Blackpool Half Marathon

This is a report from Dave Pearson's cousin, who did the Blackpool Half Marathon on Sunday the 27th.

All I can say is Thank God David had a knee injury. If I had had to go round that course completely unattended I would have started walking somewhere after 10 miles. I was so pleased see the 11th mile and know that that was further than I had ever run in my life. So much for smoking for nearly forty years. The weather was perfect, the going was good for the first 9 miles. It was familiar ground after doing the 10k fun run 2 years running - the 2mile loop we began with plus the fun run basically - the Hilton hotel to starr gate and back. But somewhere soon afterwards camethe cliff tops -undulating cliff tops at that. Lets face it I am a pensioner. I have left this running bit a bit late. If only I had eaten a bit less and trained abit more in the last two months since I decided to attempt this thought I. Nevertheless there were 'overweight' (we won't use the word obese, its so vulgar) people in the race as i happily noted while we were waiting for the 'off'. Thanks to cousin David's refusal to condone walking for more than a microsecond while I had a drink I pushed on. He even picked out one or two runners ahead of us who were struggling even more than I so that we could set our sights on ovetaking them - a very satisfying action after 11 miles - and finally while my legs were feeling like jelly - no aching thighs for me- he somehow got me to the finishing line. It was fabulous. Not having given up. Only 3 minutes more than the time he had hoped for, and 27 minute less than the time I had estimated for the event! A medal, a teashirt, a goodies bag and a time I could be proud of - what more could I want. Just to keep up the training and try to repeat the performance - possibly loosing a stone and minute per mile - in my dreams. Its hard to believe I really did it. thankyou david. Here's to your knee!I ommitted to say in was thoroughly enjoyable.

Kathryn