Running Report

The Great Northwest Half Marathon (25-Feb-07)
 

JJ - 3 hour 5 min 
Guest 5 - 3 hour 5 min 
 

A nice weekend away in Blackpool for Guest 5's very first half marathon started rather excitingly for me as I began a little race of my own as the visiting Millwall fans went on a minor rampage around Bloomfield Road and I had to "get a wriggle on" to avoid getting caught up in it. Excitement over, we settled into our rather plush hotel and watched the rugger. After that debacle, we headed off to fuel up on pasta, the waitress giving me a very strange look when I asked for two main courses! Full of carbo-goodness, we headed back to the hotel bar for some softs, only to find that the hotel was having a pub quiz. Challenge indeed! An hour or so later, we were the proud owners of a nice bottle of Heinrich champagne, which we promptly packed away and used the ice bucket to ice Guest 5's back!!

On the day, it was a fairly coldish start with a little drizzle which thankfully stopped just before the start. The wind had put pay to my wearing a "kiss me quick" hat the whole way round, so it would have to wait till the end. It was a bit of a melee as everyone was approaching the start line the wrong way, but we ended up somewhere reasonably near the front and with over 1000 other runners set off and headed off along the seafront. Its a nice flat run with two repetitions of a run out to a turning point and back again. Even as we were overtaken by pretty much everyone, we were buoyed by fellow runners chatting away and enthused by the people who recognised us as Marathon Drinkers; word is really starting to spread!

We had done the first turn and were halfway back to the pier before the leader came zooming past us on his second lap. Guest 5 considered a sprint to try and catch up, but his half-marathon pace was approximately the same as my 400m pace, so it wasn't really a goer! We looped back past the cheering fans, and headed out for the lonely second lap. Waiting for us at the last water stop were the local scout group who had braved the cold to stay out till the bitter end (i.e. us) to provide some water, which was actually well needed and much appreciated - thanks lads.

We picked up pace in the last 2 miles and started to catch up some other tail enders, giving Guest 5 a much needed morale boost, and we got our just rewards as we picked up our medals, donned our hats and headed off for a massive pile of fish and chips!

A good race to which MD will return in a more competitive mood next time. Next up for the legends, Hastings Half Marathon, whilst Guest 5 takes a break from training to win Crufts (come on Reggie and Rosie!!!).

Team MD victorious at the pub quiz!

  
JJ, Guest 5 and Ruby enjoy the sights of Blackpool

    
1st and 2nd laps ... spot the difference

Oooh Sailor!!

A well deserved after race feed!

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