Liverpool Half Marathon 2012

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  • for my two penneth - it was fantastic.  My Garmin came in a 13.03 mile but I ain't complaining as it lost signal in the underpass - sometimes its over - other times it under.  I did read somewhere after googling GPS and it did say they are very rarely 100% acurate all over the time.

    As for the race - defo a PB course as I got one - and for not being scenic - nonsense I love it.  got a brilliant mix of big city feel - parklands and running on the prom.  Defo my favourite 1/2 marathon of the lot and well worth the trek down from Lancaster and getting up at silly O'clock (even last year when it was same time as clocks go forward).  Can not wait till next year.  Organisation was spot on - plenty of drinks - well marshalled - well organised this year at the end with t-shirts (was congested last year) and the support was fantastic throughout.

  • Top day out in all, and thought it was a pretty challenging race.

     Liked the fact that there were a few minor ups and downs.

     However, could hardly move until about 6 miles into the race as the course was very narrow in bits with around 6,600 runners.

     The course across parts of the park could only fit 2 people wide on the lane !image

    Got a pbimage as well so pretty good day in all.

     loved the batman theme tune playing when he came in.

  • Want to add my thanks to everyone involved in putting on this race. Lovely weather again and I really like the route - the parks and the prom are great for me.

    Have read back a bit - tbh people who think they're slow hang back in the line up and people who think they should be at the front put themselves at the front - and predicting your finish time 6 months or 6 seconds before the start doesn't change that - great to see so many pbs whatever.

    lovely tee shirt - good colour choice.I love my race shirts and as I was far enough back to see earlier finishers walking down the prom the meet their folks, the sight of their new shirts really spurred me on...sad eh?

  • i thought the route was great not boring at all this is my favourite half marathon lots of support around the course the last bit was great no wind running along the waterfront thanks to the kind people handing out jelly babies and wine gums and well done alan for organising a fab race yet again i was pleased it started right on the dot of 9.30 that takes some doing getting all the cars in and runners lined up on time and i was very excited to pick my size of t shirt being only little i normally end up with ones that look like a dress and bonus the line for small size was tiny so i could get it quick and then sit down !!!! cant wait to come back again and do it next year am already planning for womens 10k yet another fave run doing it for the 17th year in a row !!!
  • I was chuffed to bits with the organisation.
    I get fed up of people complaining. 6300 finishers cannot be wrong.
  • Gym: I don't agree with that. Staggered starting WOULD help the congestion of an already narrow course to a greater or lesser extent. No ones claiming its a perfect system but its better than yesterdays free for all.

    This isn't a complaint BTW, just something I fell could be improved relatively easily.
  • Well Alan,

    Just wanted to say a  big thank you for putting the race on first.

    Im sure it's an awful lot of hard work and hope you feel rewarded for it.

    Here's my view for what it's worth. Great car parking Ok oK so it was a fiver, but well organised and a car full of people hardly makes the fiver break the bank.

    The Start/finish line fiasco as some are sugesting. Well, I started at the back, by the time I hit the clock 17 mins had past. I was hardly going to win the race anyway so what does it matter? Hardly a person overtook me and overtaking so many others in the first 7 miles made me feel great. So what's it matter that's what a chip is for.

    The route- Personally I think the route is realy nice. I love the park runs and the bit through the city. If I wanted to go and see where the beatles lived or run past Anfield then I would of left the car at the car park and got a bus over there. Only slight critique would be the support, Lots come out for their loved one but not just general support. I wonder how many of the local radio and or newspaper's encouraged people to get off their asses and cheer those fundraiser's on. However that said, those that were out were great, some great scouse whit. image

    No goody bag? as said, who wants a list of leaflets and useless stuff anyway, but what I would of liked is an Isotonic or recovery shake at the end as opposed to more water and a banana. Great Tshirt though and much better than last year's although my wife has moaned its white and she does the washing, oh and a nice medal that will last way longer than any goody bag.

    The only concern for me was my time, it was 3 mins quicker than last year but a disappointing 2hr1min ? so god knows what went wrong? especially as my first 6 miles was done in 50 mins. Maybe I just never respected the course and way off my PB.

    So the money? big City races cost a lot to put on, it's dear but great to run with so many other enthusiasts and fun runners.

    So well done Alan and team,  see you next year. 

  • The only race I've done with a staggered start was Manchester 10k and that was far more crowded than Liverpool - so it didn't help.

    Let's hope Alan can get the wider start next year - we've shown the numbers are there - lots of runners getting off the train at my station and usually I'm the only one.
  • This was my first Liverpool Half yesterday and have to say I thought it was great.

    Loved the route, thought it had a nice mixture of city, parks, dock and seafront.  It was slightly congested in places but that is expected in most city races and certainly not dull compared to some races I have done.  

    Like a lot of people here I didn't miss the goody bag at all, much prefer having a decent tech t-shirt (that I will definitely be wearing when I next go out running!) medal and a bottle of water.

    It is great to see the race getting more and more popular, I will definitely be doing it again next year and will be convincing as many of my running buddies as possible to partake too!

    I don't think it was expensive, as previously said when you compare to the likes of the GNR it doesn't compare!  Totally appreciate the cost it must take to put on an event like this and with more people comes more cost!

    Massive thank you and well done to Alan for organising a fantastic event, I hope you are now enjoying a well deserved chill before the next event!!

     image

    xx

  • You must have better handling and steering that me Paul.image 

     Not being able to get past people def. put a couple of minutes on my chip time.  Its not the end of the world, I still PB'd and at least I've left room for further improvement in my next race.

  • Loved the run and the weather was great.

    The last bit across all of the cobblestones put a bit of a dampener on it though! Terrified of killing my ankle!

    But I'd definitely do it again.
  • Hi done the half marathon yesterday my first one set myself a time target of 1.30 actually beat that an got 1.26.39 so very pleased does anyone no Wer I can get pictures from ?
  • OrbuttOrbutt ✭✭✭
    Barry - Pictures will be available from here but they're not up yet.
  • Orbutt wrote (see)
    Barry - Pictures will be available from here but they're not up yet.
    Hope they havn't got a photo of me pushing that Granny who was in my way into the ditch.imageimage
  • Didn't run it this year as I was injured ..Mrs Warkie enjoyed the run and got a PB as well ..not seen the T-Shirt yet as it was left at the mother in laws however the missus was really chuffed with it..

    Hope to be able to run it next year will defo be at the festival of running and the Tunnel run...and...yes we will both be doing the Marathon again image

  • Keith OBKeith OB ✭✭✭

    Great race, weather and day out. PB for me too.

    Can I can count the 10k time and claim 2 PBs ???

    image

  • That fiver in the car park was good until 5pm. As the gym over the road were offering showers you could've parked in Liverpool for nine hours for five quid, had lunch, done a bot of sightseeing and shopped all afternoon. Given that it is a major city and it usually costs £2.50 an hour I'd say that's bloody marvellous.
  • Better than the £9 i paid at liverpool one for 3 1/2 hours.image

  • Does anyone no when pictures will be up an Is 1.26.39 a good time for first half ?
  • degsy-m-degsy-m- ✭✭✭
    LIVERBIRD wrote (see)
    I was chuffed to bits with the organisation.
    I get fed up of people complaining. 6300 finishers cannot be wrong.
    Totally agree LB Liverbird Laura or whatever ya called image
  • I've read a lot of the comments which much make for improvements as generally this race gets better every year.

     It is agreed that the start is very narrow and with the race numbers getting bigger every year it is only going to cause more of a issue so I believe a staggered start will make it easier, the Manchester 10 is an amazing race and the aim needs to be to make Liverpool as big.

    And let's be honest barring the elite (say 5% of the field) we've all done it and had delusions of Farah and Radcliffe when insisting on starting behind the club runners and running down the middle of the road which created bunching but I've never been in a race without it happening so we need to understand it may slow us down a bit but your not gonna make the olympic team now anyway ! 

    So if you are really serious get there early and get near the front and if you notice lots of people going past you run down the side of the road these two things would make the race more enjoyable for everybody.

    I believe everybody is very happy with the tech shirt as to have something you can will use for training is great and who really wanted a load of leaflets and a teabag

    Thank you to everybody involved, all the smiling faces, the claps, the cheers and especially to the guy who stopped when I fell at 12 miles to see if I was ok, that was want sums the race up for me

  • At the risk of repeating myself... the issue of the start and finish area is no longer a problem because we will relocate to the Pier Head next year. This was planned for this year but wasn't possible because of ongoing building work at the museum. This should be possible next year.

    In 2008 the event nearly disappeared but we managed to salvage the event and brought it back into the city centre. The area was good then because we had around 3,500 finishers. Over the last three years the event has grown to 6,200 finishers and is clearly too small.

    I know this and have been planning a better start / finish area for two years but it has not been possible due to circumstances beyond my control.

    Rest assured the relentless improvement programme will continue!

    Goody Bags? Waste of time and money. Car parking?? Difficult at any event so we have to work with what we've got.

    Overall - a great day!! thank you one and all for your continued and very welcome support.
  • This was my first half marathon and I loved every second of it. If there really are better organised events and all the rest of it,,well then..I can't wait to find one. In the meantime, however, I'll look forward to handing over my entry fee for next year's as soon as you want it!!
  • Barry Bradshaw wrote (see)
     Is 1.26.39 a good time for first half ?
    image Yes. Well done image
  • Chri5BChri5B ✭✭✭

    My second Liverpool Half in two years and I expect I'll be back next year - another great Run Liverpool event IMHO.  I ran it with a couple of friends who haven't experienced Run Liverpool events before and they said they would both be back as well.  I very much like the course with the mix of the city, parks and river, plus I've set PBs both times which makes the course very enjoyable.

    Zero complaints from me about the "lack" of a goody bag.  In fact, I think we are still trying to use up all the Cranberry Sauce we got after the Santa Dash in 2009!  I, like others posting above, would rather than get a technical T and fab medal like we did on Sunday.

    I look forward to starting from the Pier Head next year.  Congratulations to the all the Run Liverpool team (especially all the volunteers) image

  • Here, here and the photos are up!!
  • I'm pleased the Goody Bags weren't missed. They are more trouble than they are worth!
  • I'd like to say thanks to Alan and his team. This was my third time running this.

    Price: There is nothing wrong with the price. Chip timing, medal, tech t-shirt, water, closed roads. I also run other half marathons for less but without chip timing, closed roads, tech tshirt so there is choice out there and like to run a mix of these.

    Course: I have run flatter but it is definatley a PB course and a great route, parks, waterfront etc.

    Start and Finish. I turned up with around 5-10 minutes before start (i know this is my own fault) so had to get in around 3/4 of the way back. I know people dont always pay attention to time indicated start positions but it can only help. It took my around 5 mins to cross the start line so had a good couple of miles of crowd weaving. I finished in a time of 1:33:39 with my PB being 1:30:04. If i'm 100% honest i probably wouldn't have beat my PB on this occasion but who knows if i hadnt lost time at start i may have been able to push it very close. As Alan has already commented on this will change next year when it moves to Pier head.

     I will be back next year. Well probably be back for the marathon again in October first.

  • One20FourOne20Four ✭✭✭

    Well done to Alan and the team on the day. Great day out and well worth getting up at 5am to travel down from Carlisle.

    I've done loads of races all over the place and this was a very good event. It was my first Run Liverpool half and I will be back next year.

    Money; about right. T-shirt; superb. Scenery; city, parks and the mersey, what more do you want !?

    The start move for next year will help the congestion issue. Alan can I make a mall suggestion you might want to consider. I did the Edinburgh marathon last year and in the application form you had to indicate a realistic finishing time and when your number came through it was colour coded. Yes I know people will lie about times but if the majority are truthfull being in colour coded start sections really helps. It certainly did at Edinburgh.

    Can't wait for next year...................congtrats to all who ran, cheered, helped, handed out sweetsimage

  • One20Four wrote (see)
    I did the Edinburgh marathon last year and in the application form you had to indicate a realistic finishing time and when your number came through it was colour coded. Yes I know people will lie about times but if the majority are truthfull being in colour coded start sections really helps.

    I'm glad you had a great time on Sunday One20Four, I really enjoyed it for my second time running it.  I knew from last year that there would be some weaving involved in the first few miles, but at my pace (1:54:47 on Sunday) I started at the back and managed to find gaps easily enough to run steadily enough.  I know Alan has experience of the system you mentioned as the RunLiverpool Marathon used the same thing......the biggest problem (from my point of view) is not quite dishonesty, but much more an unrealistic expectation of how hard it is to run something like this.  I know in the build-up to last years marathon lots of people on the forum got panicky about the colour of their number....either because they had better expectations and hadn't trained well enough (easily solved....you can move back a colour) or they had trained well and their expectations had improved (not easily solved).....throw in a number of people who put down a number and turned up at the start line without even thinking what signicance it has and the flaws in the system start to become apparent.  From an organisers point of view, I would guess that it might be easier to allow a general start, rather than needing extra marshalls to 'police' start pens.....especially if the entrants won't be honest enough to police themselves.

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