Sandbach Striders

“Once more unto the beach!”  After our wet and windy half marathon in Blackpool on 22 February, we arrived last Sunday morning to be greeted by blue skies, fluffy white clouds, and a cool NNW breeze of about 8mph and an air temp of around 9oC.

Oh I do like to be beside the Seaside.

This time there was also a Full and a 10k in addition to the Half. Once again it was very well organised by Fylde Coast Running, there was ample parking, toilets and bag drop, showering and changing facilities provided at the Blackpool Hilton for the 2,000+ runners across the 3 races.

The course was different to the February race in that it headed south past the Tower and Pleasure Beach, before looping back around a small housing estate and heading north up towards Fleetwood, then turning back down the North promenade to finish below the Hilton. 

Hope I don’t need any help from These guys

Matt decided to run without a watch and pace himself behind random curvy women in the hope that they were of a similar pace and he crossed the line in 1:54:36, slashing a whole minute off his 22 Feb race time.  Elaine enjoyed the race, gazing at the blue skies and golden sands and felt that she had run a faster race than 22 Feb, but alas no she finished in 2:10:22, which was 2.5 minutes slower!  Her conclusion is that she is a foul weather runner.