So let me introduce you to the world of the Btr Tour of Merseyside, starting with stage....
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| One :) |
Stage one - Southport Half Marathon, 13.1 miles Sunday 6th July 2014.
Stage one was in my hometown of sunny Southport and it was the official Vital Events Half Marathon which is on it's 2nd year in the resort.We had a slight change of route and a different start/finish area this year and we started in the lovely Victoria Park which is a treat on a sunny day which thankfully we had on this occasion.
Start time was 9am and it was indeed warm and this was going to be a challenge for many of the tourists as we had a whole week of runs, so going of fast and heading for a PB (personal best) time was not really the best plan for the day.
Personally I had my own battle as I had struck up a good relationship with some fellow running friends prior to the Liverpool Half and Full Marathon recently whilst chatting and posting on the RDB Facebook page and somehow ended up in a friendly challenge with Sarah.
Sarah is indeed a talented and a good female runner, and runs very similar times to me so we are well matched for a challenge.The challenge being for stage one at Southport that the loser bought the winner a pint, and it snowballed onto all the other stages so we are looking at racing each other on each stage and competing for the overall lead against each other.This was rapidly encouraged by her entourage of friends who are a great and friendly bunch themselves, and many of them indeed competing in the Tour as well.
So we had kick off at 9am and a little video of it as well, see below......
We went off around the park a little and then out onto the Coast Rd towards Ainsdale for several miles, before we turned around at the Pontins roundabout and headed back down the same section again for several miles. This indeed although a long and arduous trek was actually quite nice as you went past the runners behind you, so you could say hello to your friends as you passed, and everyone could give each other encouragement.
It also gave me a chance to check on my competitor Sarah, who thankfully at this point was behind me, but there was a long way to go and when the sun was coming out from behind the odd cloud it was getting pretty uncomfortable heat wise.I had to use the water supplied to pour it over my head and neck and back in order to keep cool.
There were a couple of runners in fancy dress as well, mainly a guy in an actual Star Wars Stormtrooper costume and a guy in a Gorilla suit. kudos to those guys as they must of been boiling.
We also had a steel band trio to entertain us half way down the long stretch so we passed them twice, it went really well with the sunny weather :)
We moved on to the next section of Coast Rd and Marine Drive as we passed the Fairground and the Ocean Plaza complex and under the Pier, and then off around the Marine Lake.
One good thing about this race was all the other competitors from the Tour had a bib with the words `Tourist` on the back so we could all see who was ahead and try and keep up, or alongside them, or merely run past if possible and say hello as we did. At times I found we ran in little packs which was good.
I was from mile 7-8 slowing and struggling a little and hoping my legs would recover slowly as I went, and when we hit roughly 10 miles Sarah casually steamed passed me with a casual smile and continued to speed away. This was my wake up call to push myself more and not settling with taking it too easy for the day.I decided to stay behind her and I continued to keep her insight.
We all continued around the rest of the lake and back onto the Marine Drive and back under the Pier and past the Fairground again, at this stage we passed several friendly faces including Nikki and friends who are Sarah's friends and the instigators of the challenge.It was now a case of shouts of "he's behind you!" and mutual shouts of support for both of us lol.
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| Currently on the chase.. |
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| Currently happily in the lead.... |
Funnily enough while I was out running with a smile after hearing several people cheering "Well done Superman" and feeling really great and encouraged, I suddenly noticed that he was actually behind me and they were all cheering him not me lol.
We now only had a couple of miles left and as we rounded the outside of Victoria Park and a little down hill slope I managed to sprint up right behind Sarah without her noticing and stuck fast behind her.
One mile to go now and it was time to run alongside and see if she would run off ahead or slow. I was hoping for her to slow a bit knowing exactly where I was, she did a bit and I think we both mutually slowed a little to save energy, I also noticed that Rosemary who is a well established and older runner was just ahead and seeing her race times in general are very good for the Tour in particular I made a conscious effort to keep up and pointed out her capabilities to Sarah.
We entered the park still shoulder to shoulder and we pushed each other along neither one of us letting the other get ahead, and after several are `we nearly there yet moments`
we approached the final couple of corners.I was still unsure how to handle the finish, would I run of ahead if I could? or would I slow and let Sarah win? or would I continue on her shoulder and try and run in together risking her edging ahead and taking the win?
Well you guessed it being a bloke and otherwise always the perfect gentleman I decided that as soon as I heard a few cheers of encouragement of her friends ,that that was justification to sprint off over the line like a true competitive runner lol, to be fair to Sarah though I had to run my ar*e off to beat her, but a bets a bet :)
We shook hands at the end and were still all smiles so I think I was forgiven.
Next was onto the Btr hospitality tent to pick up our goody bags......
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| Lots of little goodies, a Btr calender for example shown here by Jo.... |
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| And a lovely tour t-shirt shown here by our Lovely Erica... |
Thankfully as ever Btr's hospitality was top notch as we have come to expect from Alan & Yvonne and Laura of course, and now the latest edition Erica and it was all about rest and recovery and after picking up our individual running numbers for the other stages of the Tour we were offered fruit, water, Lucozade and Powerbar snacks to help us restock while we chatted with fellow `Tourists` as we mingled around the tent and the comfortable looking grass for a nice little sit down as you will probably notice me doing in the last picture :)
Time for a few goodbye's and see you tomorrows to fellow tour runners and then if was of to the pub to meet up with fellow RDB peeps and several others invited for a couple of drinks in The Sandgrounder on Lord St, but not before a quick photo op with fellow running friend and fellow friend of Sarah the one and only always smiling Catherine :)
Almost forgot here is my results for stage one :
1 hr 45 mins 19 secs gun time ,and 1 hr 45 mins 06 secs chip time.
Position 252 for Southport Half, position 61 in the Tour results for my category (Male).
On another note you will be glad to know that as it turns out Sarah beat me on chip time, and I beat her on gun time so we agreed to call stage 1 a draw :) see I'm not all bad.
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