The 28th Great North West Half Marathon (Blackpool)

Back in 2015, for my first every half marathon, I set a personal record, 1 hour 49 mins and 48 seconds.  I have not be able to replicate that since.  In four subsequent half marathons, I have just scraped under the 2 hour mark and the 1:49 seemed like a pipe dream.  My only way of getting close to this again was to run in the same location, Blackpool, the Vegas of the North.

Even though the weather has been a little "choice" in the last couple of years, the timing was just right.  My brother and cousin (both IronMen) were training for the Manchester Marathon in April and would use this as a training race.  I rallied a couple of friends to join me in the training and final event, my good old friend and runner Rosh, running mummy Tilly Bean (who puts us all to shame with the amount of running she does) and new run buddy Jack with his legs longer than my entire body, I will always say he cheats at running!

Over the next few months the run crowd began to diminish, Rosh was suffering from knee issues and was seeking physio so for health reasons decided not to partake, Tilly Bean was diagnosed with anemia and advised not to run 13.1 miles for fun, My IronBro incurred a calf injury that put him on run rest for 6 weeks meaning that his first trial run would be this half marathon so he sadly declined. My IronCuz was suffering with pains in his legs that recalled back to his last dedicated half marathon run and was unsure if he was proceeding and if so, at what pace.  Thankfully, both Jack and I pounded the pavements for the next few months uninjured.  I say uninjured, this was despite the fact for 7 weeks I was in cast due to being knocked off my bike by a Nissan Qashqui driver injuring both legs, breaking my wrist and giving me a monster black eye!

Thankfully a full recovery later and back running the streets I pushed for a 6 week half marathon training plan.  1 x 5k fast, 1 x 10k race pace +10 seconds, 1 x long distance run irrespective of pace. The fast 5k's I ran with a young whipper snapper, Jay, in work who was able to push me to new pace levels and even though I was knackered after a short distance, I noticed the improvements.  10k's got quicker but I still cannot get under 50 mins and the long distance runs were normally accompanied by Jack who is a great companion for these long jaunts, but with those long legs I am sure he was running half the distance!  Training was going well.

We awoke in sunny Blackpool on the morning of the race to a day that had promised to be mild, cloudy with little chance of rain.  I assume little chance of rain in Blackpool means that there is little chance of it not raining hard.  Grim clouds, the slight rain that soaks you through and a chippy gentle sea breeze....perfect conditions. We headed to the start line to register and chat with fellow runners to gauge our thoughts.  I chatted to a Birmingham couple that had only started running a few years ago and this was the furthest "oop" North they had ran.  Using this as a tester for the Manchester Marathon in a few weeks, we reminisced previous events and the fun memories that each run brings.

Iron Cuz had braved injury and decided to use this as a tester for Manchester hoping his injuries would no arise and he could venture on.  He was aiming for a gentle 1:37.  Jack, who was taking part in his first race day, seemed very relaxed and chilled, but this is really in his nature.  Jack was aiming for 1:45 ideally, but anything under 2 hours would be great.  I told you he was chilled!  For myself, I had set my PB here, so anything short of that 1:49:48 would be perfect and I had trained for this, so the pressure was on.

As we headed out towards Blackpool Tower, the run groups seemed very quiet, a lot quieter than usual race runs and the crowds that had been evident throughout the last Blackpool jaunt were hidden away, probably due to the weather or time of set off, but the atmosphere (or lack of) was really noticeable.  Looping back round to the start line and then back out to the tower the first few miles zipped by.

As we closed in on the second loop, we filtered off towards Bispham and the 2nd larger loop.  As the course was circular, there were signs for both 5 & 9 miles, 7 and 11 but it was easy to know at what stage you were at.... you would think.  We passed a young lad who seemed to be struggling at the 5 mile marker, but seconds later when we passed the 9 mile marker he said, "At least we are nearly there now!".  The sad thing was, he actually meant it, when I explained that we had only ran 5.1 miles and we were far from "nearly there" he seemed to have a little mini break down. I gave him a handful of Sports Mixture to hopefully ease the pain, but I felt bad for mentally destroying him.

As we approached the 7 mile marker, I noticed that Jack had eased off and settled into a gentler pace. I had ran with Jack a few times and his brick running was second to none, so I was half expecting him to come launching passed me at any given moment.

We looped round for the 2nd time and I started to feel the burn, 10 miles in I needed to have a little quiet word with myself and up the pace.

The last couple of miles were a little undulating,  They didn't seem as hilly when we were at the 6/7 mile mark, but this time round the hills had a little more gradient to them.

I really enjoy race day runs and the experience of running 13.1 miles, but this all comes down to 12 miles of endurance, 1 mile of pain and 0.1 mile of insanity.  As I looked at my watch for the final time I was coming close to the PB marker and I was determined to cross the line in glory.  Mustering all last remaining energy from somewhere in my big toe, I increased the pace, my cadence and the grimace on my face...this would make a cracking finishers line photo.

All this did not matter though, I had crossed the line in 1:49:15 a new PB, a lovely gurn at the finish line, shiny new medal and a compulsory banana.


James had experienced a few twinges en-route so eased his pace down hitting 1:43:42 and Jack was quick to follow with 1:51:51, a new race PB but one that should not remain too long before he is smashing that for a sub 1:50.

Great event, great support from our ladies and kiddies and I can't wait for the next one.

Unfortunately, James is injured for his next outing and will not be running at the Manchester Marathon as is my Iron Bro.  They both have an outlaw event in July that they are training for and a marathon could put that completely out of the picture.

So my question goes out to our anemic Tilly Bean, Jack pushing for PB, Rosh who wants to get back into halves and Running Bug Beewell.....where are we going next?