A walk in the park.

Well, actually three parks. Princes, Sefton and Otterpool. With a fair bit of road to connect them up. And it wasn’t actually a walk. A run really. After all, that’s the point of running a half marathon isn’t it?

The first event of my running season today, The Liverpool  ½ Marathon. 13.1 miles, starting and finishing near Albert Dock on the waterfront, out through the city taking in the parks to the SE, then 3½ miles back along the promenade above the Mersey.

What a spectacular start and finish line…

After early rain it’s been a lovely day, mild in the sun, but cool enough to make for good running conditions. Not that it made much difference to me. After very hit-and-miss training over the last few months due to bits conking out, I only intended to get round the course. As it was I crossed the line in 1:54, averaging 8:42 per mile. A minute a mile slower than my best, but a satisfactory result, all things considered. 2634 beat me, but that means that at least 4365 were still behind…

I was OK till mile 11, when my lack of longer training runs let me down and I ran out of steam.  The last mile was also increasingly painful as the strain to my right Plantar Fascia started to make itself felt.

Still, I can work on that over the next week, then I’ll kick off my training for the Great Manchester Run, a 10k in May. Always an enjoyable one, that.

We take the boat up into Manchester for that one, mooring in Castlefields. So we’ve a bit of time to kill up here in the NW. We’ll maybe drop down onto the Weaver again for a week or so (till my knees stop aching!), then “do” the Cheshire Ring, down to Kidsgrove, up the Maccie and the Lower Peak Forest, then the Ashton and Rochdale 9 into town. A training run in itself, with all those locks…

This week I’ll be setting up my Justgiving page for donations to Macmillan Cancer Support. I’m running the Great North Run in September for them again. I’ll put in a link on the right, so keep a look out for it, please.

Locks 0, miles 0