The Blackpool marathon took place on Sunday 11th April over a two lap course. There were some really unsettling posts on Runners World about this race that dated back some years but my experience was very good and i would consider the 5 hour drive to run it again.
The race itself was promised as a flat fast course, and as such i was really hoping to get under 4 hours for the 1st time, but as always the best made plans can go wrong.
As is my current thinking I ran without a watch, just running at a comfortable slow pace for the 1st 13 or so miles, I then try to increase the pace as i feel strong in the legs, and was ok until the hilly part of the 2nd lap. I know the course was described as flat but it was not a running track and there will always be hills of sorts. I must stress though compared to Gloucester the hills were nothing.
Unfortunately I missed the 4 hour mark, a was running the last mile (slowly) and i heard a watch alarm and the guy running next to me said that four hours had passed, at that moment i was disappointed, but was also encouraged as the line was less than a mile away and i had roughly 6 minutes to set my 2nd PB of the challenge.
So after a big sprint finish of around 10 strides i crossed the line in 4 hours 4 minutes. I was very pleased with this as it was a warm day and i knocked 3 minutes off my best time.
In light of my pacing issues (slow, faster, slower) am going to run with a watch again so that i can run miles at a predetermined pace.
Thank you Blackpool it was great, next stop Halstead on 9th May
