we had walked from where we parked the car to the race Head Quarters, had a quick look around and queued for the toilets in The Echo Arena it was time to head to the race start on the Liverpool Docks! Thankfully It was a cool but dry morning, and I felt suitable attired in my vest top despite the fact other people seemed to be well wrapped up! I hate feeling too hot when I am running!
After stripping off my outer clothes I got into my correct starting wave pen which was 1:45 to 2 hour wave and positioned myself in the middle. Last year I had got a Half Marathon PB finishing in 1:48:52 but I knew with doing the Great North Swim the day before my body was too tired to do this again, and I decided I would be happy with a Sub 2 hour finish!
Thankfully I didn't have to wait long before the short aerobic type warm-up started, then there was a count down and we were soon on our way!
The start of the route meandered through the city.
It took us past the Liver Building, The Cavern Club and Eleanor Rigby.
We then worked our way along the course taking in views of the cathedrals. There were various band en route to entertain us, some more entertaining than others!
The route then moved along through three parks - Princes park, Sefton park and Otterspool Park and then we turned onto the prom for the last 4 miles with a more than slight wind in our faces - ughhhhhh. The prom stretch was soul destroying. Very few people cheering us on when we needed it most, boring with nothing of note to look at and the awful headwind to endure!
My legs were slowly objecting and my lack of running fitness was beginning to show!
I was delighted when I was finally on the final straight but was so tired I could not put much effort into a sprint finish, I was just concentrating on getting over the finish line!
Despite being exhausted I was pleased with my 1:55:50 chip time, which was way inside my sub 2 hour goal! You can view my race here!
The great thing about this race is the Bling, the T Shirt and the FREE beer afterwards! I actually got 2 fantastic medals because I had run the same race the year before!!
I will definitely return to do this race again next year - even though I hated the promenade section of the run!
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