Liverpool Half Marathon |
| Back in 2005, I had a flyer in the post at work advertising for runners to raise money for charities in the Great North half marathon. I pitched it in the bin and told my wife Chris that night that I’d had a silly flyer, imagine running 13.1 miles! With the directness usual in our family, she shrugged and asked what my problem was. I’d always been a swimmer at school and running was only on the agenda when the ice formed on the outdoor unheated swimming pool. |
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| So inevitably I couldn’t ignore a challenge like that, and eventually ran the 13.1 miles under a blazing hot September sun. The atmosphere from 40,000 runners and the support was amazing, and I was sort of hooked! |
| 3 marathons and 11 official half marathons later, and not having done a race since the Sunday before Boris announced the first lockdown in 2020 when I still couldn’t believe it might actually happen and worrying how we would all cope, there I was on Sunday, down at the Pier Head by the Three Graces, in a temperature of 6 degrees but feels like 3, wondering what on earth I was doing there. Again. |
| Not feeling terribly confident as the longest training run I had done was 9 miles, and that only once, I thought a time of 2h10m would be ok if I could manage it, otherwise just finish would be fine. |
| I was so glad to be taking part once more, the atmosphere as the starting clock ran down was electric with anticipation and maybe some nerves! As ever the runners were so supportive of each other, and good humoured. At 65, I was feeling like the oldest runner in town till the announcer said there was an 85-year-old running so no excuses! |
| It is a humbling experience, looking at all the runners supporting charities, especially those who had some deeply personal experience printed onto their shirts. And it’s simply great to see those that maybe aren’t the fittest taking part. Anyone who has a go at some exercise has to be encouraged and supported, and admired, it doesn’t matter if they can only manage a slow trot or a walking pace, they are there, taking part. |
| The support from the Liverpudlians was as ever great, and welcome on that awful climb up Upper Parliament Street at mile 1 leaving you knackered and dreading the next 12! |
| The muscle fatigue kicks in eventually, this time around mile 5 (said I wasn’t match fit!), the miles tick by, and the water points, and swinging on to the Otterspool Promenade, running alongside the Mersey, with the sun on your back (first time ever, normally wind and rain right in your face), with a couple of miles to go, it’s greeted with a mix of relief and grim determination! At mile 12, checking the time on my watch, I realised I had maintained a faster pace than I had thought, so digging deep, I upped my pace to a geriatric crawl, and went for it, determined to beat the 2-hour mark. And the relief to be able to slow to a walk after going over the finish line was immense. My watch said 2h59m40s, and I reckoned if the official chip time was over the 2-hour mark, well clearly it was just plain wrong. |
| As it happened, the chip time was absolutely spot on at 1h59m31s although the time doesn’t matter of course! And position 1700 out of 3939 finishers. Happy with that. And as always, the smiles of acknowledgement between the runners back in town wearing their finishers’ shirts. |
| The question I had was how the number of runners compared to pre-Covid days, it felt way lower, maybe we are all still struggling to get back to the new normal, whatever that might be. |
| Words and pictures by Peter Taaffe Provincial Treasurer |
