BLACKPOOL MARATHON

THE BOYS DO THE BUSINESS AT THE BLACKPOOL MARATHON
Waking up at 5.30am with the rain lashing down on the bedroom window i thought what a stupid idea it had been to enter the BLACKPOOL MARATHON, it was a good job Rob Mcgrath was coming to pick me up or i might not have made it out of my nice warm bed!
Someone at work asked me if i was running London i said "no Blackpool ! " He said does that mean you have to run up and down the GOLDEN MILE 26 times? well not quite! but you do have to run 2 laps inc half the distance running on the most unforgiving surface known to runners, Concrete ! ooch!!!
The rain stopped by the time we got to Blackpool only to start again just before the 9am start1
The half and full marathon start together which meant there was over 2000 of us on the start line with about 700 in the full marathon.
Rob Ashworth surged away at the front running 6 min miles for the first 9 miles before settling down to a more sensible pace.
Rob Mcgrath and me had to hold our selves back and not get carried away with the pace of the half marathon runners, it was good fun running along the closed roads with a big crowd cheering us on inc Niz and Sarah !
Just behind was virgin marathon runner Peter Roome running a canny race. We headed south almost to the Airport before turning round , back past the famous tower into a slight head wind. At about nine miles we came off the road and headed along the concrete sea wall all the way to Bispham before turning around and back to the start for the second lap.
As we started the second lap the heavens really opened up turning the road into a river! shoes became heavy and clothing stuck to our bodies in a sodden mess,Triathlete Peter Roome must have felt at home splashing along the flooded concrete wall for the second time. The road we had been running on felt like a velvet trail compared to this dam concrete! Muscles already stiff from the cold rain really felt the extra impact from this unforgiving surface, we all went through good and bad patches but i think we all used our mental strength to pull us through, up front Rob ashworth stormed through the finish line to finish 6 th in 2.42.27 a fantastic ron by the 2007 anglesea marathon winner!
i was now making my way over what felt like a mountain,on the first lap it had been but a slight hill, once over the top it was just one mile downhill to the finish, with 300m to go I passed the 10th place runner like he was stuck to the road, with 200m to go i had the choice of turning left or right at the cones, i shouted at the marshal in desperation for help, he said left and I followed his instructions only to realize a few seconds later he'd sent me on another lap, I turned around and sprinted back only to lose my 10th place, BUMMER! I had to make do with 11th , 2.48.41 and FIRST IN MY AGE GROUP
I finished with few aches and pains in my legs and even ran the day after the race so the CHIRUNNING IS WORKING WELL,
Rob Mcgrath was was next in, finishing only 29 secs behind me, setting a new p.b. by 10minutes, Rob has trained harder than ever before and was well pleased with his result 14th 2.49.10
Peter Roome overcame his first marathon with remarkable style and finished with a very impressive 2.55.52 well and truly smashing the 3 hour barrier.
At the end of the day I think we put in a pretty AWESOME performance and made TEAM S.W.A.C. proud!
In the half marathon Ray handly finished 37th 1.26.03 and still had the energy to stay behind and cheers us marathon boys on !
results http://www.tdl.ltd.uk/
RACE PHOTOS

28th April
THE DAY AFTER
AMAZINGLY VERY FEW ACHES AND PAINS! in my past 5 marathons i could hardly walk for 2 days let alone run and had to walk downstairs sideways because of the incredible pain in my legs. This time things are very different thanks to Danny Dreyer's CHIRUNNING. I even ran today with only slight aches in my legs, AWESOME. = 1 MIN RUN,ONE MIN WALK = 27mins

29th April
Steady run over Jon's sandhill loop, felt quite good! = 1.20
30th April
LEG SPEED SESSION
120m x 6 , max 15.6 mph, ran back at 9.5-10mph = 36mins
Evening
run with niz =26 mins
1st May
Interval session with Rob, 3x 1 lap round the little nature trail,this inc a fast section on grass and board walk and then a section of challenging sandhills before looping back round to finish, because we are still recovering from the marathon we kept the session light! set off steady and made each interval faster. ran the last effort 20secs faster than last year which was pleasing , and a good sign for Mondays WATERLOO 15 K. 4.50, 4.23, 4.06 = 56 mins
2nd May
Run with Niz = 23.28
Sat 3rd
Run over the big sandhills, steady = 1.33.45