The Liverpool Santa Dash....reds vs blues!

Today was not only the 1st December but also the Liverpool Santa Dash so officially has now marked the start of the festive season for me!

With my family being from Liverpool it was fun to sign up and to have a weekend in the Pool gossiping, eating and drinking Cava as well as entering the 5km race together.

What makes this one unique to other Santa races is that you can opt to either run in a red or blue suit dependent on whether you are a Liverpool or Everton supporter. As tempting as it was to go for a blue suit in the interest of looking a little different I knew my Dad would not have been impressed so I stuck to my team colours and suited up in red.

The race was the 10th time it was held in Liverpool and the organisers were going for the record of the most Santas in one race. The goal was to have 10k runners. Lining up at the start the atmosphere was fantastic and it was brilliant to be down at the historic Albert Dock....it certainly felt like there was 10k of us as the sea of red (and partly blue) was neverending! Apparently the only other Santa race to rival Liverpool is Las Vegas. The Vegas one is next Saturday when the title will be decided on who had the most....fingers crossed Liverpool takes the crown!

My family and I ran the race together which was great. We took it easy as it was a fun run after all but I couldn't resist joking with them a few hundred meters in that I had a stitch. Shocked that I would feel like that in a run like this they foolishly believed me for a few seconds before I admitted to my lie. It was also super fun finishing to the sounds of a drum band and running through the festive finish arch with fake snow coming down around us! Post race we loaded up on the northern favourites of bacon and sausage butties....plus some cuddles from my very festive looking niece (pics below!)

I am going to make this an annual race and trip from now on....

Lovely lovely day!

Some pics below (spot the Queen in the crowd!):

The Brighton 10km

Today was the Brighton 10km and given the weather on my last coastal run I have to say I was a little worried about whether today was going to be the same!

However; getting to Brighton the weather was fantastic and I had hoped I would be able to achieve a PB.

The route took us along the coast past both piers and all the way down to Hove and back. I had realised I was running pretty quickly after the first few KM and started to wonder whether I would be able to keep at such a pace.

I had a few fellow runners at the same pace so this kept me going and then achieved the below results:

Time: 36 minutes 36 seconds
Place: 102 out of around 2,700
Category position: 78

That was indeed a PB since my previous best was 37 minutes 50 seconds!

Very pleased so celebrated with an Eggnog Latte and a Toffee Nut Latte.....

Good day and a nice note from my coach:

"Aha, top run, Michael,and the 10k now more in line with the half mara and 25k PBs. Was a good day for racing today."

Plus a nice little re-tweet from a famous athlete:

The Great Blustery Run

On Sunday was the Great South Run (hereafter GSR.)

This was my third time in as many years at the run and I was looking forward to my day out at the coast...aiming for a sub 1 hour run.

We had been warned for about a week by the weather men that there was due to be a heavy storm on the Sunday evening so I had expected high winds but nothing prepared me for what the coast had in store.

It is well known amongst runners that the last two miles of the GSR is tough as it is a two mile stretch along the seafront which often has a headwind.

Lining up at the start though it felt like a scene out of Winnie the Pooh and the blustery day. Race organisers were already telling us to save energy for the last slog alongside the sea and that no records would be broken (except maybe the wind strength!)

So off we set around the very familiar route of the Gunwharf, HMS Victory and through the city towards the coast again. The headwind even in the city was so strong that it actually made me have my first ever thoughts in a race that I wouldn't be able to make it to the end. I made it past 6 miles and thought that at least I was half way.

As I passed the 8 mile mark the headwind literally hit me and I couldn't believe it. It was horrendous. My running speed deteriorated rapidly as did the cleanliness of my language. It was the most awful running moment I can say I have ever experienced and that finish line took an absolute age to come!

When it did I had a face like thunder and was not so impressed with my time of 1 hour 4 mins 55 secs. Definitely way off my expected pace although I did take some comfort that the elites were also around 3 minutes off their usual pace too so perhaps it was not too bad to place 169th out of 25,000 after all.

I can't say I enjoyed the run (hence why I didn't even take a picture at the end to share with you) but I did have a nice day overall and have signed up for the 25th GSR next year already.....

City 13 done: Munich

Yesterday was the Munich half marathon.

After last week's performance and getting a PB I had decided (and told by my trainer) to take it easy on this half marathon as it was my third in as many weeks.

So I came out to Munich with the idea of having some currywurst, beer (post run) and just to enjoy the run.

It was an awesome course that finished in the Olympic Stadium so it was a really nice way to finish with the final few meters being one lap of the stadium. My usual pop tracks saw me through the 21km but I regret not having put some Karftwerk on the playlist....

I completed the run in 1 hour 23 mins and 48 seconds which placed me 53rd out of 6,000 runners so was still a good result. In my age group I was 11th...sadly now being in the over 30s.....

Can you spot me at the start?

Just a few more meters to go...

Finished:

Cardiff Half Marathon

Today was the Cardiff Half Marathon.

I had decided to enter as I have run in London, Edinburgh and Dublin so Cardiff was a missing capital for nearby countries!

I hadn't realised that it is known as a fast course and only once my running coach told me that it was "super fast" that I thought maybe I could beat my PB.

The course was brilliant starting at the castle in the centre of the city and going all the way out to Cardiff Bay which was stunning.....it was such a glorious day it was perfect to run alongside the water for a while.

I was keeping good pace and really pushed myself with the aim of going sub 1 hour 20 minutes.

Crossing the line I was absolutely chuffed to bits to have made it in 1 hour 19 minutes and 22 seconds....a brand new PB! That placed me 139th overall out of around 19,000, 127th out of all the men competing and 82nd in my age category!

Loved it!

The castle at the start line:

Finnisher medal:

Some nice congratulation tweets from other athletes:

Ealing Half Marathon

A little bit behind on updating the blog....that's what happens when work gets in the way!

Last weekend (29th September) was the second Ealing Half Marathon. Again it was a very welcome present that the start and finish line were literally around the corner from my house which means not dropping the bag at the bag tent and no setting of rediculously early in case of problems getting to the race!

It was fun to run around my stomping ground although two things:

1) I had forgotten how hilly parts of Ealing is!

2) In some ways I think the end of the race was harder knowing the area so well...when you know exactly where you are and how far you have to go it actually seemed to make me more tired!

Despite that I came home in 49th place out of about 4,000 with a time of 1 hour 21 minutes 30 seconds which was an improvement of two minutes from the year before.

Start line:

Finisher photo:

City 12 done: Beijing

To continue the trend of not just running in Olympic cities I just did the Beijing International Triathlon.

The event was held at the Qing Long Lake Park which lies about 35km outside of the city itself. 

I had hired my bike and was ready to pick it up at the hotel (who knows what I would have done if it wasn't there) but it was. The race registration and bike rack was down at the lake which was about 7km down the road from the hotel. The 7km ride down there would do me well as I had never actually ridden a racer before which is what they had given me so it would be good practice as well as getting me to the lake. The instructions seemed too simple…turn right, then right again and go straight until you reach the lake. I thought I had done that but clearly not as I carried on straight until I reached the entrance to the motorway……not quite the quiet surroundings of a lake. Through lots of sign language to locals I eventually made it to the triathlon start area!

The swim was 1.5km clockwise lap of the lake, the bike ride was 40km and was partially flat but did involve climbing up a mountain which offered spectacular views of the surrounding area but was challenging to say the least and the run was a 10km off road run.

Crossing the finish line was great (especially as they read out your name as you approach the finish) and I was pleased to have completed the race. My results were broken down as per the below:

Overall place: 135^th out of 377

Division place: 29^th out of 73

Gender place: 125^th out of 334

Overall time: 2h 57m

Swim (1.5km): 27m 33s

Bike (40km): 1h 38m 30s

Run (10km): 41m 59s

I was pleased with this as it was a tough race. It also included an extra 600m run from the swim exit to transition which adds on a little time to the usual triathlon.

The swim and run were decent times (I was actually 20^th overall for the run and 2^nd for my division and 44^th overall for the swim and 6^th for my division) but my bike ride just really let me down.

Beijing was a great city to be in and I would recommend a trip there to anyone (and the triathlon as well if you fancy it!)

Approaching the finish line:

The medal:

Post race race with a flag:

Until next time.....

City 11 done: Amsterdam

Yesterday was the Amsterdam City Swim.

2012 was the inaugural year for the event for the 1.5km swim in the city’s extensive 100km of canals. Rumour has it that the Queen of the Netherlands was taking part (as she did last year) but I am not sure if she did make an appearance; however the thought that I potentially did race a real live Royal is exciting....

Just before I set off for Amsterdam I had a look at the joining instructions again….seemingly it appeared that the distance of the race has increased from 1,500m to 2,013m. I see what they did there with the year but an extra 500m in a swim race is quite a difference as opposed to just adding it on to a run?! Oh well….no time for moaning! I just had to get on with it! 

There was a brilliant atmosphere at the start area. I was nervous but excited and pleased to be in the second wave of starters so that I didn’t have to hang around too long. The professionals were set off by the firing of a loud canon from a ship in the dock. Shortly after I jumped into the canals and was off too.

The first section of the swim was in more open water so it felt like it was taking ages to reach the first bridge. Once there though we were into the smaller canals of the city and there were supporters everywhere. It was fantastic to see so many people standing and sitting on the bridges, streets and houseboats shouting their support. 

I finished the swim in a time of 37 minutes and 31 seconds placing me 122^nd out of 1,772 swimmers which I was pleased as punch with. 

Let's see if the Queen can beat that eh?!

So that's my 11th Olympic City completed....next stop Beijing in a few days!

Some pictures below:

Post race with flag and medal:

Post Race in dressing gown, flip flops and medal...best goody bag ever:

Post race:

Swimming:

Was someone trying to run?!

Until next time....

Long by name and nature.....Streak for Tigers at London Zoo

Did you know that a group of tigers is called a Streak of Tigers?

So in order to raise money and awareness to protect the very endangered Sumatran Tiger (of which there are only 300 left in the wild) London Zoo put on an event called Steak for Tigers.

What it involved me doing was dropping everything (literally) and streaking through Zoo. Yes....I would be required to run completely naked.

For a few seconds I thought about how daunting that may be but then I thought fuck it...why not enter it?!

I did and only had a few days to go before the "big" event :-)

Turning up there was a good atmosphere and the volunteers had highlighted the way to the start line / "changing" area for the streakers with underwear in the trees which was cool.

As I entered the runners area I was quite surprised to see that there were quite a large percentage of the 250 strong group already standing around naked...it seemed there were only a few using their running foil to cover up until the start so clearly some others had much more experience at this naturist thing than I did.

I registered and was shown to the male changing room. Surely why was there a need for separate rooms for men and women since we had to come out of the room naked and see each other anyway?! This fact was clear at the end when it seemed that many people were changing in the wrong room!

I undressed and went out to the start area which was out of site of the spectators. What I wasn't expecting was to be given tiger cupcakes and 4 shots (1 x rum, 1 x vodka, 1 x gin & 1 x tequila) from the bar. Clearly they knew what a lot of us needed in order to get going!

I made friends with another runner who was by himself ...he wasn't too nervous and seemed to be more embarrassed to say where he worked than why he decided to enter the event. His place of work was RBS....all made sense when he said it!

Before I knew it we were lined up behind a set of curtains and the count down began....the curtains were thrown open and the spectators got a full view of us all as we ran off into the zoo. The run was fun and albeit only very short (300m) it felt pretty liberating and perhaps is the way to run from now on? I finished quite tipsy and celebrated with a Tiger beer and pleased to have also raised just short of £200 for the cause.

Some pictures below....can you spot me?!