Ran the Helsby (4 Villages) Half Marathon last Sunday, and what a beautiful run it was. Mike Thursk and I travelled on the Sunday morning for a 11am start. Thankfully the weather was perfect, cold, (but above freezing, yayy !) and clear and set for a fast time. The course was relatively flat with, we were told, a big hill from about mile 9-11 then a lovely down hill to the finish.
The pre race organisation was first class, from the free park and ride bus service from the local services (about 1 mile from the race), to the race chip which was connected to your number as opposed to being attached to your shoe.
The slight complaint was the start. This wasn’t the organiser’s fault as health and safety (the 3 most scary words in the English language) had ordered them to move the start further back. This meant that there was a big bottle neck for the first 300 yards of the course, which meant that my 1st mile was over 8 minutes. Still this wasn’t a problem if I’d wanted to avoid that I’d have pushed myself nearer the front. I didn’t as I was too busy chatting to friends !
As I said, the race itself was great, picture postcard, great support along the way, and very fast. Thanks to all the hill training we’ve been doing, the “undulating” nature of the run caused no problems and the last 2 miles down hill was great. Frustratingly I missed out on a PB by 3 seconds, clocking in with a 1.37.06.
Had it not been for the start, I’d have beaten my Conwy time. But to be honest, I’m not bothered, had a good run, felt fine and really enjoyed a nice day. Once again though, my picture looks like I’m just about to lay an egg. , compared with Mike.
The race also featured an unusual world record Personal trainer and ex-marine Lee Riley is chasing the world record at London for running the marathon with a 40lb rucsac. He showed the form he’s in by posting a world-beating time of 1h41, knocking over 2 minutes from the previous best.
Now anyone who undertakes a challenge like this is a bit of a nutter, looking at this lad’s website (a bit of which I’ve copied and paced below) show what this lad is about.
Not afraid of difficult terrains and conditions, Lee set himself a personal challenge of a solo cross country 150 mile run, carrying a 30lb pack along the English Heritage coastline and Hadrians' wall - from Ravensglass (Cumbrian Coast) via Bowness-on-Solway to Wallsend (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) in aid of the British Heart Foundation, a charity close to Lee. Lee completed this in 5 days running on average 10 hours per day.
Military Career
Lee served 10 years in the armed forces 7 years of which were spent in the Royal Marine Commando's. He trained extensively with the S.A.S (Special Air Service), S.B.S (Special Boat Service) and Parachute Regiment where he earned his parachute wings and was also awarded the physical training medal for best recruit in 2001. As a professional soldier he specialized in arctic survival and arctic mountain warfare, serving three tours in Northern Norway.
Blooming flipping heck
I passed him at around 10 miles, and gave an encouraging tap on the back and wished him luck. The great thing about running is the support all the people who ran past him gave him What a star.
My new Mizunos had been rubbing the balls of my feet for the last couple of times I wore them. So I took them back to Sweatshop to take them up on their 30 day take back guarantee, good as gold they honoured it and replaced them. Got chatting to the lad who swapped tin the shop who seemed very impressed with my time and complimented me on the improvements I’ve been achieving. It was only after about 10 minutes that he said he’d also taken part...and finished 3rd in around 1 hour 5 or 6. Gulp.
I managed 20 miles (or just over) in about 2 hours 58. Reason It's a bit vague is that I stopped for a pee at around 14 miles , stopping the watch, and forgot to start it again. Even more daft than that is that for the next 10 minutes I kept looking at my garmin thinking "bloody hell I'm still stuck on 13.7" Took at least 15 minutes for me to realise that my pace wasn’t that slow and started the watch again ! Really annoyed with myself as I’d have liked to have seen exactly what time I had. I do know that it was at least 20 though as it was an “out and back” course down a trailish type run, with 2 nasty hills at the end.
First time I’d listened to Marathon Talk on my IPOD whilst running, fantastic. Only on episode 4, but Tony’s Trials are superb (love the fact he keeps bigging up my club Stockport Harriers) telling us how he had wanted to lose weight for last year’s London marathon but having run two 70 plus weeks had put on a ½ pound….He then said that he’d had at least 8 pints, a pizza and a curry during The Manc Derby. Also Martin Yelling was trying to help this lady lose weight but she was obsessed with cheese. He gave her a choice to lose weight or choose cheese…..She chose cheese.
Great stuff. Certainly made the miles tick away, did get some strange looks from people passing as a chortled away to myself.
Another good tip they gave re gel packs is to take them after certain miles (7,14,20) as opposed to time (I used to take them after 45, 90 minutes etc) Certainly helped today and gave you something to aim for.
Miles for week 31.83
Miles for month 162.26 (27/12/10-30/01/11)
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