My day started with a leisurely 7.30am wake up call and a feeling of nice relaxed calm and no sense of back pain or stiffness which was a good sign as I often can wake up with back issues, but thankfully this situation is improving since re-joining the gym and working on my back and core more.
Quick shower and a bit of porridge and a cup of coffee and my pre run fueling was pretty much done.
The time came to finally start putting my compression gear on for underneath my shorts and vest.This sometimes literally requires rolling the stuff on as it is often tight fitting and can make you feel like you've just been vacuum packed, but it is a nice feeling as you feel secure and your muscles are nicely packed in their garments and good to go for the race.
Next came my transport and lift for the day from a fellow runner local to Southport , I'll call him Mr M for the sake of the blog.
9am and we were off on our way to Helsby in Cheshire, nice journey overall with a bit of a diversion due to a motorway closure along the way, but we got there nicely in time and got parked up.
I few quick hello's to fellow runners mainly from Liverpool Running Club and Knowsley Harriers to name a few, and then it was baggage check and toilet time.
There was a fair queue to get the baggage stored but it was all sorted eventually and then a couple of chats with more fellow runners and we were prompted to make our way to the start line.
It appears that the start line is practically right in the middle of the car park, so lining up was interesting but we eventually set off after the sound of the air horn and we were on our way.
This is a road race as such so the going is pretty much nice and smooth all the way around, and the weather was excellent and kind to us as it didn't rain and we were blessed with the odd bit of sun.
The miles passed and the scenery was nice all the way around as it was mainly country roads/lanes and open fields and passing various farms etc.
As you would expect in the country there were hills or gradual slopes as we runners like to call them when we are trying to convince ourselves that no extra effort will be required to get up them :) this is where the what goes up must come down comes in, after about 10.5 miles of little ups and downs but mainly ups came the final hill as such and then a steep downhill for about 300-400 yards followed by a little up again and then a nice long 2 mile or so gradual downhill.
The downhill was a lifesaver as I used it as an excuse to just throw caution to the wind and fly down the hill as quick as I could, if I hadn't been amongst several hundred other runners on that stretch and I hadn't actually been a rather shy adult individual I probably would of been shouting Wheeeeee!! as I went.
By now on the last mile of my run I was on for a new PB a personal best time as we call it so I was very happy and rather ecstatic as I thought the hills overall would of sapped all my energy and I wasn't expecting a good time, but thankfully my legs held on and felt good to go for a nice little sprint to the finish line....and a new PB of 1hr 43 min 05 secs over 3 minutes of my previous PB :))
Next was the goodie bag collection and a medal and a surprise a nice selection of Gingerbread men which was a treat as food was definitely required.
Some more quick hello's and well done's to other runners many who had also achieved PB's on the day as well and then it was back to the starting area to a huge queue for our bags.....but I won't gripe about that one on here.
After a long wait we were finally off back home to Southport again courtesy of Mr M and another diversion due to an incident on the motorway which was playing havoc over the whole area, but as it involved someones death not a lot of complaining could be done really.
So there you have it run #1 0f 14 done and dusted and a new PB to boot and training has already recommenced as I ran a new PB on the treadmill in the gym today for a 5k run 21 min 50 secs, so it's looking good for the next run which will be the Southport Mad Dog 10k on February 9th.....
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