Liverpool Santa Dash 2013

I was in amongst this lot somewhere!

Post race shot with medal and full attire!

Race summary from endomondo.

Wirral Half Marathon 2013

The Route

The Wirral half marathon! The Inaugural race organised by the folks at the superb BTRLiverpool. If anyone can arrange and event of first class quality, BTRLiverpool are it.

On race day I got up at 7am to ensure I had enough time to have breakfast which consisted of oats porridge and a mug of coffee. I also ate a lovely home baked flapjack by Frances which tastes ten times better than the ones you buy from the supermarket.

Parked my car at Wallasey Grove Road to catch the 8:27am train to Birkenhead Park. Walked across to the starting area in the park, dropped off my bag with warm clothes to one of the Buses. They provide transportation of your bags from start to finish line as this was a point to point race. Race starts at 9:30am.

From Birkenhead Park the 10K and half marathon shared the same start and course until we got to New Brighton. From then on the 10K race veers off to the left to the finish line. The half marathon continues on for another 6miles!! 

My race number! This was not made from cheap paper/card like others that will simply melt away in the rain. The timing chip was found glued to the back of the number, unlike others that you need to tie to your shoe! I have heard stories of lost chips, timing chips not working but not from these guys. Timing was done by TDL.

Post race shot with medal, free water, technical T and a PB! What a fine day! The weather was horrid, with wind and rain plus the route took us onto the sandy beach!

My race tracked on Endomondo, was fortunate that GPS signals were strong throughout!

My official time! A PB!! 01:46:20!! Five minutes off my last half marathon time.

Here are some more photos of the race from the day.

Start of race (10K and Half Marathon) at Birkenhead Park.

Fort Perch Rock, New Brighton (Side View)

Fort Perch Rock, New Brighton

Derby Pool (In) 

Hoylake 10K Run 2013

An annual fun run along the coast of Hoylake with proceeds going towards the Wednesday Special Needs Club.
The course is a mirror image from start to the 5k turn point and back to the finish.

The run starts opposite Hoylake Community centre, along the sea front north parade promenade, dropping onto the Meols embankment for a short distance, joining the ranger's trail and through the gates, through the car park by Leasowe Lighthouse and back onto the embankment towards Leasowe Castle Hotel. At the 5K marker, runners return back along the same route.

Race starts!

Wow, this guy was fast for his age!

Fighting the headwind too it's toll on me.

Conditions were testing on the day, from 5k to the finish line I was running into a fierce head wind!

I managed to finish in 49m20sec. Not a PB but quite happy coming 156th out of 568 runners.

more information can be found here :-

www.wsnc.co.uk

Snowdon Massif 2013

It has been a few years since I've last done any hiking. After this trip report I can say that I have missed it a lot!
The weather today was dry and hot with little to no wind even on Crib Goch! Fantastic!

Arrived at Pen Y Pass car park at 8am. First time for me that there was no car parking space at his hour in the morning! I had to drive about 1.5 miles further along the A4086 and found 1 space on the lay-by. This increased my hiking time by a further 20-25mins.

Looking back along the A4086, my car parked surprisingly far away from Pen Y Pass car park!

Start of the PYG track, north of the car park. Crib Goch in the background.

The peaks of Y Lliwedd (898m)

Scrambling on some grade 1 rocks on the way up to Crib Goch.

Classic Crib Goch and Snowdon view.

Definitely a T-shirt day!

 Approaching Garnedd Ugain summit stone with Snowdon on the left.