Battling the elements in Blackpool

Sunday 21 February 2016 saw 2 Pumas brave the elements and take on the Blackpool half marathon.

Andrew tells us more about his seaside race (hopefully he managed to avoid the stags, hens and doughnuts!):

Sunday morning saw an early rise, quick breakfast and out of the door to pick up Deke and begin the one and half hour drive to Blackpool.

We arrived in Blackpool at around 9:45am not really knowing where we were going but just heading for the famous Tower. We parked the car and headed to McDonald’s for a quick coffee and a toilet stop and we saw some fellow runners who advised us that the registration and start was about 1 mile up the coast.

Back to the car to change into the running gear and after feeling the wind and rain, deciding to keep the running jackets on. We had a steady 1 mile jog up to the registration area were we realised that running North wasn’t going to be that problem but the South run was going to be very difficult.

When we arrived at the registration it was a few tables set out under the promenade with a fenced off area for the baggage storage and some long queues for the few portaloos which were available.

We collected our race numbers, pinned them on, dumped our bags and went to join the queue for the loos. We could see that the wind was wild and the waves were crashing up onto the sea front:

Waves crashing over the sea front
Waves crashing over the sea front

It was that bad that the 1 mile marker which was next to the sea and already washed over with the waves.

After a quick chat with the race starter we realised that we were going to be running along the sea front, waves and all, for half of the race and against the fierce winds on the cliff tops for the other half.

The race consisted of 2 loops of the bottom part of the course, followed by 2 loops of the top part of the course before finishing in the bottom part of the course against the wind.

Fellow runners
Fellow runners waiting for the race

Rest of the runners at the start line
Rest of the runners at the start line

At first we thought that repeating loops might be a bit boring and take some of the enjoyment out of the race but it actually helped to break up the running, and meant that we spend some time running with the wind and some time running against it.

Right at the front for the start
Right at the front for the start

We thought running with the wind would be a welcome change, and it probably made us a bit quicker, but there were frequent waves crashing over the tops of our heads and we heard quite a few screams from men and women along the course.

Running into the wind must have added around 4 or 5 minutes to the the time and I was taken clean off my feet at one point and blown to the side but we both still managed get new Half Marathon PB’s!!

Deke completed the race in 1:33:18.2 and Andrew finished in 1:48:06.2.

Start line selfie
Obligatory start line selfie

This is definitely a course to break PB’s…..if it isn’t too windy!!