On the move again…. In shorts!

That’s it, we’re on the move again with a definite objective in mind. But first we had the minor matter of a half-marathon to attend to.

After a week of pretty grim wet and windy weather, Sunday dawned fine, dry and still. We were off as the birds woke up and threw their duvets off, and arrived at Albert Dock in Liverpool in plenty of time for me to have a walk around before the race.

Albert Dock, with the Liver building in the distance and the new Museum of Liverpool nearer to the left.

The view across the Mersey from the start line….
And the start/finish line itself.
The “Mizuno” inflatable arch developed a leak later. It rather spoiled the drama of finishing, running under the sagging tube with a guy manfully holding it up for us…

The course this year was a vast improvement on the previous route. The last 3 miles or so were along the Otterspool Promenade, Atlantic Way and Kings Parade, right alongside the river. I’m glad the wind and rain had cleared off, it would have been a pretty bleak last 25 minutes otherwise! As it was it was really enjoyable. I didn’t make the time I wanted, though it was another PB, by all of 17 seconds! Can’t blame the course, more the fact that my training was a little patchy over the last 3 weeks. Still at 1:40:10 I was quite pleased, and the results show that I was 31st in my age group. (Don’t know how many were in the group though. Maybe only 32?) And 748th overall. That’s out of around 3500.

During the race Mags was fascinated by the amphibious tour buses taking visitors around the docks.
Oddly the new moorings for narrowboats at the end of the new link in Salthouse Dock were completely empty. I was under the impression that there was a waiting list for boats to travel down from the end of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal….. Maybe the opening ceremony in the news last week was not for the general public?

That’s where we’ll be this time next year.

We left Liverpool and headed up to North Yorkshire to spend the night with Mags son and daughter in law. I was tempted by an offer of a walk up Ingleborough again, but was feeling a bit stiff. So Meg and I had a gentle amble around Storrs Common, an area of high ground above Ingleton.

The River Doe with Twisleton Scar End behind.

Panorama looking north.
Mags had a doctors appointment for a check up in the morning (all’s well as expected) and then we had a quick visit with friends Val and John before hitting the road back to Cheshire and the boat.

After taking the car (we had a Honda Civic this time; a bit quirky but an enjoyable drive) back this morning to Enterprise at Crewe we filled and emptied tanks as required before bidding our farewells to Swanley Bridge Marina. Our stays over the last 3 weekends have been good, the people here are pleasant and helpful. But we wouldn’t want to be in any marina for any length of time. Boats are made for cruising, after all.

Leaving the marinaWe didn’t go so far, just 20 minutes to the SUCS mooring near Bridge 3. We’ll have a good day tomorrow, heading north for our postponed visit to Ellesmere Port and the Boat Museum.

Hope the weather stays good, I’ve broken out my shorts for the first time this year (not including the running bit, of course) and I don’t like to have to put them away again…

Locks 0, miles 1

PS
I'm sure, like me, there's a lot of blog readers out there missing their fix from Sue and Vic's No Problem. She's set up a temporary blog for the time being, here. I've changed the address in my link list, too.