Myself, Paul Nicholls, Gordon Hutchins and Cheryl Hutchins ran the Liverpool Half Marathon on Sunday 18th March 2012. The traffic was surprisingly clear for a big city Marathon and there were plenty of parking spaces available that are literally only a few minutes from the start for a fiver.
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| All smiles before the race |
I had been warned by Perry Wyatt, who ran the race last year with Paul, to get a good
starting position as the race becomes congested through narrow lanes in some early parts of the race. I did so, and as an added bonus got a close up of Kris Akabusi who was starting the race and offering his, very enthusiastic and amusing style of encouragement to the runners before the start.
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| Olympic silver medallist Kriss Akabusi |
The first two miles are very well supported, and take runners uphill through the city centre and past the Cathedral. Miles two to nine are lightly undulating and are very green taking runners through Princes Park, Sefton Park and Otterspool Park. Only a small stretch of this section is on roads making it easy to forget I was actually running a city marathon. I passed the 10km point in Sefton Park at 43:12 and I felt strong.
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| Gordon |
The last four miles are all by the River Mersey via the Otterspool Promenade, Atlantic Way and Kings Parade. Whilst this section is flatter, it is also a lot windier. Nothing could have prepared me for the unsheltered headwind that relentlessly batters you during this section of the race. On top, the weather was sunny and whilst the Parks provided a welcome shelter, there was no escape from the sun during this section. I tried to slipstream behind a few runners but really struggled, although I don’t recall a lot of people overtaking me so I guess I wasn’t alone. Still, the strength in my legs had gone as I went from sub 7 minute miles, to 7:30’s to near 8 minute miles. I finished in 1:32:15. I narrowly missed out on my PB by just 7 seconds, but it was my second fastest Half Marathon and I’ll take plenty of positives from it to the Chester Half Marathon in May.
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| Paul N |
After finishing, I found a spot to cheer Paul on for his last 200 metres. Although, Paul was disappointed to get a chip time of 2:01:24, he had still improved 3 minutes on his time from last year and without aiming to, beating his 10K PB by the time he got to the 10K checkpoint. He was great company for the day and I’m sure he’ll get back down to the times he wants. It’s amazing how far the recently awarded “most improved Strider” has already come in the past fifteen months. I didn’t actually get chance to congratulate Gordon and Cheryl although I’ve seen from the results that they both finished in good times so well done for battling though those headwinds!!
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| Paul B |
I’d recommend this race as it’s not far to travel, the support is great, you get a nice medal and a good quality technical running shirt. The race has almost doubled in entries over the past three years and it’s easy to see why. I need to remember if I run this again though, I must leave some energy in the tank for those last four miles!! Also, there is only water available at the drink stations and therefore it is well worth getting some carb gels which I, naively, didn’t have.
Paul Barnett
