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.

 

Liverpool Half Marathon 2013

The Liverpool Waterfront. 

10 minutes before the race starts at 9:00am with the start and finish line behind me.

With over 8000 competitors at this years' race, it was the best one yet!

After 13miles I'm almost there!

Just a bit more! Push for a good time.

Dipping for the line! Not a bad first Half Marathon in under 2hrs!

With my finisher's medal and sore legs!!

A brilliant medal from BTR. Roll on 2014!

Official Race times.

My race on endomondo sports tracker.

Some more info about the day:-

www.btrliverpool.com/news/thousands-take-to-the-streets

Liverpool Half Marathon Training!

Ok, Just entered myself for the Liverpool Half Marathon in March!

I've been running a bit toward the end of last year just for keeping fit purposes, so this now will surely give me a goal to achieve plus to keep me motivated to get up for early runs.

More information can be found here:-

runliverpoolmarathon

These are the 3 websites helping me to track my progress in training.

I've been following the Bupa Half Marathon plan:-

Bupa Running
I've been running a bit before so it was not too much of a problem to start the training halfway through.

The GPS program I'm using is Endomondo:-

Endomondo

Having a running forum to keep the inspirations up helps to, plus it's another tool to log your miles.

Runners Forum

My first pair of running shoes. The Asics Gel-Sugi, a mid mileage cushioned running shoe with breathable upper makes it a great entry level running shoe.

So far I've done over 100 miles in these, but as always it would be wise to invest in a second pair of shoes so that they can be rotated. I've gone for these Asics Gel-Hyper 33 minimalist shoes:-

Monday 26th February 2013. Under 3 weeks to go now! My long steady run yesterday took me past the 13.1mile mark! I did a half marathon training distance for the first time in about 2hrs 7mins! Hopefully can get the time closer to the 2hr mark on race day.

My race pack had arrived from BTR Liverpool! Inside was a booklet with map and lots of useful information and most importantly my race number!

Also I'll be supporting my chosen charity " Cancer Research UK" for my first Half Marathon! Details can be found on this link:-

justgiving.com