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RunLiverpool Marathon 2011
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I would like to thank Alan and his team for a great event. I cannot even begin to think about the logistical nightmares of arranging such an event in a major City entre so thank you for having the vision, courage and patience for taking the challenge on.
There are always going to be teething problems with any new event - I would agree that the park PA system was poor and the green start coral was packed out - not everyone could get in at the 'official' start time. The pens need to be bigger (especially as there seem to have only been 5200 finishers rather than the expected 8-9000) and gaps closed up just before the start. I personally had no problems or complaints all the way round. Great support and marshalling. Loved the drumming band coming out of the tunnel - certainly helped the last bit of the climb - was quite surreal coming back into the daylight. The 'worst' part of the course for me was Princes Park at 23 miles - bleak with little support. However, loved coming down UPS 24-25 and the finish. Agree re full hands in the finishing shute. I dropped my T-shirt into a puddle before I even got it on trying to hold everything. A special thank you to the lady handing out the foil blankets who was putting them on the athletes tying a knot in the cape to stop them blowing away. The course is a little tougher than other big city marathons but there are unique features - how many people get to run under the Mersey? Did anyone notice the position of the timing mats - 10K - most norther part of Wirral - 1/2 way - in the Tunnel - 20 miles - middle of the park - no chance of anyone taking a short cut!!
Thank you again Alan and the rest of the team - well done!! You all deserve an immense amount of credit.
Ooh I loved that, coming down parliament street, knowing there was just under 2 miles to go
"getting stronger"
I you've ever been lucky enough to run the NYC marathon, the highlight is coming out of a dark, quiet bridge, with no spectators, onto First Avenue in Manhattan to be greeted by thousands of cheering New Yorkers. It makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck!
Well, coming out of the tunnel on Sunday was 10 times as exhilirating as this. Like running out onto the pitch at Goodison on matchday and summiting Alpe d'Huez in the Tour de France all rolled into one!
Don't change the course too much. It has everything.
Judging by most people's times and taking into account the wind (It's always like that in New Brighton!), the tunnel and the undulations, this could be marketed as BRITAIN'S TOUGHEST CITY MARATHON. A friend even reckoned it was tougher than Snowdonia !
(BTW, Wallasey and Birkenhead are not small towns. I heard somewhere that Birkenhead is the biggest town in England and bigger than many cities.)
Big thank you to Alan and everyone who helped to make Sunday so memorable.
My wheels fell off at around 15 miles and I ended up finishing in 4 3/4 hours. I'm still beating myself up over it, don't know why it all went so wrong, but I guess I basically underestimated just how much respect this distance deserves.
As a first timer, before the event I wasn't sure whether this would be my first and last marathon. A few minutes after finishing (ok, maybe more than a few minutes) I was 100% determined to come back next year and hopefully put right the errors I think I made.
Don't think I'll ever forget the brilliant support around the course. Complete strangers shouting out my name was such a lift.
Paul 22 - sorry mate for possibly blanking you at the finish. I was a bit cream crackered.
Can't wait until next year. Congratulations RunLiverpool, job well done. I'm now a Liverpool Marathon addict.
Did this marathon as my first one, only 6 weeks of training due to an injury filled year. 4.51, not too impressive but really didnt care this time around. UPS really hurt and i was really trying to seperate my mind from my body from miles 18-24. The last 1.5 miles to the finish was awesome and made it all worthwhile.
Loved the whole experience, support was amazing from spectators, marshalls, volunteers and fellow runners, thats what really made the day for me. Would have to echo a few recent posts about the PA system, i was in the blue pen and had no idea what was going on, it was quite confusing for us all back there...
My legs still hurt but i will be back next year for sure now i have tactically set a PB i can beat
LOL...I am on that video too!
Alan, really, there was nothing that bad about it at all. The start wound me up, but it wasn't your fault......I would do it again, for sure......You even made the weather agreeable!
The hard work continues for Alan and Yvonne judging by the amount of phone calls and E-mails they got when I called in to see them today. It may have ended for us when we crossed the line but it certainly didn't for the RL team.
I found out today that Alan likes doughnuts so if you call into HQ make sure you buy him a bag.
First posting on this thread, just in case RunLiverpool wade through all of this, here are my comments:
1) Great event, although possibly biased by the fact that I had a great run. Course was varied, plenty to keep the interest, flat, little wind, and the weather unbelievably perfect after hte forecast 2 days previously.
2) Route was brilliant - tunnel was fab, particularly liked the Sefton Park bit - very pretty, far nicer than (for example, an industrial estate) and a chance for the skilled spectator to watch his/her runner six times - at the stage of the race when support really makes a difference!
3) Entertainment was awesome, as were the crowds - partic good idea passing by the finish at mile 14 - must have really boosted the crowd numbers.
4) Loved the downhill at 24/25 - thought the uphill at 16 was early enough that it didn't cause any harm.
Suggestions for improvement (apologies if already mentioned, can't face wading through 5000 posts):
Sefton Park - more signs, more marshals, fewer numbskulls wandering around the course with their dogs as if it is a public park
Princes Park - more signs - felt very lost and lonely in there, no one else in sight. And that road out of Princes Park - just looked like a normal street, thought I had wandered off the course... on the other hand well done to the bike marshal who kept me right (until he punctured)
Anyone with he courage to put on an event liek this - closing city centre roads incl the tunnel etc - deserves masses of credit for taking a chance - I'll be back down again.
Mostly positive comments but no surprise that people weren't happy with the delay at the start. I didn't mind the delay as such but what I did mind was not being told what was going on and why as it made me anxious. I have to agree with whoever said that the PA system was badly sited and inadequate but even so, why didn't the marshalls tell people in their respective pens what was happening?
We couldn't find the first aid tent and so didn't meet people at the start and as we'd left home before a pub for afterwards was finalised we didn't meet up there either. Instead we met up with some old friends in Spice on the Albert Dock for a wonderful curry and a few drinkies
However, I met loads of lovely people en-route.
Hannah, just shout "hi Redhead" if you spot me again, loads of people did!
Ulen, thank you! Now I know who the unknown runner was
Stubee, glad you did OK.
FRC nice to meet you briefly.
Apologies to those I haven't mentioned. I am getting confused between RW and Fetch!
I knew before I started the run that my hopes of a pb were unrealistic as I'd developed a very sore throat on the Thursday and felt grotty on the journey up on Friday. However I was pleased to maintain my pace until about mile 16 when I decided not to push any more. Quite early in the race I found an old forum chum who was suffering, probably due to the heat, and I waited with him until a medic came to his aid. I hope he was able to continue.
I loved the stretch round New Brighton and the tunnel was an amazing experience - those drummers, OMG they were awesome!
I know what people mean about the park section - when we entered Princes Park a guy behind me said "Are we still in that f***ing park? Please just give me a nice industrial estate to run round!" which really made me laugh. But my little family of supporters thought it was wonderful 'cos they got to see me 4 times without having to walk for miles and the sight of them brought a tear to my eyes (but in a happy way if you know what I mean).
Marshalls and volunteers at the aid stations were lovely. I got hugged by several
My favourites though were the guy on the bike (the dishy one) who kept saying "this is deja vu Redhead" each time he saw me and the guy at the top of UPS on the way back down who shouted "come on girl, speed it up - I want mi dinner!" PMSL at that one
Thank you to all the lovely people who made a point of saying hello to me during the race. I am humbled to think that you follow my blog or lurk here on RW and I hope you had a good race.
Overall I think it was a great first running of the event and was a credit to Alan and his team. Excellent work everyone
Probably the last post for me for a while as I'm gonna have to move on to the the next fix, especially as this is definitely my first and last marathon (no reflection on the race just not built to go beyond 13 miles).
I just want to get back to the reason I have been on here so much the last few weeks. Each and everyone of you has helped me along the way and it was real pleasure thinking of some of the tips during the run.
Having organised large scale international events Alan I have to say you have done an amazing job. There is always going to be room for improvement and there is always going to be people who will be over critical and overanalyse every last bit of an event but ultimately as the first one this was a superb achievement.
Thanks for the marathon memories!
Just wanted to say a big thankyouto Alan and all the team for producing a 1st marathon in Liverpool for 18 years.
Of couse there were some issues - the main issue (and it wasn't that bad) was the organisation in the parks - I was one of the back markers(I beat 6 hours) but there were a number of runners who were concerned they had taken ( i was asked twice by other runners) the wrong route as there was a lack of active marshalling.
Having said that the positives far out-weighed the negatives.
All of the volunteers I spoke to were extremely helpful from the moment I parked the car in the NCP in Pall Mall.
The course was great (very tough from the tunnel to UPS)
The crowds were fantastic - particularly coming out of the tunnel and running through the Liverpool One area.
The finish was superb - running in from mile 25 the support was fantastic (only 300 people finished after me so lot's of people had stayed on) I was absolutely knackered as my lack of training had started to show from about mile 16
The finish area was good too - I liked the idea of picking what you wanted (loved the banana and the foil wrap)
I had decided not to do the run in August as I felt I hadn't recovered enough from illness I had last year.
On Saturday I decided I didn't want a DNS so went ahead after hardly any training for 6/7 weeks. Whilst I got a PW completing the run has convinced me that I am now fully recovered from my illness and I just suffered from lack of training.
This is my last marathon - I am now looking forward to doing 10k and HM.
Once again big thanks to Alan and the team - a great start and I am sure the event will just get bigger and better
Massive congrats to Alan and all the crew.
Really enjoyed the first 16 miles, then the hamstring went.. felt like i was shot in the leg!...
. Had to walk, stop / stretch, and jog remainder of race. Have to say the encouragement from the crowds was unreal. Big shout out to all the volunteers. There was one fella on a bike who seemed to be everywhere! Thought i was hallucinating as I seen him in Sefton twice and then near the finish! He never stopped shouting encouragement. As the end appraoched I decided to put all my effort into last mile and run ( for the crowds! ) All was going well and then within sight of the finish my hamstring went again!! Had to stop and stretch again! within what felt like touching distance to the finish.. ( could hear what felt like hundreds of spectators groaning! )... then the comments of encouragement started from the crowd and following shouts of "c'mon lad, your nearly there!... and "keep moving fella" and "don't give up"... I eventually managed to hobble over the finish line!!
Overall I think I experienced every possible emotion during the day....and crossing the finish I swore I'd never run any type of race again... but like many on here I'm already looking at upcoming races and I know I'll be back next year !!!.... bring it on!
I dont post on here at all really, I pop on to book events and read articles, but just thought I'd pop in and congratulate Alan on a great event.
Apart from the problem at the start (which has been explained I think!) I thought the race was great, much more undulating than I thought it would be (I came up for the Liverpool half earlier in the year as well), definitely wasnt expecting it to be that hilly, but it wasnt a problem, if all marathons were flat/the same, what would be the point? I even managed to set a PB by knocking about 6 mins of my London time earlier this year by clocking 3hr 19min 59 secs, so I guess it wasnt that hilly! As 100% have said, coming out of the tunnel was amazing along with the couple of miles following it, only part of the course I found a bit mundane was Sefton park, but you cant have it all. AGreat finish as well, managed to almost sprint the last mile due to the crowd.
You can be proud of your efforts Alan, a massive success. My sister also finished, her first marathon, and is already talking about booking it for next year (she lives there anyway!) and I shall certainly be doing it every year it is on.
Hi everyone-I bloody loved it!!!!I thought the course was easy,I hardly noticed the tunnel incline and on Upper parly I ran/walked so not to loose loads of energy.That was my slowest mile and although I didnt manage a negative split(and i usually do in training)my last 2 miles were my fastest.
I thought the crowds were amazing i had my name o n my top and particularly the girls just kept on shouting-some catching me 3 times at Sefton park!!!
I did 3.55 which for my first go I was really pleased with particularly as I kept getting told the last 6 might kill me and destroy any hopes of a time.
I will defo do it every year now until a part of me breaks or falls off..................
There was a point somewhere between 20 and 23 miles that I made my mind up that no way on earth was I putting myself through another marathon - it hurt so much. But I'd forgotten all that by the finish and still can't get over how much I enjoyed the day(as my workmates who have been bored endlessly by me will testify!). My only reservation now about running another is that it will be a disappointment if it's not as good as Liverpool 2011..but like others I've already entered Manchester next year, so it's got a lot to live up to!
Now what I really would like to know is when will it be possible to walk downstairs again?
I tried this in Liverpool but obviously got the wrong bus
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2047816/Marathon-runner-shaved-miles-race-finished-catching-spectator-bus-disqualified.html
Thanks Alan for telling us about this. I'm suffering from PMI (post marathon insomnia) so just watched it. Warkie & Mrs Warkie - you're in it! Don't blink though, or you'll miss it (I think you can make out Scooby Dudek in the edge of shot too).
http://www.run247.com/articles/article-1737-run-it!-live-it!-love-it!.html
And ta also to emdee for posting the link to youtube, of the Batala Liverpool drummers on the exit to the Tunnel. A reminder of one of the awesome highlights to the run
.
Whilst I'm up at this unholy hour, I thought I'd add (in no particular order) some highs & lows of the weekend that I missed from my earlier write-up...
who was in my way at one of the water stations
I won't be back next year for RLM12 - as I think it clashes with my local race (Abingdon), which I have had my eye on for a few years. I'm really glad to have been a part of RLM11 though, and 09.10.11 is a day I shall remember for a long time. I'll be back one day, I'm sure. Good luck to everyone for 14.10.12!