I had no intention of doing it but some cyber bullying on some of the various Facebook groups I belong too meant that I booked it. However, it also meant I could bully the Chairman into coming and ticking another box in his pursuit of 100 marathons.
So Mik arrived at his normal 15 minutes past the agreed time window at my house and was shall I say “raring to go”. Ok, so maybe not, and raring to go was not in my vocabulary that warm Sunday morning either. The prospect of doing a Marathon on the outskirts of Wigan which equated to 6 4.4 mile laps around some lanes did not make me think “ye ha” “ ye ha” let’s go.
Anyhow, we arrived pretty quickly to the “GIN PIT SOCIAL CLUB” in somewhere where Mik said, “don’t tell them they’re from Wigan” quite early. We had time to have a chat with the race director Malcolm whom has previously ran our Deja Vu and been met at many other marathon events. Nice chap and he explained the course and a few rules etc. We got our numbers and Mik rejoiced in the fact that he had number 26, I think it helped him realise how many miles he had to do. With a few more friends/running buddies/ marathon mad idiots whom we knew turning up, it wasn’t long before we were at the start and off.
The course was surprisingly very nice, it began with a very slight climb, crossed a road, a nice run along a shaded track, a tiny bit of road, some more track, through a really nice park, along some more path frequented by many dog walkers, up quite a steep hill and there you were back at the start.
There was to be 6 laps of this and although laps 1-3 made me think how nice it was, laps 4-5 I started to hate it but at lap 6 it was ok again. The first lap I set off at a very quick pace and completed the first lap within 40 mins. However this was to be my only quick lap, the warmish weather paid its toll after that and once again I ground to a halt on laps 4 and 5. There was a half marathon taking place at the same time. As I came to finish lap 2 the winner of the half, (A young lady) was finishing and taking first place. Lap 3 saw me get overtaken by the eventual winner and the second and third placed people. On a positive slant, my only wish was for Mik to not lap me; fortunately for me he didn’t which helped boost my confidence somewhat.
However I have to say that at the end of this race I was bushed and a little disappointed with my 5 hour 5 mins time, my worst time this year compared to similar events. Still Mik mentioned that I had actually came 21st in the event, which sounds great, but with only 30 taking part it held no pride.
So in short, and discussions over a quick drink and pastie in the social club after the race, it was a really good event, very very friendly, great fun and banter, a lovely little scenic course that was not too boring, cheap to enter (£20) a nice medal and a lion bar at the finish.
Would I do it again? You bet I would.
For more information visit the website.
Paul
No comments:
Post a Comment